Participate?
We are happy to welcome you, singer or instrumentalist, at the HBG.
Each year there are six cantatas and two concerts, so you can choose.
You can subscribe to each project separately. For concerts we have six to eight rehearsals (Friday evenings), for cantatas the orchestra rehearses once, the choir usually twice and for both there is the dress rehearsal.
For more information, please email to
Kees Schram: schram.kees@gmail.com (choir)
Esther Schermer: estherschermer@me.com (orchestra)
A choir-audition, what's to be expected?
Everyone who likes to participate in the HBG choir has to audition, do a voice test. For you as well as for us it is important to establish whether your ability is adequate for our choir. Also we need to know what voice you have and whether it fits the choral sound we are aiming for.
The voice test will be taken with our conductor Gilles Michels. Right afterwards we will let you know whether we will welcome you.
The voice test includes:
- small exercises to establish your reach and flexibility; also to estimate how will you fit in with our sopranos, altos, tenors or basses;
- a listening exercise in order to test your theoretical knowledge and understanding of intervals; can you discriminate them, sing perfectly in tune, can you point out the key tone hearing a chord on the piano?
- a simple sight-reading test in order to measure your ability to read a score, to understand it and put notes to it.
If you were a HBG-singer a long time ago and would like to sing with us again, you might well be asked to do a voice test so we can hear how your voice has developed.
Any questions? Send an email to Kees Schram or call him on: 070 3242459
Join our orchestra?
Did you hear (about) our orchestra and feel enthousiastic? The HBG is looking for you!
The HBG orchestra is a project orchestra. That means that the orchestra consists of different participants every time and that invitations are made per project. The advantage is that there are no weekly rehearsals and you can decide whether to participate per project.
Our conductor Gilles Michels likes to meet you before you will be added to our list of participants. Initially you will audition with a baroque piece chosen by you and Gilles. Straight afterwards he will tell you whether he thinks you fit into the ensemble. In case you do, you will be invited to play in the next cantata. This allows you to experience the ensemble and decide whether you would like to join in more often.
Want to apply for an audition or do you have any questions? Please send an email to Esther Schermer. Note: it is important that you mention your instrument and the number of years you have been playing together with other instrumentalists. Particularly for strings, there is always a need. So there is a good chance you will be invited often. NB: pitch A = 440 Hz.
