The spring semester at Ithaca College promises fresh beginnings for IC students. As many students prepared for a new semester by organizing their planners or picking out their first day of class outfits, students with a passion for performing arts jumped into an audition process that would determine the rest of their semester.
First–year student Andrea Fielding, an acting major, said her transition to a new semester began before she physically arrived back on campus. IC’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance holds self-tape auditions for all of its shows, asking students to submit their initial auditions over video during winter break.
“The last two weeks of break, I texted my friends and I [said] ‘It’s starting again,’” Fielding said. “I don’t feel like I’m on break anymore, I feel like I’m back at school. … It’s so stressful to know [that this audition] is going to determine the rest of the semester.”
In Fall 2025, Fielding went through the MTD audition process for the first time. With steep competition among students of all grade levels, many first–year students do not get a callback during their first semester at IC. Fielding said that when she found out she would not be in a show for the fall semester, she got involved with IC Unbound Dance Company and acted in a student music video to fulfill her need to perform.
IC has over 200 student organizations, many of which present performance opportunities to students outside of MTD majors. Getting involved in these performance opportunities does not make students immune to auditions. Groups like Ithacapella, IC’s all male-identifying a capella group, hold their auditions over the first two weekends of the semester. This allows the group enough time to prepare for earlier performances, like the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella that begins in January. First–year student Sean Powell, who joined Ithacapella in Fall 2025, said the audition process for the group was not a stressful part of his first few weeks at IC.
“I don’t think it’s as overwhelming as somebody might think it would be,” Powell said. “Everybody’s so encouraging and welcoming that even if you don’t get in, you had a great time with the guys. I remember [them] encouraging [us by saying] ‘Even if you don’t get in, please keep doing music.’ That especially took a lot of pressure off of me.”
Sophomore Cameron Ting, a sound recording technology major and student–athlete on the track team, joined IC Unbound in Fall 2025. Each semester, SRT students are required to audition for a music ensemble within the James J. Whalen Center for Music. In addition to the audition required for the performance aspect of her major, which students prepare for over the summer, Ting also tried out for Unbound. Each semester, Unbound gives auditioning students the opportunity to select the number of dances they feel like they can handle with their schedule, keeping commitment to the group low-stress and flexible.
“While I like my major, it is school, and it can get stressful at times,” Ting said. “But [with] track and dance, there’s a very big social aspect with both of them. … It’s very de-stressing, I would say, just to have fun, and even when you’re still working toward a goal, it’s still just really fun to do, because I really enjoy both activities.”
Senior Owen Keefe, vice president of Ithacapella, said that when he started at IC he auditioned for Ithacapella in hopes of finding an artistic outlet.
“A ton of guys in [Ithacapella] have done theater and chorus and whatnot in high school and before then,” Keefe said. “I think I shared a similar symptom with some of those other guys that there’s this fear that we [wouldn’t be] able to find that kind of creative space in college. I think Ithacapella is the perfect balance, it’s like this kind of brotherhood with these people you may have never met, but they all share the similar passion and interest for music and connection.”
Ting said Unbound allows her to continue to dance, while she balances a busy schedule between her SRT coursework and track practice.
“I’ve been dancing since I was three so that was my first thing that I loved to do,” Ting said. “I knew that with doing track and stuff, [Unbound] wasn’t going to be my main focus, but I really wanted to keep doing it anyways.”
Powell said that even though his semester can get busy, Ithacapella rehearsals did not add additional stress.
“We’re just having fun and doing it because we love it,” Powell said. “It was not a burden at all for me. … The best part of my week is being at these rehearsals.”
To Keefe, Ting and Powell, taking the risk to audition at the beginning of a new semester led to each of them feeling fulfilled and having an escape from their course loads and other stressors. Even Fielding, who said that coming back to campus and immediately stepping into the callback room can be stressful, felt accomplished after the week was over.
“Obviously it’s gonna be worth it,” Fielding said. “This is my first time getting called back. I’m just really excited for this new experience and learning more. And I feel like at the end [of the week], I’m so proud of myself. I did all this [in a week] and I made it. I survived.”
