I am in a college choir at our church. We sing a good repitroire of songs, from Negro Spirituals, Contemporary Christian, Traditional Gospel, etc... When we sing songs that have soloists on the original recordings, more often than not we don't have a soloist. Sometimes the songs don't sound quite right, but we do a good job choral wise. And when we do have a soloist picked, it's either the same person over and over again, or else they find someone who doesn't go to our church and brings them in as a "guest soloist". It's just my opinion, but some of the guest soloists aren't that spectacular and some of them are in HIGH SCHOOL and this is a COLLEGE choir, it's not they sound like Yolanda Adams or Donald Malloy. They are more often than not close friends of our director. I personally think it's an insult to the choir not to utilize more of its own members for solos, like the director is saying "ya'll ain't good enough". They don't even ask people to do voice tryouts. They need to find others who can carry a note and use them. I mean, they don't even have to be the VERY best, but I feel you should do what you can with what you've got and not outsource. What's everyone else's perspectives on this?
