The United States Tennis Association (USTA) announced it will host its annual open casting call on Tuesday, June 19 at Harlem’s world famous Apollo Theater in New York City to select children to perform at the 2012 U.S. Open, which will be held Aug. 27-Sept. 9. Winners will perform “America the Beautiful” live at Arthur Ashe Stadium during night sessions of this year’s U.S. Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
The auditions are free of charge and will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Children 12 years of age and younger as of Sept. 9, 2012, will be asked to sing “America the Beautiful” a cappella in front of a panel of judges from the music and entertainment industries.
“The young singers performing at the U.S. Open always captivate the crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium,” said Gordon Smith, USTA executive director and chief operating officer. “The casting call that we conduct to identify these singers is one of the first events that signals the U.S. Open season is underway.”
The USTA will announce the final singer selections in mid-July. The winners will receive a U.S. Open gift bag and tickets to their performance session in addition to exposure in front of as many as 24,000 fans in Arthur Ashe Stadium. For more information on the open casting call, including the official rules, visit www.usopen.org.
The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the United States and the leader in promoting and developing the growth of tennis at every level–from local communities to the highest level of the professional game. A not-for-profit organization with more than 785,000 members, it invests 100 percent of its proceeds in growing the game.