Choir Director

Many church Choral Directors start off directing school or children’s choirs. Some also begin their careers by taking on another role within the choir, such as Assistant Director, and gaining experience in this manner.

Choral Directors must be well-trained musicians themselves so that they can effectively lead the group, select music, and teach songs to the performers. Jones says “people who have sung as children have a big leg up. Another thing I’ve found through the years, it’s like speaking a language — if you learn at a young age your mind is so incredibly receptive. If you haven’t [been in a choir as a child], you should sing as much as possible and hope your school has a decent group or find a community group with higher standards. I think children should try to get into a boys, girls, or youth choir.” After high school, he advises “you really should try to focus in your undergraduate years on getting into a music program. I went to Oberlin. If you’re really serious, you should go to graduate school for a master’s or doctorate.

In the summer you can take courses; I took a class and it was wonderful. I had this teacher who was very critical but deep down he was a very great guy and he wanted you to be articulate. With choirs, it’s always a matter of ‘What do I fix now?’ You have to know what to fix about intonation, diction, etc.

Listen to lots of CDs or your iPhone and familiarize yourself with the repertoire of world music, traditional stuff, and more modern stuff. I feel very strongly you have to be realistic that not everybody’s going to be super sophisticated in their tastes and you’ve got to do music that is accessible, that has variety and shows people how beautiful things can be when they’re sung well. That can include classic Composers and more modern ones. You don’t have to lower your standards. Be careful about modern Composers because they can be very discordant and it won’t always make any sense to them. At a church, I try to find music that will heal, empower and uplift people so they’ll feel good when they leave. Always be looking for the next best pieces, ask “Do I like it?” and “Will other people like it?” Ideally, I try to do a lot of music that I don’t even like that much because I know they do.”

Conducting and vocal skills are important for a Choir Director, but knowing how to play other instruments can really take someone to the next level. Jones says, “You should develop at least rudimentary keyboard and sight-reading skills. I think it’s exceedingly important because you’re working with the language of music and you’ve got to be able to read the notes. If you’re lucky enough to have a high school that has music theory you should definitely take it, but if you don’t have the resources you should find a tutor or a book or and teach yourself to speak the language.

Another thing that’s a tremendous advantage is when I have a singer who’s also an especially good string player. Invariably they have good intonation and a great ear. I love to find a professional singer who has instrumental skills (specifically string playing) because they have to produce the right intonation and pitch.”

“It really helps if a person is as outgoing as possible,” Jones says. “You don’t have to be a total extrovert but it’s good. If you can feel passionate about what you’re doing and if you’re going to teach kids, they love when they sense a passion and love for what a person is doing. If kids see you later on in life and you keep in touch, they won’t remember so much what you taught them but who you were and how you made them feel. I taught at a private school in Boston for twenty years and they built an incredible new arts building; I hadn’t been there for years and they dedicated a rehearsal room in my honor. It really touched me. The plaque they gave me talked about my passion. That was surprising to me and I liked that.

Enthusiasm does not hurt. There’s an old saying a Minister friend of mine used to say, ‘To act with enthusiasm is a condition of acting greatly.’ [It’s important to be a] person who loves to communicate and who can communicate with his singers what he wants them to communicate to the audience. I hate when you see a choir up there and they’re like ‘we are the choir and you are the audience.’”

Jones says his “time on the job is spent teaching other people and off the job is picking music. So you need to study your scores and learn the music. You need to learn the recordings so you get ideas. Go to concerts. There’s a lot of administration. I’ll give you an example; right now we’re doing the standing and seating orders and putting together fourteen pieces of music. We have to hire professionals. Like anything worth doing, it takes work to put it together. [It’s about] developing yourself, reading.”

Choral Directors at churches with vibrant music programs have a heavy workload devoted to performances. At Trinity, Jones says, “I had two big choirs: one was almost seventy and one was almost fifty. They sang in the morning and every week we had a total of about seven to nine pieces of music. I had a full-time Administrator but it was still a lot of work. I had an Assistant and we used to joke about ‘administrivia.’ During the day, Choral Directors tackle these administrative duties, with rehearsals and performances taking up a significant portion of nights and weekends.

To land a first job directing a choir Jones says, “There are a number of ways. It can be a little difficult to get a church choir because many of them are getting so old, but community choruses are often looking for new Directors. I took over a community chorus when I was twenty-four. I built it and we sang symphony hall a few times.” Age and experience don’t matter if you have a love for the work and people see that. He continues, “You just have to have enthusiasm, talent, and passion. How much do you love it? Can you convince people that choral singing is the greatest thing in the whole world?”

On average, Choir Directors earn approximately $50,800 a year. The general salary range for Choir Directors is $48,000 to $54,000.

For Choir Directors, Jones says, “If they’re in a school they’re on a regular salary, if they’re in a church there’s a salary, too.” Of course, the size of the salary depends on a number of factors, such as the organization’s budget and the amount of work expected from the Director.

“There’s the American Choral Directors Association and the Music Educators National Conference.” Jones says, “It’s helpful to go to conventions because you hear all these wonderful choirs and it’s really challenging. You get all these new ideas. It’s great. They have conferences in different parts of the country one year and then the next year is the national convention.”

• “Most college placement offices have suggestions for jobs. Then there are local organizations. With word-of-mouth, if you’re in a community and are studying” you can find ways to get involved. “You just need to look around for resources.
• Either plan on going to graduate school or just get a job and see if you like it.”
• Seek out school jobs when you’re just getting started in your career. “It takes a lot of discipline and a lot of love to run a high school choir because the kids love it if you do it right, but otherwise they can run all over you. Private schools don’t have as strict requirements about having a degree, which can be good. Try children’s groups or teaching music for junior high. If you want a job, that’s probably how you start.”

1. 1Multiple. "Choir Director Salaries in United States". Glassdoor. published: Jun 6, 2015. retrieved on: Dec 16, 2019