Music Director Applications - Standing Out in Applications
  • dthielma
    Posts: 4
    I'm in the middle of a search for a full-time position as music director for a Catholic parish. I don't currently have a bachelor's degree in music (my degree is in business administration), but I have had 6 years of directing music at a campus ministry, 10 years serving as assistant organist at a parish, and 3 years working as a parish music ministry staff member. Whenever I do music director applications, I send off a few of my best audio recordings of chant, polyphony, and hymnody to demonstrate my ability to lead a choir. I even list on my cover letters that I have studied "Sacrosanctum Concilium", "Musicam Sacram", and "Sing to the Lord" so that I can have the mind of the Church on sacred music and apply the principles laid out in these documents in a pastoral way.

    Most of the time I don't hear back from the parishes I have applied, and I got passed over for another candidate at 2 parishes where I did in-person interviews. Would there be other ways in which I could stand out in special ways from among other candidates applying to these positions?
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,888
    I would be more granular.

    I passed along a CV that was very clear. Now he has the degrees and decades of experience. But saying what you do now (and if needed what you did when you got there…) and what you can do, and what you like to do is mega helpful.

    I would have a list of recordings and links if needed. But getting to the point in writing helps.
  • kevinfkevinf
    Posts: 1,215
    I have been at this for 40 years. Private message me and I will personally take a look at your CV. I think I know what is wrong but let me have a real look at it.

    Kind regards.
    Thanked by 1MatthewRoth
  • irishtenoririshtenor
    Posts: 1,373
    I'd also be glad to look over your materials. I'm not in sacred music as a career now, but I spent a decade in it and would be willing to give you a fair critique.
  • dthielma
    Posts: 4
    I encountered technical difficulties with uploading my resume/CV. So this is my resume/CV for folks on this post to look over.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Name
    Email
    Address

    Work Experience:

    Director of Music, Part-Time (St. John Bosco Center at the University of Mary Washington)
    (2017-2023)
     Rehearsed, led, & accompanied small-group student choir & instrumental ensemble.
     Recruited students for music ministry, and invited guest musicians to accompany special services for the Center.
     Planned & prepared music for Sunday services, holy days of obligation, & special services.
     Crafted & typeset arrangements for choristers & instruments; typeset music for programs.
     Drafted programs for liturgical services.
     Worked with Chaplain on planning & preparation for liturgical services.
     Composed sacred hymnody for Mass.

    Assistant Organist
    Provided music through organ accompaniment for liturgical services on weekends & holy days of obligation.
     Organist, St. Mary Catholic Church Jan. 2010-Dec. 2022
     Organist, St. Jude Catholic Church Aug. 2013-Sept. 2019
     Organist, St. William of York Catholic Church Jan. 2023-present

    Parish Children’s Choir Director (St. William of York in Stafford) (Jan. 2023-Present)
     Rehearsed, led, & accompanied children’s choir for the parish.
     Recruited members for the children’s choir through bulletin advertising & personal contact with parents & children.
     Worked with music director on planning monthly weekend Masses & special liturgies for the parish children’s choir.

    Parish Motet Choir Director (St. William of York in Stafford) (Fall 2024)
     Led & accompanied Motet Choir group for Solemnities of the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception, & Christmas Day.
     Directed Motet Choir in performance of 2 motets: Alma Redemptoris Mater (G. P. da Palestrina) & O Magnum Mysterium (T. L. de Victoria).
     Assisted Parish Music Director in development of music plan for Motet Choir during Assumption, Immaculate Conception, & Christmas Day Masses.
     Prepared all choral scores & recording tracks, & planned & coordinated rehearsals for Motet Choir group.

    Parish Music Ministry Support Roles (St. William of York in Stafford) (Jan. 2023-Present)
     Supported parish adult choir as section leader.
     Developed plan for parish’s transition to “Source & Summit” Missal; identified hymnody familiar to the parish, & recommended new hymnody for implementation of both parish choir & congregation.
     Provided musical accompaniment & supervised student instrumentalists for parish-sponsored Shakespeare Company’s performance of Julius Caesar and Macbeth.
     Spanish Mass: (12:15pm & 4:30pm Bi-Lingual)
    o Provided organ accompaniment on special occasions (Advent & Lent) on Latin Chant used for the Ordinary of the Mass.
    o Provided organ accompaniment on Spanish Ordinary of the Mass.
    o Improvised organ accompaniment on some Spanish hymnody from Flor e Canto.
    o Typeset organ accompaniment for Spanish Ordinary of the Mass, & typeset organ accompaniment for Spanish Psalms and Gospel Acclamations for primary organist.

    Choirmaster & Organist of the Latin Choir (St. Mary in Fredericksburg) (Feb. 2021-Dec. 2022)
    Provided music for the First Friday Tridentine High Mass.
     Led & accompanied a Tridentine High Mass on First Fridays & special feast days.
     Rehearsed, led, & accompanied a small-group choir that sang chant, hymnody, and choral works in polyphony and equal parts.
     Taught choir techniques for sheet music utilization with Gregorian notation.
     Planned & prepared music for the Tridentine High Mass
     Prepared prayer and song sheets for Mass parts.
     Crafted & typeset arrangements for choristers and trumpet accompaniment.
     Provided summarized rubrics for the clergy celebrating Tridentine High Masses.

    Music Education Teacher, K-8 (St. William of York Parish) (2022-Present)
     Taught singing through solfege method & basic music theory.
     Accompanied school choir for all weekday Masses.
     Led music for school’s Advent singing concerts.
     Assisted with music selections for school’s Fine Arts Festival & accompanied school choir during event.
     Planned, organized, & prepared lessons for grades K-8.
    o Created all lesson plans for music classes.
    o Organized & maintained class learning material.
    o Set up online learning materials enabling increased music theory familiarization.

    Volunteer Experience:

    Accompanist for UMW Catholic Campus Ministry Sep.-Dec. 2014
     Accompanied student choir for liturgical services on Sundays & holy days of obligation.
    Accompanist & Choirmaster for Midnight Mass Family Choir
    Led Rehearsals and accompanied family choir for Midnight Mass at St. Anthony (King George) Dec. 2020
    Sacred Music Group Teacher Jan.-Feb. 2021
     Taught a Sacred Music Group the basics of sight-reading western and Gregorian notation
    through solfege, & basics of singing Gregorian chant.

    Education:

    University of Mary Washington:
     B.A. Business Administration, Management, and Marketing, May 2017
    Germanna Community College:
     A.A.S. Accounting, May 2013
     A.A.S. Information Management, Dec. 2012
    Music Theory Credentials (Coursera.Com):
     Completed “Fundamentals in Rehearsing Musical Ensembles” (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
     Completed “Fundamentals in Music Theory” (University of Edinburgh)
     Completed “Approaching Music Theory: Melodic Forms & Simple Harmonies” (Cal. Institute of the Arts)

    Skills

     Microsoft Word
     Microsoft Excel
     Microsoft PowerPoint
     MuseScore; arranging & typesetting music

  • AbbysmumAbbysmum
    Posts: 60
    I am by no means anything close to an expert, but that seems like too much information. I would list the role and distill down to only 1 or 2 points that is unique about that position from the others - The children's choir director, for example, I would assume you did all those things as the director, so would you need to specifically list it, or can you summarize in a single sentence the most important aspects of the job? IDK if you need to list the specific motets for the motet director, etc.

    For busy pastors reviewing resumes and the hiring committee (if there is one), brevity is likely key. Especially because they don't necessarily have music training, a lot of this is not going to mean much.

    Someone who has more experience looking for music jobs will probably have an opinion, but just as someone who is currently looking for work generally (music or otherwise), that's what I'm seeing. You might also want to reorder everything - most recent first, and work backwards.

    Good luck with your job search!
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,888
    ^as someone who looked over CVs, I personally think that it is not too much. But you will have to be patient in this case. I looked through a half-dozen or more CVs (not a lot, but we had already eliminated some, interviewed a few folks, and were trying to see if we should interview more) and I wanted to scream “so just what do you do, and what the did you inherit, and what do you want to do in an ideal scenario”?

    In this case I can ask about music things to clear some things up (some stuff related to chant, an idea of what repertoire the OP favors on keyboard…) and then people things. Like building choirs, dealing with parishioners, etc. and I know that a) OP can’t escape b) the answer will be good (even if it’s maybe not a good fit for other reasons!).

    Maybe I’m not the right person to help OP, but I also think that some of my questions would be answered by a cover letter (especially as pertains to the post that OP is trying to leave and some of the higher-level details: OP might mention that he specializes in a certain period of organ performance, and then in the interview I’d ask about that more specifically).

    Maybe paring down each previous job description is OK. But I think that musicians should be OK with an American academic-style CV (i.e. what much of the rest of the world thinks is normal for all professions). You have a lot of experience; you don’t have the degree (for now?), but so what (also…a business degree might be a good sign for some pastors).

    And the interesting thing would be if you came on when the DM started a new program and you got in at the level right below (like with the children’s choir) or did you inherit that and keep it steady, grow…I wouldn’t talk about the not-so-good things of course in your CV, but keep it for an eventual interview.

    But it’s really helpful to know if you were there at the beginning and if you made it flourish.
  • Mattspmusic0320
    Posts: 80
    I think anything you did/are doing at St. William needs to be consolidated to the main 3-5 things at that location.
  • irishtenoririshtenor
    Posts: 1,373
    I'm at work, so I don't have time to give a thorough critique right now, but I agree with Matt. St. William should say something like "Organist, Choir Director, School Music Teacher" and then tighten up the descriptions.

    You clearly have a lot of experience and competence and I wish you luck with your search
  • TimTheEnchanterTimTheEnchanter
    Posts: 219
    Full-time music director with no music degree here. I made the transition by working in an area with a shortage of competent musicians. It can be done!

    When I was in the corporate world, we were told to keep resumes to a page. Unfortunately, the people looking at your resume aren't necessarily going to know all the little details. They need big overarching details.

    Sending the recordings is also good. I set up a YouTube channel (no apologies for shameless plug) for myself, because increasingly (and understandably) parishes want to hear you.

    You may also want to tailor things to a parish's preferences -- for example, if a parish has no Spanish Mass and no plans to add one, there's not much reason to include that in your resume.
  • kevinfkevinf
    Posts: 1,215
    Your CV is out of order in terms of presentation. It needs to be re-ordered. 40 years of experience talking.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,888
    Yeah, but Tim, it’s not the corporate world. There is truth to playing the game, yes. This particular example might need reworking (and maybe reworking for each individual job, unfortunately) but a one page summary, plus cover letter (those were mostly atrocious too, from what I saw) and then extra pages. Search committees and pastors need to have their expectations recalibrated from what they want with ATS (and boomer and silent generation norms before that).

    And I sort of disagree about Spanish Masses. OK, maybe they don’t care, but you really don’t know when you’ll get people from Hispanophone households at your conservative/trad Mass, and err…people skills are in short supply as far as pastors are concerned with respect to musicians.

    Anyway, you’d still have, on a corporate résumé, one listing for Saint William with the relevant dates and then three listings because those are three jobs. Unless LinkedIn users are just crazy.
  • NihilNominisNihilNominis
    Posts: 1,054
    Thanks for sharing the CV.

    Essentially I think that in many places here, more has become less.

    E.g., the name Motet Choir alone sounds impressive. Listing the two motets by name has a reductive effect on that positive impression. It risks coming off as though you view what should be basic skills as major career accomplishments.

    If I’m hiring a music director, I want someone who gives the air of easy confidence about dealing with a wide range of music, and framing specific, standard pieces in the repertoire as career accomplishments by listing them by name does not contribute to that impression.

    Better to say, “SATB works of Renaissance masters.”

    Just for one instance but more on the CV feels like it fits this pattern.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,888
    framing specific, standard pieces in the repertoire as career accomplishments by listing them by name does not contribute to that impression.
    you would think but there are a lot of pastors who are ignorant (although Renaissance masters gets us somewhere) and then people who don’t even list that. Or they list very little of their actual liturgical repertoire that they have directed. It’s mostly work from concerts and stuff that they sang, but didn’t direct. Which I don’t really care about. They don’t list much if any of their preferred keyboard repertoire or skills.
  • Mattspmusic0320
    Posts: 80
    I would also recommend listing you experience as you most recent/current at the top. Richt now, I notice that St. William's positions are spread out. I'll send you my Resume and my CV so you can see the difference. I usually send both, but at this point the resume is used for parishes, the CV is used for any education related work I do.
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