“She was one of the people who say ‘I don’t know anything about music really, but I know what I like.’ ” Sir Max Beerbohm in “Zuleika Dobson”
Last fall, longtime ChoralNetter Lulu* contacted me. She has always been a supporter of my Choral Ethics Project and suggested I start including something about the hiring of choral directors. She even went so far as to email me interview questions. I agreed to write something soon.
Within days of Lulu’s emails, I also received a series of emails from Amos*, a new ChoralNetter, a scientist and choral singer. Amos wanted to know how to hire a director with Choral Ethics. He had been on the hiring committee of his community chorus who chose a “short-tempered jackass” (his words) as their artistic director two years ago and was gearing up to replace him. Amos and I went back and forth with his story, and then he asked me to wait until spring so the termination of the current director could be completed before I wrote about it. I agreed.
There are many performing arts organizations and places of worship who hire someone with a stellar résumé only to be disappointed with the actual person. They have been heard muttering, “but he/she looked so good on paper” while wringing their hands, trying to clean up the mess. But it’s not just performing arts organizations and places of worship that are left shaking their heads, wondering how they could have gone so wrong; it’s also the choir master/organists, choral directors, conductors and accompanists who wonder what they were thinking when they accepted that “perfect job.” It boils down to a few things, beginning with the members of the hiring committee and a clear understanding of what is wanted/needed by their organization.
Amos admits to knowing a little about music; he enjoys going to the symphony and opera and is an active, longtime choral singer. He questioned his ability to do an adequate job on his community chorus’s director search committee but agreed when pressed. He tells me he is a research scientist by profession, so he thought could at least contribute his research skills. Turns out, they didn’t want his research skills; they wanted his presence and agreement to whatever the president of their board decided he wanted.
There were five people on that search committee; Amos (a scientist), the board president (a businessperson in middle management of a large local company), another singer (a lawyer), their paid Executive Director (a college student majoring in music business), and their accompanist. They had fifteen applicants and interviewed them all. The board president asked the questions, with the singer/lawyer following up with template follow up questions, no matter what their answers were. The Executive Director and accompanist, as well as Amos, were discouraged from doing anything besides introducing themselves and sitting in the interview.
The questions that were asked were either typical business interview questions (Where do you see yourself in five years? Or, how do you motivate people? ) or more contract related (What kind of salary do you expect? Or, would you be willing to be an independent contractor?) but not much about music or rehearsals or repertoire or the nuts-and-bolts of running a performing arts organization. Amos says he doesn’t know much about the music business but does think it would have been important to have asked what kind of music would be programmed for their chorus. Not so, according to the board president. They didn’t audition the applicants in person but asked their top five, after interviews, for audition videos. The person they finally hired had a wonderful interview and his audition video was stellar, but as mentioned before, he was a short-tempered jackass.
After two years of misery, Amos (the NEW president of the board) started doing research about how to hire a choral director, found ChoralNet and my Choral Ethics blog posts. So here we are.
Next week we will get down to the nitty-gritty such as; who to choose for the members of your search committee and how to decide what your organization needs/wants. We’ll start on some of Lulu’s interview questions too.
Please feel free to jump in with your comments and questions about this subject. We’re just getting started!
*Name Withheld
Mark Kaczmarczyk says
Certainly a worthwhile topic. Regarding search committees: depending on the institution (school, church, community choir) the best advice is to keep the search committee small (no more than seven members) and make sure everyone has a specific job. Eg) a Board President, Assistant Director or Accompanist, two representatives from the choir (a long serving member and newer member), and the most senior respected musician affiliated with the ensemble (perhaps the concertmaster who is regularly engaged). Consider splitting the role of chair of the search between two trusted people who will work well together. Share the workload. One of the most important steps is to post a job description ASAP and get the word out; the description can be basic: full or part time/ how many hours per week/ size of ensemble/ budget/ what the season looks like/specific requirements for submission and a link to the website and email. Once the committee is formalized during the initial thirty day posting process criteria for reviews of submissions are established. This period also serves as a “time out” for the leadership of the organization to do some self examination, perhaps a SWAT assessment, to make sure everyone’s goals and objectives are both in agreement, and truly reflective of the organization. On more than one occasion I interviewed with boards who presented a very aggressive strategic plan that was in marked contrast to what the members actually wanted. Let the buyer beware! From the initial applicant pool, select no more than six or seven top candidates from resumes and links to video excerpts to phone interview. Everyone on the committee should be engaged in the phone interview process, share notes, and make sure the phone interviews are a dialogue between the candidate and committee. Avoid at all costs “we have thirty minutes and thirteen questions so please limit your response to two minutes!” Following phone interviews narrow the list to three candidates and bring them in. Don’t wait to long between phone interviews and in person or you’ll lose candidates. Have them warm up the choir and conduct two contrasting excerpts of current rep. Allow for a group Q&A apart from the separate meeting with the search committee. Above all, the search committee needs to be honest with candidates; what’s working in the organization both from an admin and artistic standpoint, how has the transition with the departing director gone? There’s nothing worse than a new hire having to “discover” the major obstacles in an organization; its a recipe for failure. Hope the above helps. —Mark Kaczmarczyk
Ronald Richard Duquette says
I’ve been on the other side of that process, while being interviewed as the director of one of the chapel choirs here at a military base in Virginia. The process was, to me at least, peculiar if not downright unnerving. At the point of the game when this happened, I had been the director for four years already (this is a year-by-year contract – how the military does this sort of thing!), and someone had also applied for the contract. Fair ’nuff; but of the ten or so people “interviewing” us, there were only two Catholic parish members; and only two musically aware people on the board! No questions about Catholic liturgy and the place of music within it or my understanding of it; no questions about developing the choir not only musically but spiritually. It was, as my son likes to quote a comedian, “mind-blasting!” I was also more than a little infuriated as paid section leaders were being hired for the choir I direct that I had absolutely NO input into the interview. Despite the rather extensive requirements for each of them, I have no confidence that any of that, beyond the elementary administrative aspects, were even covered. I’ve been lucky; the ones I’ve had have been more than good, and the choir has prospered as a musical and spiritual organization with their addition; but…
So if any of you ChoralNetters out there are on interview committees, FIGHT for the right to be more than a “bump on a log” in such gatherings. It is critically important that you ask the questions that will reveal who the person you’re interviewing REALLY is – musically, ethically, spiritually, morally, personally. (I’m beginning to be like Edmond Rostand’s describing Cyrano’s nose!) None of us need to suffer with a “short-tempered jackass” – especially if they’re being paid! It’s your money, after all!
Ron Duquette
Marie Grass Amenta says
More is coming, Ron. This a four part series with the last piece on what those being interviewed for positions might want to know/ask. …besides the salary!
Always happy to have your thoughts, Ron!
Marie
Ryan Guth says
Marie, where are you an active choral director?
Marie Grass Amenta says
In the Chicagoland area. The South Suburbs of Chicago, specifically. I conduct a semi-professional chamber choir at this point but have in the past taught music (privately), conducted children’s choirs(elementary school choirs and community children’s choirs) and have had several fairly large church jobs. I decided ten years ago I had had the rat race and formed my own chamber choir, catering to a certain type of more serious singer. In addition to my chamber choir, I gig around, singing as well as doing interim directing work, and write program notes for other performing arts as well as doing pre-concert lectures on a variety of subjects, including ballet and other forms of dance. You could say what I do is varied, but I am very active not only in the choral arts but in other related fields. I am also a ChoralNet Moderator (in fact, I am on duty today).
About four or so years ago, I noticed more of a nastiness among our colleagues and started writing and doing research about something I’ve been calling *Choral Ethics*. I was asked to write about it here on ChoralNet as a guest blogger several years ago and then as regularly blogger last fall. Since the first time I wrote in response to someone’s Choral Ethics situation, I have received many emails about situations which would curl your hair! I’ve been collecting stories ever since. And yes, there is a book in the works.
It’s probably time to put my bio (updated) back on ChoralNet…but as a Moderator with the new edition of CN, there has not been time for me to do so.
Bart Brush says
It is very strange to ask people to serve on a board or selection committee, but discourage them from actually participating. I once had this experience when asked to serve on the board of a non-profit unrelated to music. I was told we didn’t have time for my questions, and I was often interrupted and “corrected” when I made comments. (And yes, my questions were relevant, and no, I did not ramble on and on.) Finally, I said, “I travel one-half hour each way, and give up two hours a month for these meetings that YOU asked me to attend. I EXPECT I will be allowed to ask questions and make comments for a total of five lousy minutes at each of our meetings!” Problem solved, sort of……I still resigned at the end of my two year term.
Marie Grass Amenta says
Does not surprise me AT ALL. We all figure out what we have to do to save our sanity in a situation such as the one you describe. You probably would have been a real asset if you had been allowed to participate.
Peter Asche says
Excellent…..more work needs to done in this area!
Marie Grass Amenta says
Thank you. This is a four part series so more is coming!