How To Become A Choral Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is a choral director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Zackary Simonini

The average choral director salary is $54,709. The most common degree is a bachelor's degree degree with an music major. It usually takes 4-6 years of experience to become a choral director. Choral directors with a Music Therapist - Board Certified (MT-BC) certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 5% and produce 2,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a choral director?

Zackary Simonini

Technical Director (Full Time Staff), Adjunct Professor of Theatre (part time faculty), Carthage College

2. Technology always advances faster than most theatre budgets can keep up. This forces us to 'learn on the fly' sometimes. Dedicate some time to keeping up with the newest technology, at least be aware of it. IF you have time and resources, set aside some of your efforts to grow technological skills that are more and more in demand in theatres and other event industries. These skills involve creating projections/effects in qLab or comparable programs. Furthermore wireless technology continues to become available in ways that can mitigate the need for hard wire cabling. Visit the message boards, learn the troubleshooting guides and familiarize yourself with the 'new solutions'. Other skills that continue to be more and more relevant is the use of LED lights and moving lights. These instruments are different from the incandescent fixtures I initially learned on but spending time to learn how to program moving lights is immensely useful and marketable to many industries. Finally even if your theatre/space does not rely on microphone/speaker enhancement of actors/instruments LEARN what you can about the physics of sound and how to interact with the technology associated with live sound mixing.

ScoreChoral DirectorUS Average

Salary

4.3

Avg. Salary $54,709

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.5

Growth rate 5%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

9.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.18%

Asian 5.27%

Black or African American 5.62%

Hispanic or Latino 9.49%

Unknown 4.75%

White 74.69%

Gender

female 52.87%

male 47.13%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress level

5.5

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.8

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

10.0

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a choral director

Explore choral director education requirements

Most common choral director degrees

Bachelor's

72.0 %

Master's

21.6 %

Associate

2.5 %

Start to develop specific choral director skills

Skills	Percentages
Classroom Management	18.31%
Fine Arts	8.98%
Music Education	8.61%
Music Theory	8.46%
Choral Music	7.28%

Complete relevant choral director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New choral directors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a choral director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real choral director resumes.

Research choral director duties and responsibilities

Manage entire music program, schedule ministers, concerts, and prayer services.
Produce and direct a full Broadway Jr. production of Annie.
Continue to serve as a UIL choral adjudicator across the state.
Collaborate with drama teacher to compose music/libretto for musical theater setting of Cinderella.

Get choral director experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a choral director. The most common roles before becoming a choral director include music teacher, director of music team lead and student teacher.

Prepare your choral director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your choral director resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a choral director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

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