Orchestra Director Overview

There are certain skills that many orchestra directors have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed discipline, interpersonal skills and leadership.

When it comes to the most important skills required to be an orchestra director, we found that a lot of resumes listed 28.4% of orchestra directors included lesson plans, while 21.6% of resumes included music program, and 20.1% of resumes included student learning. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.

If you're interested in becoming an orchestra director, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 41.4% of orchestra directors have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 45.2% of orchestra directors have master's degrees. Even though most orchestra directors have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an orchestra director. When we researched the most common majors for an orchestra director, we found that they most commonly earn master's degree degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on orchestra director resumes include doctoral degree degrees or associate degree degrees.

You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an orchestra director. In fact, many orchestra director jobs require experience in a role such as band director. Meanwhile, many orchestra directors also have previous career experience in roles such as music teacher or instructor.