There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an orchestra director. For example, did you know that they make an average of $25.38 an hour? That's $52,787 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 1% and produce 800 job opportunities across the U.S.
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.
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The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 28.4% of orchestra directors listed lesson plans on their resume, but soft skills such as discipline and interpersonal skills are important as well.
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an orchestra director. The best states for people in this position are Alaska, Virginia, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Orchestra directors make the most in Alaska with an average salary of $81,061. Whereas in Virginia and Rhode Island, they would average $78,845 and $74,199, respectively. While orchestra directors would only make an average of $73,307 in Connecticut, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Connecticut
$73,307
Avg. Salary
2. New Mexico
$70,843
Avg. Salary
3. Virginia
$78,845
Avg. Salary