$30K-$40K is actually not bad considering they just need to work twice a week, one day for choir practice for maybe about 3 hours and on Sunday performs for say 6 hours. For 9 hours worth of working, that amount of money is good.
Actually, that's for a full-time job! This person needs to work with the different music groups, the cantors, the choirs, schedule music, recruit and audition new members, and the list goes on. So, no, not nine hours -- closer to 30-40 hours per week!Ed
Let's analyze your statement....For our analysis, let's use a big Catholic church. Usually they hold 4 to 5 mass on Sunday. If it is in California, they may have one Spanish mass. Most likely, he will not involve in the Spanish mass. Usually, they have their own choir leader who will do everything for free. So this music director will only involve with 4 choir. Out of this 4 choir, the first mass is usually performed by non choir because most of choir members do not want to attend 7am mass.
It leaves him with three mass to take care. Let's say out of these 3 masses, two traditional and one more contemporary mass. Therefore, he needs to conduct two practice a week. Usually, it takes about 2 hours per choir, therefore, he needs to spend 4 hours to practice per week. During the weekday, there is no singing for daily mass, so he spends no time at all.
Recruiting? Whom will he recruit during the day. Nobody goes to church in the morning or afternoon to have audition to join a choir. In addition, the number of people who are interested in joining choir is exceedingly low. Therefore, the music director should be very thrilled to have somebody who wants to join his choir.
Cantor does not need to be trained, they are usually a professional singer. Scheduling music is done once a month or even once 3 months, say for full one year he spends 24 hours to schedule the music.
Now let's total the numbers of hours Sunday mass = 3hours x 52 weeks = 156hoursChoir practice = 4 hours x 52 weeks = 208 hoursAudition = 1 hour x 12 months = 12 hours (I do not think the audition takes a long time, if each person takes 5 min, in 12 hours, he can audition 144 people. I do not think there so many people who want to join choir)Music Scheduling = 24 hours (per year)Misc activity = 100 hours (to be conservative with the calculation)Total = 500 hoursHourly rate = $80/hr ($40,000/500hours).This is my calculation.
Ed,Your Church makes thing so complicated. My church here is considered one of the most prominent Catholic church in the Midwest. It was featured in the most prominent church in USA. We have Sat Mass, 7am, 9 am, 11am and no Spanish mass at all.
We only one kind of mass. It makes his life easier, only one practice a week for about two hours. In addition, we do not need to keep having audition for new musicians or singers or cantor. What happened to your church that why you need new people all the time?? It seems there are turmoils in your church. If everything is OK, the music directory should not spend a lot of time, because there is no change.
I do not understand why the audition takes so long? Are you hiring professional singers all the time? If you do, no wonder your church cannot afford paying good money to the music director. I used to live in Southern Calif, my church overthere also operates like my current church. That is why I do not see how a music director can have 40 hours worth of work. To me if a music director cannot finish the job within the amount of time like what I showed in my analysis, he or she needs to work smarter.
The bottom line is that a music director needs to work smartly so that he or she can focus on the quality instead of providing unending types of choir. There is in no way for a person to handle all of those things with good quality. No wonder, it becomes out of hand. People become unhappy, and you end up need to hire people all the time (as you mentioned in your earlier reply).
The Saint Dennis Church in Diamond Bar, CA and also The Holy Family Church in Inverness IL, they have the same musicians, singers, etc for YEARS. They do not keep changing. During my 12 years in Saint Dennis, they changed only once. The music director left, and his people followed him. Other than that, they have the same people.
Things need to be kept simple. Two types of choir are good enough. A combination of balance music is needed in order to satify most people in the church. The music director has the control over this. As long as the music is not extreme (all Gregorian, all rock style, all jazz style), people will not complain.
Once again, I think you may want to see why the turn over of your musician and singer is so high that make you do the hiring all the time and train them all the time.
And leachim, I do not know what those abbreviations are--would you explain?
Thalberg,Putting your PhD in your resume can be good and not good.Some people will think that you are crazy and will not even bother to bring you for the interview. On the other hand some will appreaciate. It is hard to tell, it really depends on the person who reviews your resume.But there is always one question that everbody will be very curious if you put your PhD in the resume "Why does a person who has a PhD want to do entry level job?". It is just hard to explain the oddness. If you only put your bachelor degree, they can over look the fact easily. You can just tell them that you want a new career because you don't find teaching piano is chanllenging any more for you(or something like that).
Thalberg doesn't have a PhD.
Not even my parents yet understand that a DMA is not a PhD. It seems like the hardest thing in the world for people to grasp.
People just use generic name which means doctorate level.
I understand, that is why I simply do not correct people when they call it a PhD. I know what they intended, so why bother. I was simply responding to jlh.However, people do understand that medical doctors don't have PhDs--they have MDs. So there's one example.But I have even had people tell me--"Music? You can get a doctorate in that? I mean, can't you just learn it all in a year?"
I'd even do music marketing and consultation because I understand a lot about the inner workings of the "new" viral Internet/YouTube music industry. Just not sure where to place my physical body in order for that to happen. www.MySpace.com/buckholtz_mike
I live in NYC and know of people in the music marketing biz. Actually, your qualifications for such a career sound perfect, given your background. My sources tell me LA and NYC are the areas where this kind of work exists. See if you can track down headhunters for the field and get your resume to them. Firms like Nokia, for one, are into this new area, so maybe contact them.
I think that composing is a good idea.Cost : Bachelor=100k Then each composition. $70- Novice composer. $500-good band vocals of not that famous. $1250~2500-Incidental music of not so famous films $2500+ when you are famous