Role Play: Pick The Job

taking from a slice of history:

a) Church job paying 45K.  Have control over a 40 choir, rhythm section, horn section and a community orchestra.  Since you're the director, you can play any of your compositions whenever.  Plus you have am $8000 annual budget to bring in outside musicians.

b)College Prof.  55K, no control over ensembles.  Decent band, terrible orchestra.  Every four years you could get you band piece played, maybe the same as your orchestra works.

c)  Non-music job paying 110K.  No guaranteed performances of any kind

d) Director of a Community Orchestra. 35K.  A Not-so-bad orchestra that doesn't mind playing new music as long as you yearly play a Beethoven or Mozart work. Because this job is tied with a municipality, you couldn't do this in conjunction with any of the aforementioned jobs.

Unfortunately my choices, when available, have tended to be somehow pushed into the realm of the 110K non-musical job. Except for the 110K. Who had such a job, Charles Ives?

Number 1 sounds an awful lot like JS Bach's.

I would say number four, but I have been under the impression that they are paid even less than that; it's somewhere along the lines of a few thousand per concert for the music director of the ensemble I'm working with. (Concert coming April 10, my first ever!)

I am not religious, so I think I would find the church job not to my liking, although it's hard to say no to those resources.

So honestly, I think I would go with the professor job and try to seek out performances outside the school. If I'm not mistaken, this is the route that many of history's famous composers have taken. Of course, for me this is all conjecture since I don't have a degree in music and nobody would hire me anyway! :P

I would (and sorta did for real) pick option "C".

For me, total creative freedom to do what I want is more important than dealing with any of the baggage that likely comes along with most of the other options!  

I would say this is a hypothetical but for me, these are close to the actual choices I have to make this coming fall as I graduate and apply for jobs. Currently, I have chosen option B, the college professor job. Many of the places I have applied to, what you have described is actually what I have to choose from. I choose B, not just because Im getting my DMA and thats what you usually do with a doctorate, but because I have more freedom in that field. Yeah you don't have unlimited access to a large ensemble at where ever you teach at, but I don't need that. You do however, have access to unlimited performers via colleagues and students not to mention you are in an environment that encourages you to create work. Many universities require their music faculty to stay active in their field, which means I would work hard to get performances and commissions outside of my place of employment. Not to mention, I can get raises and promotions in the academia world than I can get in church and community music jobs. I can also move to a higher paying university and make about 100k a year with tenure. 

Hmmm...  I would add that one doesn't have endless opportunities to perform your own work in church or community orchestra jobs.  There's politics involved, very possibly a committee from the group in charge of music selection, and the goodwill of the group as a whole to consider.  If you are founding a group of your own, and people who join know that they are signing on to play a lot of your music, that's one thing.  But if you are taking over directing an existing group, know that they may find it really cool to play a piece of yours occasionally, but they are probably expecting to perform a variety of repertoire within whatever broad stylistic bounds they define their group by.  Try getting that community group to play a Mozart piece at every concert and they'd give you some funny looks too.  It's not personal, it's just a case of what they are expecting for repertoire.  I'd be sure to ask the specific question, rather than assume. "So, how would you feel about premiering a new piece of mine once a year...  About 10 minutes of music..."  Or whatever.  (:  Sounds like you have some great options!

I'd easily pick something in line with the first option. As a lifelong churchgoer, it just feels like a very natural choice. Considering the churches I've been in (and the one I am in), I can see myself having reasonable freedom to perform my own works within the context of worship as long the program consists mostly of familiar hymns or songs. If the slot weren't taken by a stubborn and super experienced/respected old man, which it is, I'd have already made a bid for it at least in the contemporary worship service.

I am C.  At least it pays the bills.

There is a "e" option which I didn't put up; perhaps I should.

AS a director of bands, I can program my music on every concert.  Although all of my degrees are in composition, I'm blessed to be able to conduct and do marching, jazz, and concert bands.

Great conversation everyone!