Hi, Kristin,

I'm not a high school choral director, but am an accompanist hired by my local high school here in Sussex Co. (NJ). I am receiving a stipend of (Step 4 level) $2295/semester. This is remuneration for being present at rehearsals twice per week, for about 1.75 hours each time, as well as all concerts and any extra rehearsals which may be called. It also includes traveling to NYC with the choral groups one day each year (about ten hours) for them to present their holiday program at venues in NYC.

 

I am paid directly by the Board of Ed, and so I'm certain this money is included in the school budget and not from the parent music association (which we do have).

 

I have a very talented cousin who may be able to help you out. He lives in Westmont, NJ - about 25 minutes from Delran. I'd love to help you, but you're over 2 hours from me. If you wish, I can contact him and ask if he'd be interested to help you out.

 

Cherwyn Ambuter

cherwyn(at)warwick.net

 

Kristin,

I am a new high school choral director this year.  The previous choral director played for his choirs and I really refuse to do this, even though I am able.  My main job is to direct the choir, not play.  So for this school, the idea of hiring an accompanist is totally foreign - they just assume the choral director will play.  For my upcoming Christmas concert, I have a student assisting during rehearsals, but he is not quite up to par and with 1.5 wks left, I have asked a parent of one of my students to play.  All volunteer....we are a Catholic high school, so there are no funds at all for this.

 

Ann-Marie Hoher

Kristin and others,

 

I suppose this is too obvious to mention, but in every situation I can think of, either high school or college, the accompanists have been students, not paid accompanists.

 

Think about it for a moment. Even in this day and age, piano lessons and piano teachers are probably still the most prevelant private music teachers in any city or town. (OK, after guitar teachers!) Every one of those teachers has students, some of whom are better than others, and the better ones should be quite capable of playing a majority of the accompaniments of choral music, if not the keyboard reductions of Bach or Mozart orchestral parts.

 

In fact, you will be doing those students a very valuable favor by seeking them out and giving them the experience of learning to accmpany--where you can't just stop and start over if you mess up!  My own sister-in-law paid for her piano lessons in high school by accompanying ballet classes, and as a result can sightread anything and improvise anything!   Music is a collaborative art, and pianists get little enough experience in the collaborative aspects of it. And when they get to college, this can be a valuable skill that might win them an assistantship or at least some paid gigs as accompanists, as well as allowing them to fulfil their ensemble requirements.

 

And for those of us who happen to have show, swing, or vocal jazz choirs as well as traditional ensembles, I'd also suggest dumping the pre-recorded accompaniment tapes and giving your school's instrumentalists the same kind of on-the-job training as a rhythm section and even a horn line. That's part of our educational job, too.

 

Sounds like a win-win to me!!! My father took this one step further. He recruited the cello and bass players for his high school orchestras from good piano students, who were already musicians and just needed to learn new techniques, which he helped them acquire in after-school lessons.

 

All the best,

 

John

 

 

Personally, I don't like the idea of having a student sit at the piano as an accompanist for my choir.  I'm not saying I haven't had a student play paino on A selection at one of our choir concerts.  If I do have a student accompanist on a selection or two, it is because that student has has asked me specifically to accompany the choir, or I have given the student the option of playing OR singing.  I feel that student has joined choir to "sing" in the choir, not play piano......  We hire an accompanist, and she is payed per hour the same as sub. pay which does not come from the music fund.  Our accompanist typically comes in week of performance.  I can't recall what it is exactly, but it comes out to somewhere around $14 per rehearsal.  She also get's like $75 dollars for the night of the performance.  For festival/contest where students sing solo's/small ensembles she gets payed somewhere around $100 being it's more work for festival/contest.  I'd have to look to see what it is exactly, but I know the numbers I've given is very close.  We practice our pieces with smartmusic accompaniments which I make with finale.   

In my experience, administrators often don't consider the role of an accompanist as a neccessary expense for either performance or rehearsal. If you admin is willing to listen, I would approach him/her with both the rationale and cost of what you want in an accompanist--how many hours/rehearsals a week, cost per rehearsal and/or performance, etc. Now would be a good time to do this--they need to start putting for budget items for consideration at this point in the year for the following year. See if you can't get it as either a specific budget line, or at least have the additional cost reflected in your budget line. Even if you can only get funding for concerts, or say concerts and one rehearsal a week, this is significantly better than having to scramble each time to the money for someone. If it's a specific amount of time and money you can promise, it is almost always easier to find a player.

 

Like others here, I would caution against using student pianists exclusively. Often they do resent it (even if they tell you they are fine with it), particularly if they are enrolled to sing (typically they want a break from the demands of playing), Also, unless you are extremely fortunate, a student accompanist will be limiting for repertoire and ultimately the choir as a whole. It's often challenging enought to get an adult who is up to the demands of actually accompanying a choir. This is not to say you shouldn't use a student accompanist, just that you have to judge each piece within the context of what that player can realistically give you (and give in a hurry, not two days before the concert) and balance it with their desire to sing versus play. Some judicious student accompanying will do the student (and everyone else) more good than enlisting him or her for everything.

 

I know many people do it out of necesity, but don't go down the road of using smartmusic or other recordings for "accompanying" except in very specific performance applications. In reality, the choir (and the conductor) is accompanying the recording, not the other way around. You need a human being, even if it is (worst case scenario), also the conductor. It's also quite time consuming to create these accompaniments.

 

For the interim, your parent organization might need to fund an accompanist for this year. However, I would have them help take up the mantle of approaching the principal, arts administrator, board, superintendent, etc. to get school budget funding. An accompanist is a course cost, not something that should be covered by boosters. There should be ample examples of programs in NJ and neighboring states that use this funding model for accompanists to demonstrate that this isn't some crazy idea of yours.

 

To actually answer your question:

When I worked as an accompanist in NY public schools (central), I was paid by the rehearsal for the schools I worked for. Some used me for every rehearsal; others called me in for the week before and concerts.

 

When I taught in NY public schools (western), I LOST my budget line from the time I was hired to the time when I was actually employed (three weeks!) because although I was promised an accompanist, the funding dissapeared when they found out I had ample piano skills. I covered rehearsals, and brought in an accompanist for performances that was paid through a variety of sources, but USUALLY through my operational budget. I left this job before the budget line was returned, but I believe it has been reinstated.

 

I now teach in a private school far from NYS--I have an accompanist for every rehearsal, who is paid an hourly rate, which includes concerts. We have a large program--between my high school choirs, some middle school choirs, and some school-related accompanying of private lessons, it is essentially a full time position.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Mike

At high school I had an accompanist paid an hourly rate as a technical assistant (29 hours a week.)

At university my accompanist is assigned by the accompaniment faculty and they receive course credit.

 

Michael S. Wade

As both an accompanist and now a choral director, I have been on both sides of the fence.

 

Using a student at times can be a good thing.  Had that not happened to me (I played for choir from grade 7 all the way through grad school), I would not be nearly as good as an accompanist as I am.  Yes, it can be challenging for the director, but if not given a chance, many pianists will never know how much FUN it can be.  Besides, I am at the point where playing for rehearsals is second nature - I KNOW where the director is going to be, sometimes before he/she knows!  This comes from the experience of all those years, plain and simple,

 

Our local school district hires an accompanist as an aide position.  I did this for over 10 years.  The money wasn't great, but it was better than nothing.  The position is now a "done deal" so that when I left three years ago, the position was still there.  I was paid to play for 15 hours per week, time for outside concerts and rehearsals, and for trips.  I was paid seperately for contest.  The money is district money, plain and simple.

 

I direct two choirs at a university that offers no music major, but a music minor.  As our department - which really isn't one - is very small (I teach all the courses for the minor along with choir, piano, and voice!), I have no big pool of faculty/staff/piano majors to ask to accompany.   I've been lucky in that the last 4 years I've had an awesome student accompanist.  Unfortunately for me, he is graduating this December and I'm looking again.  We do not have regular money to pay someone, so, yes, I have to use students (we do have stipend money that I can pay them something with).  So far, knock on wood, it's worked.

 

I wish you well!  An accompanist can make or break a choir.

 

Lorie Francis

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Rolla, Missouri

Mike,

 

         Two Guns(thumbs) Up!!  Nice feedback!