Hi, Jeff.  Your question isn't really an either/or question, beause there are a lot of factors that come into play.  And the first, which you haven't told us, is what your present status is.  What degrees do you already have, or are working on?  If teaching high school is an option that suggests that you may already have a degree in Music Education.  So the real question is what level you would be entering grad school at.

 

Regarding teaching high school, it's a fact that except for large music departments or Schools of Music which may have a Choral Department with several specialists, a lot of college choral jobs require the skills and experience to teach choral methods classes and to supervise student teachers, and the successful candidates for those positions will almost always need to have secondary teaching experience.

 

Regarding experience directing a community chorus, the most common kind of "arts organization," that is definitely valuable because as part of your audition process for college choral jobs you will be expected to stand in front of a chorus and demonstrate that you are at home on the podium and have the musical knowledge, the technical conducting skills, and the people skills to work quickly and successfully with that demonstration chorus. 

 

Of course there is nothing to stop you from doing BOTH, and a lot of active secondary teachers (including both my mother and father) also hold down jobs conducting either church choirs or community choruses.

 

So there are several gateways to keep in mind and to prepare for:  (a) your application and audition for doctoral work in the first place, for which a great resumé may get you a chance but which you then have to prove yourself capable of; (b) one or (usually) more graduate conducting recitals as part of your required degree work; and (c) your application and audition for the college job itself once you complete the doctorate or DMA, during which you will have to demonstrate exactly the same things but at a higher, professional level.  And if you intend to move from less desireable to more desireable jobs, that process will be repeated every time you attempt to move.

 

And a choice and decision that will have to be made at SOME point is whether to undertake graduate work that will make you a better and more effective educator, or work that will start to prepare you as a professional level conductor.  And THAT choice is most often made at the Masters degree level, where some colleges offer one, some the other, and a few offer both.

All the best, and I'm sure you will get plenty of excellent advice here.

John

Jeff,

The question you are posing is also very relevant to me. I'm in the final days of my masters in choral conducting. My undergraduate degree was in music education, but rather than teaching I moved onto graduate school and worked as a music director at a church. So now, while I have a teaching certificate, for me it's really about making music. I, too, would someday like to do doctoral work. I'm applying for both community choir jobs and high school teaching positions, but am unsure what the best option will be. Answering John's question, I feel that ultimately I would like to undertake graduate work to become a professional level conductor, rather than a better educator. 

 

It's unlikely that many of the community choir jobs will be full time. So if I'm offered one, do I take it (hoping that a high school position opens up in the area to supplement that income?) or do I pass  on the offer to hope that a teaching job will open up elsewhere (so as to not limit my search geographically)?

 

Best,

Chris

 

 

Jeff (and Chris),

Teaching at the secondary level is absolutely essential to obtaining a university teaching gig.  Secondary teaching provides numerous advantages in preparation for doctoral study and university teaching; however, there is also the brutual reality of necessity.  I recommend you look at postings for choral positions on the Chronicle of Higher Education and the College Music Society websites (perhaps even higherjobs.com).  You will see that the vast majority of 4-year colleges require secondary teaching experience for their ensemble conductors.  Sometimes "big jobs" don't require this experience; however, you're not going to get one of those jobs unless you already have collegiate experience, which you'll only get with secondary experience.  Certainly there is much to be gained from being an artistic director/conductor for an arts organization, but it will not replace the experience of secondary teaching.  We are at a point now that if you complete doctoral work in conducting without secondary experience, you are essentially making yourself unemployable.  Furthermore, your graduate work will be much more meaningful to you if you can put it in the context of experience.

 

Also, don't get locked into the idea that being a professional level conductor and a more effective educator are mutually exclusive.  To be an effective collegiate conductor, you have to be an effective educator also.  Of course, you do need to consider you career goals when determining if you want to enter a PhD or DMA program but don't put conducting and education in two seperate compartments.  Good luck.  I hope this helps!

I"ve been in the biz over 40 years now, and have rarely seen full-time choral director positions at the 'professional level'.  Orchestral? yes, but choral? No.  So, if you're interested in making a living by being a choral director only, you really need to include 'educating', 'teaching' as part of your qualifications.  And even then, you'll probably find yourself, at times, as I am now, with a part-time music position in a high school, part-time position at a church, and a community choir thrown in, too, maybe even for pay.  Full-time at the professional level?  Without a school attached?  Maybe in Europe.

Please learn to teach before teaching others how to teach.  Too many new college professors have not spent enough time in the classroom with K-12 students and try to teach how they were taught at the university level.  If you are teaching conducting at a college, you will probably have music education classes as well.  You need experience in order to share with your future music educators what the day to day demands are in schools.