Are you an Artistic Director ready to hone your business chops?
Are you an Artistic Director buried under endless paperwork, fundraising and admin work? Don’t despair! This episode of ChoirSuccess will give you back your mojo. Guaranteed!
The Business Of Choir is a timely new book by Emily Williams Burch and Alex Gartner for choral leaders looking to master the management of a successful choral program, without losing what got you into choir in the first place: the joy of music!
We sat down with Alex Gartner, the executive and artistic director of the Pensacola Children's Choir and coauthor of The Business of Choir. He shared with us his formula for building capacity and support for choirs in the community - and how to empower your volunteers, get along well with your board of directors and recruit and retain your singers. It’s a roadmap for becoming a choral leader with both artistic and business chops.
If you are an Artistic Director ready to hone your organizational skills without selling your soul, this episode is for you.
Alex Gartner talked to Tom Metzger in the ChoirSuccess studios in Vancouver.
“In order for us as leaders to be the most effective that we can be, we have to get a little bit business savvy. And it’s unfortunate, but a lot of our training programs, our teacher training programs, our conductor training programs don’t really cover the business elements of running a choir.”
About Alex
Alex Gardner is the executive and artistic director of the Pensacola Children's Choir and coauthor of a new book called The Business of Choir.
Video Transcript Highlights
As CEO types of choral organizations that operate independently outside of a school or university entity, Emily Williams Birch and I realized we had to get a little bit business savvy because our training programs didn't really cover the business elements of running a choir.
A lot of our colleagues are leaders of choirs who primarily have music and conducting backgrounds, but many of us find ourselves in administrative roles that we're not prepared for. This book is for any choral leader who finds themselves in an administrative capacity and is looking to learn and grow. An artist who wants to start a choir but doesn't have a business education can use this book to help them fill in the gap around the business of running a choir.
There are a lot of different models for leadership in community groups, but the most common one is the dual role of artistic director and executive director. I've worked in both scenarios, and I think they both work, but it depends on the personalities of the people involved.
The biggest question that I've encountered for my colleagues is to raise more money or I want to grow an X, Y and Z. But in order to truly grow your organization, you have to dig down deep into what the true core of your organization is.
The first section of the book Making Our Way Through is about tearing apart or breaking down the core values of your organization and finding ways to intersect that value with different people in your community. The second section is about empowering your people. In order to help your choir grow and make a bigger impact, you have to bring a lot of people on board with you. This section really dives into how to empower your volunteers, get along well with your board of directors, and recruit and retain your singers.
The third section, Telling Your story, follows the section talking about purpose and has a lot to do with measurement and numbers. Directors commonly judge success based on the difficulty of the repertoire, the overall quality of the presentation, and the procedures concerned.
The opinions expressed in this program are those of the guests and contributors. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of ChoirGenius Inc.