<p>Should DS include state and national level awards that his high school band received on his music resume? Or should he just stick to individual All-State and solo type ratings?</p>
<p>Small chamber music ensembles I’d say include it if you’ve got space to fill. Band things definitely not (IMO).</p>
<p>I’d agree with fisheee on this one–depends on the program you’re applying to, but less is more when it comes to this kind of thing. Highlight those things where the student really stood out. If your DS soloed with the band at one of these high-profile concerts, that’d be great, but otherwise, it might start to bog yourself down. I mean, if I get a 7- or 8-page resume that lists literally everything that happened between the age of 12 and 17, it’s going to be hard for me to see the truly exemplary (individual) achievements amidst all the rest.</p>
<p>If there were really big group honors, like Ellington or Monterey (for jazz, for example), they definitely belong on the resume, IMO. But a bunch of band awards (and frankly, I think some of these are pretty bogus, having been at those concerts)…not so much.</p>
<p>The resume should be limited to 1 to 2 pages. If you are over 2 pages, then you need to cull. Even a full 2 pages is getting longer than most music resume readers will read through entirely. </p>
<p>Band awards do sound like padding, but if the resume is only 3/4 of a page and the band is truly exceptional (I agree that many festivals give out awards in such a way that leads students and parents to believe that their band is exceptional when it is just good but nothing exceptional), it probably would be okay to have one or two lines devoted to these. Perhaps the best way to do this would be to very briefly list the awards in parentheses behind the band’s name when listing the ensemble’s that the student has played in. Of course, it is typical to briefly list the ensembles.</p>
<p>Quite honestly, in Canada, I can’t think of a band/choir/orchestra award that would be worth listing on the resume (if the choir has won first nationally, then resume readers will be aware that the program is excellent and don’t need a reminder). I know that at least 95% of the awards given at US festivals/competitions (having attended a few and had sons in a few more) are not worth mentioning.</p>
<p>That raises an interesting question, how much value is a music resume when applying to schools of music? Conventional wisdom, as expressed on this board and elsewhere, seems to imply that the musical resume when applying specifically for performance degrees, means little or nothing, that everything is the audition. Based on this, I could kind of see where a musical resume might make sense in, for example, a program where the applicant gets admitted to both the music school and the university, or if they were applying to an LAC where the resume would be part of their application along with essays, grades, etc, but I don’t see it in a straight program. </p>
<p>Going back to the original topic, as someone who reads resumes professionally (not music), I am amazed when I read the musical CV’s of many kids out there, they including a ton of stuff, much of it irrelevant I suspect. For example, if they ever sat in on a master class, they include that as ‘attended a master class by X’. They have every little competition they ever were in and the like (funniest one I ever read was the kid who said "did solo recital at carnegie hall twice…first time it was a group recital with some music school that rented weil, second one the parents forked out the money to rent out the space for them,neither of which indicates anything)…and unless music is different, when I read that kind of stuff in a professional resume it makes me likely to toss it in the reject pile, because often that is someone trying to hide a lack of something by trying to snow the reader. With these, I would agree, shorter is probably better (unless the people that read them are real masochists at heart:), keep it to the major, relevant awards, things that might be indicative of what the person has done. Being in the high school wind ensemble that won some local award doesn’t say much; being part of a chamber group that won some prestigious award like the Fischoff does.</p>
<p>That raises an interesting question, how much value is a music resume when applying to schools of music? Conventional wisdom, as expressed on this board and elsewhere, seems to imply that the musical resume when applying specifically for performance degrees, means little or nothing, that everything is the audition. Based on this, I could kind of see where a musical resume might make sense in, for example, a program where the applicant gets admitted to both the music school and the university, or if they were applying to an LAC where the resume would be part of their application along with essays, grades, etc, but I don’t see it in a straight program. </p>
<p>Going back to the original topic, as someone who reads resumes professionally (not music), I am amazed when I read the musical CV’s of many kids out there, they including a ton of stuff, much of it irrelevant I suspect. For example, if they ever sat in on a master class, they include that as ‘attended a master class by X’. They have every little competition they ever were in and the like (funniest one I ever read was the kid who said "did solo recital at carnegie hall twice…first time it was a group recital with some music school that rented weil, second one the parents forked out the money to rent out the space for them,neither of which indicates anything)…and unless music is different, when I read that kind of stuff in a professional resume it makes me likely to toss it in the reject pile, because often that is someone trying to hide a lack of something by trying to snow the reader. With these, I would agree, shorter is probably better (unless the people that read them are real masochists at heart:), keep it to the major, relevant awards, things that might be indicative of what the person has done. Being in the high school wind ensemble that won some local award doesn’t say much; being part of a chamber group that won some prestigious award like the Fischoff does IMO.</p>
<p>Thanks all, that sounds like a consensus!</p>
<p>He was originally thinking of including a couple of major one’s where he had solo’s but then was left wondering if a partial list just indicated a weak list (and yes the entire list would be way too long).</p>