Résumés can be a great source of singer angst, especially for those with special challenges. Emerging artists, late starters, and singers who are returning to the industry after a hiatus may feel they don’t have a lot of experience, or that they don’t know how to list the experience they do have to their advantage.
Before you begin, it’s very helpful to understand what you are trying to accomplish with your résumé. What is it, and what does it do for you?
A résumé is a snapshot of your experience, training, and skill. Its purpose is to show prospective employers who you are at a glance and invite their further interest. Busy administrators don’t have time to do much more than glance, so it’s vital to make sure that they see what they need to see the first time they look.
First Impressions
Choose a good quality paper that is readily available in office supply stores. (As sure as you special order your paper, you will run out of it at 4 p.m. on a Sunday when you have to send a mailing first thing in the morning). Heavier, thicker papers will give your résumé an aura of formality and elegance—think wedding invitations—but don’t choose anything so stiff it won’t fax easily. Also, keep faxing and scanning in mind when choosing the paper color. Lighter colored, non-textured paper with dark ink will reproduce better.
Keep your résumé to a single page, neatly spaced, clean, and easy to read. This is not about putting down every scrap of information about you—it’s a quick reference. You can flesh out the details in your bio.
Whose Résumé Is It, Anyway?
A good rule of thumb to remember about your résumé (and indeed, about all your materials) is that they are about YOU. Not about your voice teacher, your school, your YAP, your degree in physics, but about you, the person seeking employment as a professional singer. Therefore, your name should be featured prominently, in large letters at the top of the page, followed by your voice type. Don’t get overly specific about your Fach. You don’t need to write “Sara Bellem, Lyric Coloratura Soprano”; “Sara Bellem, Soprano” is good enough. Your résumé and audition offerings will tell auditioners which repertoire best suits you.
Your contact information should also be easy to find and easy to read. Include your address, phone numbers (home, mobile, or voice mail), fax number, and e-mail and/or website address.
If you are managed, you might want to create your résumé on your management’s letterhead and use its contact information instead. Regardless, your contact information should be on every piece of paper you send out.
Putting It Together
Résumés are not set in stone; they are, in fact, constantly changing. Keep this in mind as you plan how yours should look. Classical singing résumés are not like “civilian” business résumés, wherein experience is often listed chronologically. Since you want your résumé to reflect the type of experience that is going to help you get the jobs you want, the most relevant information should appear at or near the top.
Keep your listings relevant to the jobs you seek as well. If your primary goal is solo opera work, opera experience should take priority on your résumé. If you want concert gigs, those get pride of place. If you have enough experience to list, you can have multiple résumés, depending on what kinds of jobs you’re seeking: one for opera, one for concert work, one for church soloist work, etc. If you’re just getting started, it’s OK to list multiple types of experience on the same résumé.
You will probably want to include four types of information: name of role, name of opera or oratorio, name of producing organization, and date (year only) of performance. (More on dates later).
The very first listing on any résumé should be “Upcoming Engagements,” if you’ve got them. They show that you’re marketable and desirable. They also show at a glance at which level you’re currently working. This is the one place on your résumé where you can list different types of work under one heading. For example, let’s say this is your concert/oratorio résumé, but you have a couple of opera and musical theater engagements coming up, as well as a recital. List all of them!
Next, list the experience that is most relevant and most impressive. On an opera résumé, this means full roles performed professionally, in a YAP, or in school. You can call this category “Opera Roles,” “Roles Performed,” or some variation thereof. If you’re including dates, list the roles chronologically (most recent first). If you’re not including dates, list your most impressive credits first: best roles, best venues. It’s fine to list covers, too, but include that information in parentheses after the role name.
Next come headings for any other full performances (unless you have a separate résumé for each): “Musical Theater,” “Concert/Oratorio,” “Solo Recitals and Appearances,” or “Other Solo Work” (a good heading to cover performances that don’t seem to fit other categories), etc. If you don’t have a great deal of experience, say one to three listings in each category, simply combine them all under the heading “Roles Performed.”
If you appear as a soloist on recordings, be sure to include a “Discography” at this point; if your work isn’t as a soloist, you may still wish to include it, but do so after all the headings for solo work have been filled, or leave that information for your biography.
Many singers, especially emerging professionals, have experience with partial roles or roles they have prepared but not performed. These can be listed under the headings “Partial Roles” or “Opera Excerpts,” and “Roles in Repertoire” or “Roles Studied,” respectively. If you need to flesh out your résumé a bit but don’t have experience in the aforementioned categories, you can also list “Roles in Preparation,” to indicate that you are currently working on a certain repertoire. Be sure not to leave the same roles in preparation on your résumé from season to season; if you don’t actually complete a role, take it off until you do.
Once you have listed every scrap of experience relative and appropriate to the jobs you are applying for, if you still have space you can list less relevant singing work, such as chorus experience, and even straight acting jobs.
A very valuable category is a listing of teachers, coaches, directors, and conductors you’ve worked with. You can list them each under their own heading, or if you only have a few, combine them. Prospective employers like to know about the people with whom you’ve worked—and like knowing you’ve worked with people they know. They may even call up their colleagues for references, so be sure you only list those you know will give you a glowing review!
Other headings to round out your résumé include:
“Awards.” Here you can list competition wins and other career-related awards or scholarships.
“Education/Training” is the place to list your degrees, studies, YAPs, and pay-to-sing experience. (In general, do not list master classes or workshops, unless they were ongoing courses of study over a period of time).
“Languages Studied” (if you’re not fluent) or “Languages Spoken” (if you are) should also be mentioned.
Finally, complete your résumé with a brief listing of “Special Skills,” such as ballet or other types of dance, fencing, modeling, musical instruments played, composing, or areas of expertise related to performing, such as liturgist, piano teacher, early childhood music specialist, conducting, etc.
Every résumé is individual and yours needn’t look just like anyone else’s, but the basic principles are the same. Play up your most impressive experience. Show yourself to be marketable. Keep it neat, organized, and easy to scan. Find creative ways to include unusual but relevant experience. Change it regularly, pruning out experience that isn’t as current or relevant to who you are as a performer now. And, most importantly, remember why you have a résumé: to sell yourself.
