Application for Music Director 

Music Director/Choral Conductor Position Description

The Director provides musical leadership, creative vision, and artistic direction to Lexington Pops Chorus. Working closely with the Board of Directors, the Director ensures that LPC fulfills its mission and achieves its goals of musical excellence, education, and community engagement.   The Director cooperates with the Board to maintain the financial health of the organization.

The Music Director/Conductor: 

• Attracts, inspires, and retains quality chorus members.

• Develops and conducts programs.

• Helps build audiences for pops-style concerts.

• Builds and nurtures musical community (chorus, guest artists, and collaborators).

• Instills joy within the organization.

• Enhances the stature and reputation of Lexington Pops Chorus. 

Candidate Profile / Experience and Qualifications

The ideal candidate will combine a thorough knowledge of choral, instrumental, and vocal performance with significant experience conducting and leading singers and instrumentalists in a broad range of repertoire and musical styles. 

The successful candidate will have the ability to:

• Plan a dynamic, creative, and exciting season.

• Rehearse and conduct concerts of excellent quality.

• Inspire vocal and instrumental musicians to a consistently excellent level of performance.

• Identify and coach vocal soloists.

• Collaborate within the local area.

• Build and sustain an enthusiastic audience.

The candidate will be flexible, responsive, tactful, collaborative, and receptive to new ideas and technologies.  In addition, the candidate should:

• Accept the basic concept of LPC: a non-audition chorus that usually performs a significant larger work on the first half of each program followed by a pops-style second half. 

• Be available on our schedule. 

• Have strong conducting skills. 

• Have excellent rehearsal skills including vocal coaching. 

• Be able to help us build our number of singers, audiences, and donor base. 

• Create programming that resonates with us and with our audiences.

• Understand our absentee policy and video-conferencing of rehearsals.  

• Be looking for a long-term relationship.

• Have a high energy level.

• Have local ties/connections in or around Lexington.

• Have stellar references.

• Consider Lexington Pops Chorus a priority among their conducting and other professional commitments.

Advanced degree or equivalent experience in Music Education and/or Conducting is required.

The salary range for the position is $15,000 to 20,000 depending on the candidate's education, experience, and abilities.  This is a contract position, not employment.  A 1099 will be issued each year.

Our Schedule

Lexington Pops Chorus practices on Tuesdays from 7:30 to 9:30 pm from the second Tuesday after Labor Day until mid-May.  Our concerts are held on Friday and Saturday evenings in mid-January and on the weekend preceding Memorial Day weekend.  Both rehearsals and concerts are held at Hancock United Church of Christ in Lexington Center.

How to Apply

Please submit a cover letter telling us why you are interested and why you believe you would be a good fit for this position and a resume.  Please limit the resume to three pages and your total initial application to five pages.  Please do not include any additional material at this time.  Only applications submitted via email in Microsoft Word or PDF will be accepted.

Please email your application by September 30, 2023 to searchcommittee@lexpops.org.  The subject line should be your last name, first name, date of application.

We would like your permission to ask our colleagues if they are familiar with your work.  If you do not want others to know you have applied please state in the cover letter.  You will be emailed confirmation that we have received your application.

About Lexington Pops Chorus

Lexington Pops Chorus was formed in 1982.  Our chorus distinguishes itself from many others in two ways: our programs are based on a Pops format of many genres, and no auditions are required for membership. However, we require that singers be able to read music.

The chorus is open to anyone eighteen years of age or older.  We are based in Lexington, but more than half our members are from outside Lexington, and more than half have been in the chorus for longer than ten years.

We sing a wide variety of music including classical, jazz, blues, Broadway, and folk, as well as "theme" concerts such as our Night at the Opera, American Civil War and American Composers concerts.  We sing folk songs from various countries and in several languages including Latin, German, Ladino, Spanish, French, and Hebrew. We have performed works from the classical repertoire including pieces by Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Mozart, and Schubert. In addition to singing contemporary works by composers such as John Rutter, Dan Forrest, Morten Lauridsen, and Billy Joel, we have premiered a number of new works from composers such as Gwyneth Walker (whom we commissioned) as well as new music composed by four members of our chorus.  The variety of pieces is challenging, stimulating, and refreshing, so we’re always learning and having fun!

Lexington Pops Chorus is an open and welcoming chorus. We welcome singers of any race, color, nationality, ethnicity, religion, economic status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.