Time is a rare and precious commodity - especially for artistic directors of musical ensembles, choirs and orchestras. Managing an ensemble and planning large-scale productions involves many tasks, and a music director's missions are highly varied. To cope with these many responsibilities, finding ways to save time is therefore an imperative, both for the realization of one's projects and for one's mental well-being. In this article, Tori Cook, Director of Sales and Marketing at Chorus Connection shares her top 7 time-saving tips for music directors, conductors and choirmasters.

As Director of Sales and Marketing at Chorus Connection, I spend most of my time looking for ways to save time for vocal ensembles and their managers. I then strive to share my findings with the wider music community.. My experience has taught me that the key to saving time is often technology, which can automate time-consuming tasks, help us stay organized, and keep our musicians informed and motivated.

Today, I'm going to share with conductors and artistic directors seven effective ways of saving time on a daily basis.

1. Use the playlists suggested by streaming platforms to find new repertoires

Streaming platforms such as Spotify, YouTubeor Pandora are an easy way to listen to and find new repertoires. Instead of scouring the web for a new repertoire, build playlists on these platforms. Use their resources to organize files and playlists and listen to them throughout the day. As you go along, mark or pin the directories you enjoy.

For example, I highly recommend the "Choral Music"or "Orchestral Music"on Spotify.

Review these favorites when you're actively planning a new program!

2. Keep a playlist of your music up to date to help you organize your work.

Use spreadsheets or project management software to organize your season. Enter your repertoire ideas as they come to you, and categorize each piece with concepts, themes, eras, composers or anything else you think is important.

That way, when you're planning your season, you can easily sort and filter your ideas!

3. Set up rehearsal organization roadmaps in project management software.

Ever heard of a Gantt chart or a roadmap?

These tools, used by most companies and offered by almost all project management software, enable work to be divided into different sprints according to the importance of deadlines.

Artistic directors no longer have to plan their objectives and roles week by week. They can divide this work into several parts for weekly rehearsals, and thus have a long-term vision of their projects in a roadmap.

Of course, it's imperative to share this roadmap with your singers! Such long-term organization will save you time and reduce the stress of drawing up rehearsal plans as you go along.

It's a real plus! Thanks to this, musicians have a clear idea of their priorities and what they need to work on, several weeks in advance.

This will make your rehearsals much more productive. Things can change at any time, that's a fact of life. But don't worry! Flexibility and accessibility are the watchwords of these roadmaps. You can decide to re-evaluate and reorganize at any time.

4. Start working with digital scores

This is crucial! Whenever possible, use digital scores ! A digital music library is a practical and simple way of organizing all your scores. It saves you having to manually write comments or changes on each of your ensemble members' scores, and makes them accessible to everyone more easily and immediately.

The collective dimension of a platform like Newzikwhich allows you to share scores and annotations in real time to collaborate with your ensemble, is a considerable asset.

Digital scores also allow you to integrate audio tracks, such as the accompaniment part or individual vocal parts, into your scores. So your singers can learn their music much more quickly.

Once again, all these arguments are based on the need to save time and make rehearsals more efficient.

5. Use art management software to simplify administrative tasks

We've all thought at least once, if not more, that the administrative tasks that are part of our daily routine are a waste of time. Setting up notice boards, organizing and sharing all music files, distributing playlists to the whole team and so on!

That's why an administrative management tool designed for artistic activities can quickly become your best ally for these tasks, allowing you to automate them in just a few clicks.

6. Look into other online art management systems.

Is managing your donors and fundraising donations a hassle? Try donor management software. Tired of selling tickets by hand? Start selling tickets online. Invest in modern modern digital arts management tools to get better results for your organization and save time.

7. Delegate, outsource and continue to invest.

When you realize that what you're doing is more a waste of time than anything else, ask yourself this question: can this task be delegated to someone else? Should you consider outsourcing this work? Or should you invest in technologies or tools that will help you do it more efficiently? Taking the time to ask yourself the right questions and investing in effective strategies now is far more beneficial in the long term.

About the author

Tori Cook is Director of Sales and Marketing at Chorus Connection. She sings with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and is a board member of the Greater Boston Choral Consortium. In a previous life, she was musical director of the Harborlight Show Chorus and president of Chorus Pro Musica in Boston. When she's not making music, she dreams of adopting a golden retriever and scuba diving in exotic locations around the world.