A clean, professional portfolio is one of the best ways to share your work and build opportunities in the music world.
What is a Portfolio?
An organ performance portfolio showcases your abilities, accomplishments, and experience as a musician. Consisting of a collection of performances, education, and other notable aspects of your music career, it highlights your technical skill, musicality, and repertoire.
In today’s professional world, many opportunities rely on online communication and applications. Portfolios are important for:
- Graduate school auditions
- Music positions
- Competitions
- Scholarships
- Freelance opportunities
- Networking
Because of this, portfolios have become an industry standard for musicians.
How Should I Format My Portfolio?
Portfolios come in a variety of types, with the two main categories being digital and physical. Physical portfolios are becoming increasingly uncommon in the hiring process, and for musicians a digital portfolio will better showcase your performing skills. Within digital portfolios there are a couple of different options:
- Website: A website is a flexible and visually engaging way to present your accomplishments in a variety of formats, including photos, videos, and text. They are an effective and easy way to share your portfolio with others and give you the space to be creative and show your personality. While there are templates you can follow, websites require more attention to visual design than other portfolio formats.
- Digital Folder: A digital folder is a clean, practical approach to your portfolio. This format allows you to organize materials in platforms like Dropbox or Google Drive. With this method you do not need to design a website, and the folder is easy to update. However, digital folders lack some of the visual personality a website can provide.
- PDF: A PDF keeps all your documents neatly in one place. Formal and polished, information can be organized into clearly formatted sections with consistent design and typography. The only thing that cannot be included directly in the PDF is videos, which will have to be linked through platforms such as YouTube or Google Drive.
Which one you choose depends on how you want to present yourself.
What Should I Include in My Portfolio?
What you include and how you present your portfolio can largely depend on where you are submitting it. Just like with a resume, your portfolio should be tailored to its intended audience. For example, if you are applying for church music positions you should focus on hymn playing, service playing, accompanying choirs, and so on. If you are submitting to a music program, they often have their own requirements as well.
Although each portfolio will look different, these are some basic requirements that each portfolio should have:
- Biography: Your biography should be succinct but effectively share who you are and what you are trying to accomplish in organ performance. Highlight some of your most notable accomplishments and why you are an organist. This section is also a good place to put a professional-looking headshot.
- Music Resume: It is important to include a resume section that details your education, performance experience, awards, and other notable achievements. Show your versatility as a musician, such as being able to play solo as well as an accompanist. Having a repertoire list of studied and complete works is also a helpful addition, as it shows what techniques and styles you are capable of.
- Performances: Having videos of your performances is important because it allows schools and employers to evaluate your musical abilities directly. They can evaluate aspects of your performance such as technique, musical interpretation, rhythm, and articulation. You can also show versatility in your performances by choosing a variety of musical styles and repertoire to add to your portfolio, such as classical, sacred, and contemporary music. Recordings should be high quality in both audio and video.
- Compositions and Arrangements: Experience with arranging and score preparation demonstrates additional technical skills and shows that you have a deep understanding of music, which is an asset for many organ performance jobs. Any composing work you have done highlights your creativity and ability to approach music creatively.
Conclusion
Your portfolio should reflect you and your musical voice, balancing personality with professionalism. Updates and changes should happen regularly as you gain experience or cater to a certain job. Building a strong portfolio now can create future opportunities and help you present your talents professionally.
Citations
How to Make a Music Portfolio at Any Stage in Your Career
Building a Music Portfolio
Build your music portfolio