First impressions matter, and making a good one can feel overwhelming. While your resume is only part of the orchestral audition process, it’s important to make it count.

This free, editable resume template and how-to guide break down the process with experienced orchestral professionals who know what committees look for in a resume.

First rule: keep it current.

Update your resume as new information comes in. Keeping your resume current means it's always ready to work for you – even between auditions.


Building and Formatting Your Resume

When formatting your resume, think “clear and concise.” Contact information and current job title (if applicable) should be placed in the header. The following sections are ordered according to what committees are most interested in looking for. Keep it to one page to make the committee’s job as easy as possible:

• Orchestral experience: Role/title, organization, month/year(s) of service
• Audition experience: Position auditioned for, organization, round advanced to, & year
• Solo experience: significant recitals or concerto performances 
• Awards/competitions: competition wins, grants, and school honors
• Festival experience: Festival name and year

Organizing your information like the columns below clearly delineates repetitive details, making it easier for reviewers to locate. The orchestral experience section will contain respective columns for ensemble, position, and month/year. 


While listing resume credits in chronological order (top-down)  is standard, prioritize high-profile ensemble experience near the top.

Experience That Supports Your Work in an Ensemble

For orchestral instrumentalists, ensemble experience is at the heart of the resume, but a broader picture of your experience can help the panel understand your background.

• Audition experience: Jack Bryant, Assistant Principal Horn of the San Francisco Symphony, says, “You can exercise your judgment when listing “audition experience”– it is always a good idea to include any high-profile auditions you’ve had success in by putting them below your ensemble experience.” If you haven’t yet had significant audition success, Cassie Pilgrim, Principal Oboe of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, recommends omitting this section entirely.

• Solo experience: Include any important/relevant solo recitals or concerto performances. Some instruments are more conducive to having a dedicated section for this on their resume than others. If you don’t have anything significant to list here, omit this section. Alternatively, you can rename “Orchestral Experience” to “Performance Experience” to accommodate one or two solo performances at the bottom of that section (below your orchestral experience), if that best applies to your situation.
   
• Awards/competitions: This would include award titles, awarding organizations, & year. Megan Torti recommends “putting competition wins, grant experience, and honors from music school directly” in this section, especially if you are earlier in your career.
   
• Education and Training: List your institutional education, degree(s) received, teachers & years. “Especially for younger players, I look for their education history/training,” says Charae Krueger, Principal Cello of The Atlanta Opera. 
   
• Festival experience: Festivals don’t need to be the center of attention, however they “can be an important component of onstage performance experience for instrumentalists, especially those who are earlier in their career,” says Jack Bryant. 

Your goal: to make every experience easy to find, scan, and understand.

The One-Page Rule: What Stays, What Goes

As your career grows, so does your resume. When space starts to get tight, how do you decide what stays and what goes? 

• If the font size isn’t legible, you must start cutting.

• Remove experiences from further in the past (i.e. school performances).

• Only list the most notable audition experience.

• If you have to make cuts, make them to the less significant categories first (i.e. not orchestral experience, if possible)!

Common Resume Mistakes to Avoid 

The most qualified players run the risk of dulling their shine with typos. This includes misspelling organizations, titles of works performed, and, perhaps most importantly, your contact information! 

And that’s a wrap– nicely done!

Your resume is your first introduction to the audition committee. Feeling secure in your “extra-musical” audition materials gives you that much more energy to devote to the big stuff (we all wish we had time to play one last mock, right?). Developing a cohesive, accessible representation of your musical journey is the first step to audition success. 

Special thanks to these generous professionals who shared their insights for this guide:

• Jack Bryant, Utility/Third Horn, San Francisco Symphony
• Charae Krueger, Principal Cello, The Atlanta Opera
• Megan Torti, Principal Flute, North Carolina Symphony
• Cassie Pilgrim, Principal Oboe, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra