4
Film and Audio-Record Yourself
If you find a scheme where you can ask a benefactor to support your career in some specific way (like contributing towards costs of a conducting course, or publicity materials etc), apply to have someone cover or contribute toward the costs of buying a reasonably good video camera and a reasonably good small audio recorder. If you can buy these yourself, do it, or if there's someone you know who can lend or hire them to you, explore that option.
Any conducting opportunity you have with a chance of a reasonably good quality performance, video and audio-record yourself in the performance. Get familiar with iMovie or similar to edit the footage and the audio together. That's because a video is the first thing people will ask for when you write to introduce yourself.
The quality of the capture has to be reasonably good (as well as the quality of the music making be reasonably good), because the people you send it to will make a quick decision based on it - please do not dare to hope that they will squint their eyes and strain their ears to discern the glowing embers of your musical brilliance beneath grainy ill-framed footage and crappy audio.
Also, as a way of scrutinising how you are coming across, personally and gesturally, you can film rehearsals too, for your own use. If you're anything like me, this is excruciating, but it must be done, because you will spot things you never knew you were doing. By doing this, I discovered that I have a really annoying way of going "OKAYYY" before saying anything at all. I still do it sometimes.
If you find a scheme where you can ask a benefactor to support your career in some specific way (like contributing towards costs of a conducting course, or publicity materials etc), apply to have someone cover or contribute toward the costs of buying a reasonably good video camera and a reasonably good small audio recorder. If you can buy these yourself, do it, or if there's someone you know who can lend or hire them to you, explore that option.
Any conducting opportunity you have with a chance of a reasonably good quality performance, video and audio-record yourself in the performance. Get familiar with iMovie or similar to edit the footage and the audio together. That's because a video is the first thing people will ask for when you write to introduce yourself.
The quality of the capture has to be reasonably good (as well as the quality of the music making be reasonably good), because the people you send it to will make a quick decision based on it - please do not dare to hope that they will squint their eyes and strain their ears to discern the glowing embers of your musical brilliance beneath grainy ill-framed footage and crappy audio.
Also, as a way of scrutinising how you are coming across, personally and gesturally, you can film rehearsals too, for your own use. If you're anything like me, this is excruciating, but it must be done, because you will spot things you never knew you were doing. By doing this, I discovered that I have a really annoying way of going "OKAYYY" before saying anything at all. I still do it sometimes.