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The Story of Your LifeIs writing a professional biography at the top of your career agenda? If not—run, don't walk, to the nearest computer and begin writing it. A well-written biography isn't something you casually put together the day of an important performance. It is a document you should be carefully writing—and revising every week. Contrary to what most young artists believe (this goes for dancers and actors, as well as musicians), biographies are not just the text you submit for the evening's program. A biography serves the same purpose as a résumé: presenting your professional experience to potential agents, presenters, directors, choreographers, managers, conductors, and other people in positions to make decisions about your work. In fact, the biography often usurps the role of the résumé, the farther you progress in your career. Most experienced artists rarely include a résumé in their press kit. It's all about the biography.
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Your biography is literally the story of your life. If you don’t take writing this story seriously, other people won’t take you seriously.
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Your professional biography is a narrative form of your résumé. If you think about it this way, you can see the obvious connection between a biography and future employment. If you have a well-organized résumé with outstanding professional experience, employers are more likely to take a closer at you. This is also true for the biography. Unfortunately, most young artists do not take writing their biography too seriously. When asked to submit one, they usually throw something together—or worse yet, they take a previously written biography and add to it. This is a disastrous career strategy. Your biography is literally the story of your life. If you don't take writing this story seriously, other people won't take you seriously.Ideally, you should have three versions of your biography: a short version, which is only one paragraph (140-180 words); a medium version, which is two to three paragraphs (up to 450 words); and a long version, which can extend over one page (in some cases, up to 750 words). The short and medium versions will be requested most of the time. The long version is usually sent to a publication or interviewer who needs a more complete picture of your life in order to frame their article or questions.A professional biography reads like a news story. News stories are written in the inverted pyramid form, which means that the most important information is given in the opening line, followed by less important information. Naturally, the most important line is the opening. Do you want readers to continue reading, or do you want them to turn their attention to something else? Your opening line will encourage one or the other.Let's use Bill Gates as an example. If you turn on a television and flip to the evening news, you are unlikely to hear a report begin, "Bill Gates was born in 1955. He attended public elementary school and private Lakeside School in Seattle. In 1973 he enrolled at Harvard, where he lived down the hall from Steve Balmer, now Microsoft's chief executive officer." If a major network were to begin all its news stories like this, it would quickly lose their audience. Most people wouldn't wait around to hear the purpose of the report.A better beginning might be, "Billionaire Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corporation, is scheduled to speak at the Southern Nevada Convention for the Prevention of Cruelty to Computers." This opening line grabs viewers' attention and gives them current information about who the person is, and what he is going to do. In this example, the viewer learns that Bill Gates is extremely rich, heads the largest software company on the planet, and is going to speak at a ridiculous convention. There is enough information here to keep most viewers interested long enough to find out what exactly the Prevention of Cruelty to Computers is about, and why Bill Gates is speaking at this conference.Ideally, your biography should also have a newsworthy opener (though hopefully not as ridiculous as the Bill Gates example). Shaping an opening line from a list of your recent accomplishments might be challenging. If you are having trouble, think about lines that have headlining potential, such as "As the recent recipient of…" or "Praised by The New York Times for her …" or even "Hailed by critics as … ."Once you find the right opener, the remaining lines in the opening paragraph should complement that sentence. If you use a line about a recent appearance in an Off-Broadway play, you should not begin your second sentence with something about your teaching activities at Mrs. Thomas's Pre-School Movement Program. In fact, you should not include anything in the opening paragraph that is not directly related to your topic sentence. If you begin with a performing highlight, then the supporting material in the paragraph should inform the reader of your other significant performing experience.You will be asked to submit the short version of your biography (a single paragraph) for most programs in which you are a member of an ensemble. Stay tuned for part two of this article in the April issue, when I'll continue with a discussion about information you will typically consider including in a medium-length biography.Derek Mithaug is Juilliard's director of career development and an alumnus of the School.
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