Doctor of Philosophy in Music Composition

Performed in over 450 venues worldwide, our composition faculty write in a wide range of styles and idioms, but share a reluctance to impose their own stylistic predilections on students. Even in the days when circumscribed notions of academic music were most in force, faculty composers never espoused dogma, and invite for admission students along a broad range of the stylistic spectrum. They share a belief in solid grounding in both traditional theory and in the newest musical technologies, and emphasize collaborative relationships with performers. The department prides itself on the close relationship between student composers are our large graduate performing body. The tradition of new music championship runs deep in the department, which encourages performers, composers, and historians to interact in integral ways. In the first year of study, PhD students are assigned a faculty directing committee, with whom they create their own curriculum by drawing up a doctoral contract The contract lists courses to be taken and projected work (compositions or research papers). Prior to advancing to candidacy (normally after two or three years in the program), historytheory candidates take an oral exam in their field of specialization, and present a prospectus for their thesis. For composers, the thesis is an extended composition.