Which schools should one consider for DMA (violin)?

musicprnt
Fri, 19 Feb 2016 19:57:38 +0000

My comments about DMA’s were in response to someone else, who I happened to agree with, about the value of a DMA, Stacjip rightfully said a candidate for a DMA needs to ask themselves why they were doing it, and I agreed with that, and said why I did, that for example, there are misconceptions that somehow an advanced degree will get you performance or teaching jobs, it won’t, and the other misconception is that getting a DMA will take someone whose skills are weak and make them into a superstar, it likely won’t…like I said, it depends on why they want a DMA, if they are doing so because they fell it will drive them forward, that is fine.

In terms of performance, I would argue that it is no different than undergrad, it is about the teacher you will study with and the program. The big conservatories are one place, though they may be difficult with the financing, Yale school of music still can be done with a stipend and so forth (and is a great program), USC has a great strings program and offers a DMA, U of Michigan, Rice offers a DMA that they say is free.These are all high level programs with excellent teachers, and the key to me is that if you seriously are looking at a DMA in performance, you should have the ability to get into a high level program like this, they are all tough admits, but if you want to be a top level teacher/performer, these are the kind of programs I would recommend.