Which schools should one consider for DMA (violin)?

musicprnt
Fri, 19 Feb 2016 17:38:37 +0000

Kuan Cheng Lu according to the is according to the NY Phil’s website joined the NY Phil in 2003 and got his dma long after he was playing with them. More importantly, take a look at his background, he studied at Oberlin and then at MSM with Glenn Dictorow, who was the CM of the NY Phil, and I know how Glenn Dictorow is as a teacher, he taught at Juilliard and MSM and only took very high level students, which means Mr. Lu was already at a very high level when he studied with Dictorow (not to mention that Dictorow also being in the Phil as CM, knew exactly what the orchestra was looking for, and could teach him the things needed).

More importantly, he got into the NY Phil without the DMA, so your question is ridiculous, because the DMA had nothing to do with him getting into the Philharmonic. Obviously, he wanted to get a DMA for some personal reason, which is wonderful, but it didn’t have anything with him getting into the Phil, he was playing at a high level when he got in there.

There are people with DMA degrees who get into high level orchestras and ensembles, I don’t doubt it, but I also suspect those were people who all along were high level performers, one of the things to do with any performer is look at their trail, look at who they studied with, what groups they played with, what programs they did, that gives a lot of the answers. Like I said, I don’t dismiss the DMA degree out of hand, and if someone feels they will get something out of it, that is fine, but I also see a lot of people heading to DMA degrees believing that somehow, having that DMA degree alone is gonna open doors in performance, and it won’t. Someone at a company hiring might assume a PHd means the person is the right candidate, with music performance it isn’t about the degree, it is how well you play, that’s all, and a DMA doesn’t guarantee anything, I know someone getting a DMA from the CUNY graduate center Mr. Lu got his degree from, and they are someone I guarantee wouldn’t get into the NY Phil or any high level organization (on the other hand, they are getting the DMA degree because with some programs, if you want to be an administrator, a DMA degree helps there, it is why it is important to understand what a DMA might or might not do for you). It is no different than coming out of Juilliard or Curtis, there are no guarantees. More importantly if doing performance, depends on who you are studying with and the program, if you get into a DMA program with a teacher and at a school that isn’t high enough a level to improve the playing, then the DMA is wasted, there are a lot of places out there offering a DMA on violin where the program is mediocre, so how would that help? Like undergrad and masters programs, depends on the student and their needs and what they want to do.