Which schools should one consider for DMA (violin)?

musicprnt
Wed, 17 Feb 2016 16:25:33 +0000

The DMA has become a way to stay in school longer and polish things, the real question to ask is it worth it? For one thing, from what I have been led to belief, the fully funded DMA, where the person gets a stipend and tuition paid for, is more and more a thing of the past. The old statement about grad studies in performance were if you had to pay for it, it meant you weren’t good enough, but these days that is no longer true, grad programs basically are getting to the point where full ride is rare from what I know (doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, just means it is not as common.

It could be that like with academics, teaching at a college level will eventually require a DMA, but right now that is not a rule, and if you look at faculty on teaching staffs DMA’s are relatively few. It certainly wouldn’t hurt IMO, but in general teachers generally are hired because of their background and also in more than a few cases, via networking, someone recommends someone. The real question here (and I have no answers for it, just throwing it out), is it better to spend the time getting a DMA, or spend that time out building up credentials as a performer/teacher? I don’t think tight now there are any hard and fast rules with that.