Music (MUSA)

Graduate Degree Program
College: Arts and Humanities

Abstract

The School of Music offers programs of study leading to the Master of Arts degree with areas of specialization in ethnomusicology, music history and literature (musicology), music education, and music theory; the Master of Music degree with areas in performance, composition, conducting, and music education; the Doctor of Philosophy degree with areas of specialization in ethnomusicology, musicology, music education, and music theory; and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree with areas of specialization in composition, performance, and conducting.

Financial Assistance

A number of competitive fellowships, graduate assistantships, teaching assistantships, opera assistantships, and orchestral assistantships are available. Preference for financial assistance will be given to those who have filed an application for admission to the University and the School of Music Supplemental Application by December 1 (for performance programs) and January 15 (for Music Education only) and have been officially admitted.

Contact

Office of Music Admissions
2110 Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
8115 Alumni Drive
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
Telephone: 301.405.8435
Fax: 301.314.9504
Email: musicadmissions@umd.edu

Website: http://www.music.umd.edu

Courses: MUED MUSC MUSP

General Requirements

• Statement of Purpose and Letters of Recommendation: A statement of purpose and three letters of recommendation will be required.
• Transcript(s)
• TOEFL/IELTS/PTE (international graduate students) 

Program-Specific Requirements

• School of Music Application

Admission to the graduate degree programs in music is highly selective. It is determined primarily by a performance audition, tapes and scores of original compositions, scholarly research papers, letters of recommendation, and/or successful teaching experience; additionally, in some academic areas, the general GRE scores are considered. All non-native English-speaking students must achieve a score of 575/233/100 on the TOEFL to be invited for audition/admission (see the School of Music's admission website for detailed English language requirements).
 
We require a passing TOEFL score (minimum 100 IBT, 233 CBT, 575 PBT) for all applicants whose primary language is not English before we will process your application or consider you for a live audition. The requirement will be waived for applicants who have earned an undergraduate degree from an institution in the United States or another approved English-speaking country. Waivers will only be granted if at least three years of the undergraduate education or at least two years of the graduate education in a non-performance related field took place at an English-speaking institution. Graduate degrees in performance-related fields or performance certificates or diplomas will not exempt an applicant from submitting a passing TOEFL score.

APPLICATION DEADLINES

RESOURCES AND LINKS:

Program Website: http://www.music.umd.edu
Application Process: gradschool.umd.edu/admissions

With approximately 300 public performances each year—including student recitals and more than thirty ensembles—School of Music students have robust performance opportunities The School of Music also hosts numerous guest clinicians each year and presents the Renegade Series, which brings to campus some of the most visionary artists in our field. As one of the nation’s leading public research universities, the University of Maryland provides a wealth of opportunities to learn from and collaborate with scholars in a variety of disciplines. The School of Music makes its home in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, which serves as an inter-disciplinary laboratory for the arts. The building’s six performance halls, the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library, specialized rehearsal rooms, and classrooms provide students with all the resources needed to become twenty-first century artist-citizens. The Clarice’s presenting arm provides School of Music students with the opportunity to collaborate and learn from internationally recognized artists and scholars. Recent artists-in-residence have included the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the Cappella Pratensis, Etienne Charles, Tine Thing Helseth, Jeremy Denk, and Dawn Upshaw. The Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library (MSPAL) ranks among the top twenty university music libraries in the United States, and it offers a variety of archives, special collections, and other research resources that give it international stature among scholars in a broad spectrum of music disciplines. The total music collection includes approximately 50,000 books, 150,000 scores, 140,000 recordings, and 4,500 linear feet of archival materials. The International Piano Archives at Maryland (IPAM) is the only institutional collection in existence devoted to historic piano performance. IPAM contains 40,000 recordings, 8,500 music scores, 2,500 books, and a collection of reproducing pianos with 8,000 piano rolls. To date, IPAM has acquired the collections of more than 40 eminent pianists. The MSPAL Special Collections in Performing Arts embrace a growing number of national and international music organization archives representing music education, band history, solo and ensemble instrumental performance, music librarianship, and ethnomusicology. Materials in these archives include papers, music scores, recordings, books, magazines, photographs, and oral histories. MSPAL also features important archival and manuscript collections on music criticism and American music, the Charles Fowler Papers supporting the study of arts education, a significant Leopold Stokowski Collection, the Jacob Coopersmith Collection of Handeliana, the Radio Station WOR/Alfred Wallen stein Collection of 26,000 orchestral scores, and the performance parts of the Andre Kostelanetz Orchestra. 

The surrounding DC-Baltimore region offers a host of community engagement opportunities. Our students can often be seen performing at major venues such as The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Strathmore Hall and the Phillips Collection. We also present at intimate community spaces such as Riversdale Mansion and the historical Greenbelt Theatre. Within a few miles of our home in College Park are research opportunities offered by Dumbarton Oaks, the Enoch Pratt Free Library of Baltimore, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the Smithsonian Institution, and many other specialized libraries.