Performance Practice

The Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance Practice at Cornell is a specialized advanced degree designed for professional caliber performers who wish to combine the performance of specific repertories with research, teaching, and writing about those repertories. Students are expected to take full advantage of Cornell University’s community of practicing musicians and scholars, working closely with musicologists, composers and fellow students to combine skills gained from lessons, practicing, and performing with knowledge and insights gathered from library research and seminar work. All students are admitted with three full years of funding in the form of one year of fellowship and two years of teaching assistantships.

The program is highly competitive, admitting only one or two new students each year, ordinarily only to study with performers on the professorial faculty. At present the D.M.A in performance practice is offered in keyboard music of the 17th-21st centuries and in choral conducting. Keyboard music is divided into areas of specialization, such as early keyboard performance (fortepiano, organ, harpsichord, clavichord), organ and modern piano. The first two semesters of residence must be consecutive within a single academic year. The remainder of the residence requirements may be fulfilled in non-consecutive semesters; this permits the alternation of on-campus study with pursuit of a professional career.

The only formal requirement for courses is to pass four seminars numbered 6000 and above in Theory, Musicology, or Ethnomusicology (excluding ensembles, and performance lessons). In addition, students will take lessons with their major teachers each semester. Students must appear in at least one formal concert each semester in residence. Two formal recitals are required: the first is an hour-long lecture-recital, explaining and interpreting one or more works, movements of a work, or a broader repertory, from historical, theoretical, or aesthetic points of view; the second is full-length D.M.A recital, given during or within three years of the final term of residence, and demonstrating high professional standards in a manner appropriate to the student’s period or repertory.

For more information about language exams, qualifying exams, and graduation requirements, see the D.M.A in Performance Practice Guide (PDF).