Graduate Studies

Welcome to Graduate Studies at the Eastman School of Music!  Whether you are a current master’s or doctoral student, or planning to apply for a graduate degree in the future, you will find that our school is dedicated to the highest levels of artistry, scholarship, and leadership, to the broad education of musicians within the context of a university, and to the musical enrichment and education of the greater community.  Eastman is an institution where performance and research mutually inform and enhance each other, and where we train the musical artists, scholars, teachers, and leaders of tomorrow.  Rated the “hottest music school” in the 2008 Kaplan/Newsweek college guide, Eastman’s graduate programs were ranked #1 in the last survey of music schools conducted by U. S. News & World Report.  In the 2010 Research Doctoral Study conducted by the National Research Council, our PhD programs in Musicology and in Music Theory ranked on a level with PhD programs in those fields at some of the nation’s most prestigious research universities and were reviewed especially favorably with respect to faculty productivity (as measured by research and publications).

In addition to their artistry, scholarship, and original creative work, Eastman’s professors are committed pedagogues, educating and mentoring talented students who develop into musical leaders of the future.  As a result of our rigorous curriculum as well as the myriad teaching opportunities our graduate students receive while here in residence, the employment record for our doctoral students in particular is outstanding.  Please consult our Alumni Gallery for further details on where some of our graduate alumni are currently employed.  For a list of our PhD alumni serving in the most highly regarded institutions in the country, please consult the University of Rochester Graduate Studies website.

Students at Eastman have access to rich educational resources, including our full-time resident faculty, beautiful performance halls (including a new state-of the-art recital hall), the incomparable Sibley Music Library, professional-level recording facilities, and the full resources of the University of Rochester.  In the short video available on this site, you can hear what current graduate students and recent alumni have to say about their educational experiences at Eastman.  They will tell you about their numerous performance opportunities—as soloists and as members of large ensembles and smaller chamber groups, on the Eastman and University campuses, within the city of Rochester and beyond—as well as the cross-disciplinary and performance-based research opportunities that are available.  They will also tell you about a culture of diversity, tolerance, and support that permeates our school.

Currently approximately 350 graduate students are studying in residence; of these, nearly 90% receive financial aid in the form of a graduate award.  Eastman grants roughly 5 million dollars each year in tuition scholarships and stipends to meritorious graduate students.  In addition to institutional support, a number of our students win competitions and receive funding from other outside sources.  For further information on applying to a graduate program at the Eastman School of Music, click here.

Meliora!

Marie Rolf, PhD
Associate Dean of Graduate Studies
Eastman School of Music
University of Rochester