Office of the Registrar - Eastman School of Music

Found In: Graduate Professional Curricula (MM, DMA)

06.03.10 DMA - Major in Conducting

Emphasis: Conducting majors will declare an emphasis for their studies in one of the following areas: literature and performance of (1) instrumental music or (2) choral music, and will concentrate on that specialization. A substantial portion of time also will be devoted to conducting in areas other than one's principal repertoire. A feature of the conducting program is regular tutorial sessions, given in conjunction with a significant amount of contact hours with the School's ensembles.

Residency: For conducting majors, two years beyond the master's degree must be in full-time residence. Please see (Residency).

Foreign Language: The student should have foreign language proficiency equivalent to two years of undergraduate study in French, Italian, or German. The degree of proficiency will be tested by written entrance examination, administered by the conducting faculty in the form of a translation. If the necessary degree of proficiency is not reached, a language will be a mandatory part of the student's curriculum until it is reached. In this case, the student will be required to pass a normal final examination or complete an undergraduate sophomore level language class with a grade of B or higher.

Comprehensive Examinations: Required. Please see (Comprehensive Examinations - DMA) for further information.

Final Project : Candidates majoring in conducting to complete a final project, which normally consists of the following components:

1. Doctoral Essay - a research paper dealing with selected repertoire. The student should register for six credits of CND 596 (DMA Dissertation Project). A proposal for the research paper for conducting majors must be approved by the Graduate Professional Committee along with the student's program of study, and may be co-advised by a faculty member of the conducting and ensembles department as well as a faculty member in musicology, music education, or music theory. In any case, at least one reader from outside the department will serve on the three-member reading committee that grants approval of the final research paper. Ordinarily, the dissertation must be written in residence. In any case, it must be written under the supervision of the candidate's advisor. Two copies of the dissertation are to be presented for permanent deposit in the Sibley Music Library of the Eastman School of Music, and a third copy is to be presented to the major department. The candidate should prepare an additional copy for personal use.
2. One or more public performances of the selected repertoire in the candidate's field of emphasis. A level of professional proficiency is expected. Performances must be scheduled at least two months after the reading committee has approved the student's doctoral essay
3. Lecture recital - to be given in a rehearsal at least two weeks before the performance described above. The student will register for ESM 503 (Doctoral Lecture Recital) during the semester that the lecture recital is presented. DMA students majoring in conducting will follow the same lecture-recital procedures as DMA-PRL students. They will choose two faculty advisors from their doctoral essay committee to serve on their lecture-recital committee; the third member will be appointed by the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies after a formal lecture-recital proposal is submitted to the Graduate Studies office. See (Lecture Recital - DMA) for further information.

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