Program Overview

Program Overview

The D.M.A. degree with Piano Performance major prepares students for professional-level piano performance and university teaching. Armed with sufficient knowledge in the literature of the instrument and the discipline of music as a whole, graduates of this program are prepared to teach both undergraduate and graduate students.

Program Details

Program Application Deadline

Applications received and completed, including auditions and interviews, by February 15 will be given priority consideration for admission and graduate assistantship funding.

Program Description

The Master of Music options at Penn State allow you to specialize based on instrument, voice, or ensemble. All require 36 credits. In the Conducting option, you may specialize in band/wind ensemble, choral, or orchestral. In the Performance option, you may specialize in voice, piano, or orchestral instruments. The Pedagogy and Performance option offers specializations in voice and piano. The Composition/Theory option is a stand-alone program.

Degree Requirements

• A comprehensive examination
• Three memorized solo recitals
• Two recitals of chamber music
• A lecture-recital
• Participation in one of the school’s numerous ensembles is also required

Facilities and Resources

• The School of Music’s new recital hall (opened fall 2018), which is equipped with two Hamburg Steinway D grand pianos
• The piano studios and large ensemble rooms have a variety of other large Steinway, Bösendorfer, and Yamaha grands
• The piano laboratory is newly equipped with fully modern Yamaha Clavinovas

Faculty

The piano performance faculty includes distinguished artists and pedagogues whose experiences span national and international stages and universities.

Program Benefits

• You’ll study with distinguished artists and pedagogues with wide-ranging performance and teaching experience
• You’ll get to perform in the School of Music’s beautiful new recital hall, which opened in 2018
• The School of Music sponsors more than 400 public events, many of them free
• Penn State hosts a diverse range of performances featuring artists from around the world
• You may enter the Penn State Philharmonic Orchestra’s annual student concerto competitions

College Overview

The College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State is committed to artistic and scholarly creativity, research, and the preparation of specialized practitioners in all of the arts and design disciplines, including:

• Architecture
• Art History
• Graphic Design
• Landscape Architecture
• Music
• Theatre
• Visual Arts

Program Suitability

This program is for individuals interested in continuing their studies in piano performance and music theory, history, and analysis in order to teach at the university level.