The mission of the Mead Witter School of Music is:
- to provide a rich, integrated program of undergraduate and graduate education that promotes the highest levels of professional, creative, and scholarly development while challenging students to achieve their greatest potential;
- to cultivate an environment that inspires creativity, stimulates intellectual curiosity, and fosters critical thinking; and
- to serve the university community, the public, and the profession through performance, composition, scholarship, music education, outreach, and engagement.
The Mead Witter School of Music enriches students' educational experience by hosting guest artists and scholars for master classes, recitals, colloquia, seminars, and festivals. Its performing organizations and ensembles perform more than 350 recitals and concerts every year, making a significant contribution to the cultural life of the university and the wider Madison community.
Degrees and Majors
The Ph.D. in music, a research degree, is offered in the two areas of historical musicology and music theory.
Ph.D. degrees require significant work beyond the master's degree, including the extensive independent work described above. Each degree track varies slightly. See the Course Lists available through the Requirements tab for details on each track. Contact the Mead Witter School of Music graduate office, [email protected], for further information about the Ph.D. music degree.
The Ph.D.music program is suited to students who have proven their scholarly discipline, motivation, and ability to write fluently and cogently in the historical musicology or music theory fields. The principal outcome of the program is a dissertation that makes a significant contribution to the relevant major field. A minor field of study, required of all Ph.D.music students, assures breadth in a field of study outside the major specialty. Proficiency in foreign languages supports research in the major field.
Each Ph.D. student benefits from the mentorship of multiple faculty members, whether from the students own specialty or from other areas of scholarship or performance. An advisor is assigned upon the students entering the program, and the musicology or music theory area faculty, as appropriate, participate in the preliminary examinations. The dissertation committee is designated with the students particular research interests in mind. Through their guidance and support of the student through the degree program, faculty members offer multiple perspectives on the student's performance and research.
A summary of important information on academic policies for the Ph.D. program is available through the Policies tab. Complete information is available in the Mead Witter School of Music Graduate Handbook. Since the School of Music offers the Ph.D. program under the aegis of the UWMadison Graduate School, all Ph.D. students also need to be familiar with the UWMadison Graduate School's Academic Policies and Procedures. In addition to the area faculty advisor, academic guidance is available through the director of graduate studies and the graduate office in the Mead Witter School of Music.
The Mosse Humanities Building, built in 1969, houses most of the music classrooms, rehearsal rooms, faculty studios, and 111 practice rooms. Most recitals and concerts take place in one of three performance spaces: Mills Concert Hall, Morphy Recital Hall, and Eastman Organ Recital Hall. The school's extensive collection of instruments, both common and unusual, is available to both faculty and students. Music Hall with its clock tower, built in 1879, is a campus landmark. Renovated in 1985, it is the home of the opera program. The new Hamel Music Center includes a concert hall, a recital hall, and a large ensemble rehearsal space.
Memorial Library is the home of the Mills Music Library, which offers extensive research and circulating collections, attractive study space, and personal staff assistance with research. Music materials on campus number over half a million, ranging from scores and sheet music to archival collections and historic audio recordings. Through Mills Music Library and other UWMadison libraries, students have access to a wide range of online research databases as well as millions of articles, books, and streaming media. All genres of music are represented, with notably strong collections in Americana and ethnic music. Nationally known special collections include the TamsWitmark Collection, a treasury of early American musical theater materials, and the Wisconsin Music Archives.
The Mead Witter School of Music is a member of the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), the national accreditation body for schools of music, and was reaccredited in 2014.