PhD in Ethnomusicology

[heteronomy]

Hi, all — I'm interested in learning about the experience of people who've applied to PhD programs, especially in ethnomusicology (whether you were successful or not ).

I'm currently in a master's program in composition (graduating in 2016) at a top-tier conservatory, but with rather weak academic offerings... but, I do have a solid social sciences background with plenty of research and some ethnography experience, and significant world music performance experience, if that counts. All my potential LOR writers are from my undergrad though, and I'm concerned whether that will be taken against me. I will also most likely take a year off of school so I can prepare my applications more thoroughly; but I'm worried that will be viewed as 'wasting my time,' on top of the time I've already spent in composition. Am I worrying too much?

So, in summary (sort of):

- Anyone out there who got into a PhD program with a performance/composition background? How did manage your application?

- What kind of writing sample did you submit? Was it in ethnomusicology?

- How solid were your research interests when you applied?

Thanks in advance to anyone who replies!

[music]

My experience: I got accepted from a performance undergraduate, without Masters, to Cambridge, Kings London, Chicago, Penn and NYU, waitlisted at Stanford, rejected from Brown.

In my app, I was upfront about my academic training, supplying extra info about what my competencies and course content had been during undergrad, and let my writing samples do the talking. My writing samples were one ethno paper and one theory paper. The former I wrote of my own accord, the latter for a class. My research interests were relatively solid, but I was also told at prospie days that one thing they liked about me was my breadth of interests within ethno - ie that I had a clear idea of where I thought my dissertation would end up, but that I demonstrated open mindedness to other areas. Presumably performance background folks might need to be more open to this than others with a solid history/ethno background. They also liked that I explained why I wanted to go into ethno from performance, and how the two informed one another. FTR I had zero ethnography experience at that time, a very limited understanding of the discipline (being from a country where it's barely known or practiced), and no world music performance experience. I applied to places where that wouldn't be a problem, ie where world music performance is not emphasized so much as the anthro side of ethnomusicology, and to places that required or strongly encouraged grad students to have some expertise in Western art music.

Turns out the majority of my fellow Ethnos at my grad school had similar experiences, many were Western classical performers in past lives, and many of the faculty are active performers in various contexts. So look closely at the institutions where you're applying to see what they want. I'm sure certain other schools would have discarded my app without a second thought, but I applied only to places where I knew my background wouldn't work against me.

Edited August 25, 2015 by music

[heteronomy]

Thanks for your response, music. It must have been thrilling to be accepted to -- and painful to have to choose among -- all those programs!

That relieves me a little, knowing that there isn't a single perfect background for doing work in ethno...

I'm curious about the ethno writing sample you submitted without a prior background in the field. I wonder if you would you be willing to share it with me?

[music]

You've got mail.

[kccur]

Definitely worrying too much It's pretty common for people to take a year off to apply, to have been doing performance or composition before applying to academic tracks, and to have LORs from undergrad professors. The "non-traditional" applicant profile (i.e., anything other than applying right out of some sort of related-field undergrad or masters program) is maybe even more common than "traditional" profiles for ethno programs. That you already have both anthropology/ethnography research experience and performance experience will also be great. As for research interests, I think it's usually good to express a general idea of the subject areas you're interested in (probably particularly for ethno and field/archive research-heavy veins of musicology) but don't feel like you need to pretend that you know exactly what you want to do.

I'm no ethnomusicologist, but it basically sounds like you have the sort of background that programs are looking for.