Hello. I am a rising senior at a liberal arts college majoring in music and French. I am planning to apply to music theory phds this fall. I am just seeking some guidance on what schools to apply to, what I should be doing to prepare, my chances of getting into top programs, etc. I am of course talking with my advisor on all these things but the more viewpoints the better I guess. I will probably only go if I get into a top program, since I plan to become a prof.
I am mostly interested in post-tonal theories, esp. Neo-Riemannian theory, transformational theory, and broadly, 20th-century music. I understand UChicago, Yale, and CUNY are good places for these fields so they’re my top 3 right now. I am also a pianist and composer, and I would love to attend a school that allows music theorists to engage with other disciplines in music (performance, composition, history etc). For example UChicago grad school makes their students minor in a secondary field.
My liberal arts college is in the “top 20 according to USNEWS”, and though a small music program, has placed students in the last decade in Yale for a variety of fields. It’s otherwise in the top dozen or so schools for PhD productivity (Just typing this out to make me feel safer). My overall gpa is about 3.8, my music gpa is 3.9. By the time I apply I’ll have taken one year of theory (here we shove 3 semesters into 2), one year of western music history, seminars in counterpoint and in orchestration, and 4 semesters of composition. I also take piano lessons and will be doing a piano recital that demonstrates strong command of 20th century repertoire.
A 20-minute presnetation I gave on a 20-page research paper for music history won an in-house award for “Best music research”. My prof has told me its very much original work, and I’ll be using this for apps that request writing samples. It is much more musicological rather than theoretical, though is pertinent to my primary research interest (early 20th century Russian music).
I will also be doing a guided reading project this fall to produce an analytical paper applying something like NR theory, set theory, transformational theory etc. on some piece of music that has not yet been studied using these means. (The idea is still in its infancy, and if you have any tips on how to guide this project that would be much appreciated as well). This paper will also be used for grad school apps; it is obviously much more theory based. Though It seems unlikely anything will get published by the time I apply but I may present this at a conference.
If it matters, I’ve also won competitive awards for piano performance and composition, and am almost fluent in French (I could give a conference talk in French). I’ve also been a tutor for music theory I and II.
Do you think I will have a strong enough resume to get into a top theory phd program? I have very strong interests in composition as well, and I will also be applying to composition masters that offer TAs, and a fulbright. I just can’t pay any money for any of this is the thing.
Thank you!