<p>Well, my three kids all have had music teachers with double masters in music who barely squeeked by on 3-5 part time jobs including performance and teaching at the conservatory. They realize how hard it is to get employment in the music field and how competitive performance jobs can be. Despite that fact, my daughter participated in a month long full time music program this summer and now wants to go in to ethnomusicology. It was actually her second summer doing African drumming along with Gamelan but I think the variety of world music she was playing on the violin that turned her on.<br>
She loves chamber music and orchestra but is not the best of the best so I don't know if she would get a position if she decided on perfomance. My question is if someone can actually make a living in ethnomusicology? Would you need a graduate degree? What schools excell in the field? Wouldn't it be best to double major with another marketable major?
thanks</p>
<p>Ethnomusicology majors, in the real world, are pretty much confined to academia. Sure, in theory, they might go on to field reserach, or live abroad, or even perform. But in terms of long term careers, realistically college teaching is the only job available. Evem then, it’s a competitive market - as with all jobs in acadmia.</p>
<p>And that means, yes, most ethnomusicologists do indeed hold MAs and PhDs. The number of programs offering it at an undergrad level are actually relatively rare.</p>
<p>UCLA probably has the best ethnomusciology program in the country. Many of the graduate students in ethnomusciology have undergrad degrees in other areas. My professor for ethnomusciology, Professor Helen Rees (with a speciality in chinese music) did her undergraduate degree in teaching, master’s early performance, and a master’s and PhD in ethnomusciology. My music theory had a undergarduate degree in composition, master’s in ethno and is now a PhD student in ethno. My ethno TA was an oboe performance major before pursuing ethno</p>
<p>Here’s one perspective <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/710146-agony-musicology-phd.html?highlight=agony[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/710146-agony-musicology-phd.html?highlight=agony</a></p>
<p>The poster cathymee has a d pursuing a PhD in musicology. You might want to look for past posts under that username, or pm her directly for some insights.</p>
<p>Penn, UC-Berkeley and Wesleyan also have top ethnomusicology programs. Getting into a musicology/ethno grad program just requires an undergraduate music major, not in any specific area of music. Jobs in ethnomusicology are all pretty much academic and require a Ph.D. It helps to have a secondary area of interest and ability but one is not always necessary to get a job. The good news is that ethnomusicology is considered kind of “hot” right now. Two musicology grad students I know recently told me that there were no jobs to apply for in their fields last year - all the job openings were in ethnomusicology.</p>
<p>Wesleyan has wonderful world music offerings.
Ethnomusicology might be “hot” right now, but that’s like saying oboe was hot three years ago when the orchestras of NY, Chicago, Cleveland all had principal openings. I.E. surely way way way better than nothing, but still way too small of a sample size and still too selective to deduce anything and count on being able to get a job. And besides, it’s probably not even relevant since someone who decides to study ethnomusicology right now would be still 7-8 years away realistically from entering the job market - which can definitely shift strongly by that time.</p>
<p>There are about 2 or 3 dozen schools that offer ethno PhDs, compared to probably several hundreds that offer musicology. The good thing for ethnomusicologists is that there will not be as many graduates to compete with jobs for. The bad thing, is that there are only a few dozen places in the country that can offer jobs - and this is such a distinct and specialized field that is not exactly expected to grow (compared to say, sound design or whatever). I mean…you can’t expect the world to suddenly invent more folk cultures for you to study and teach!</p>