should professors with DMA degrees be addressed as “Dr. _____” ? (fill in the black with the last name)
I find some of them to prefer just Mr. ___ or Ms. , while others insist on being called Dr. _. It also depends on the location or purpose of the meetings. (in private or master classes, during recitals or other performances, chance meeting at airports or grocery stores… etc)
Then I also have heard from non-music doctors(PhDs or medical doctors) who insist that DMA “doctors” are not real doctors… of course, there are also medical doctors with actual doctorate degrees in medicine who don’t consider regular “doctor”(medical doctors) to be “doctors” in the academic sense…
so what’s the consensus here? should DMA doctors be referred to as “Dr. ______” ?
Don’t know about DMA, but many of the PhD holders I know prefer to not use the term doctor outside of a professional setting. But as @goldenface suggests, you should always use the most formal title and wait for a response if another honorific is preferred.
Any PhD who thinks the the work involved in obtaining a DMA is less than he/she put in for the PhD is being snobbish and catty, in my (rather informed!) opinion. Just because a work load is different doesn’t mean that it’s of lesser importance or easier.
As for how to address a professor with a terminal degree, it’s “Doctor” until/unless they tell you otherwise.
I would love to have one of them try a DMA program in music theory and then come back and tell me it isn’t ‘real’, or the work into a DMA in performance, involves elements they couldn’t deal with:).
If they are a professor at a school, you also could substitute “professor” for “Doctor”, I have not met a teacher yet, all with Phd’s and other doctoral degrees, who responded negatively to that title.
The impression I have from my son is that ALL faculty are “Professor ” to start with until or unless instructed otherwise. This applies even if they’re not tenured, are assistant professors or even adjunct instructors; if they’re in a teaching role, you start with the “professor” title.
That said, there are a few people who are known as “Dr. ”. They tend to be very specific people, probably key in the organization, and everybody sort of knows to call and introduce them as “Dr.” If you look on the staff/faculty listings, bios, etc., you’ll find that the Dr. title is used. Bio’s are a good place to glean this info.
I very much dislike the idea that PhDs are a real doctorate while DMAs supposedly are not. Obviously the research requirements for a PhD are considerably greater than that of a DMA, but I also know people with PhDs in musicology, etc who effectively are not proficient on any instrument. The distribution of the work is different among any kind of doctorate, whether it’s PhD, DMA, EdD, MD, whatever. The only kind of “doctorate” I know where people don’t use the term “Dr.” is a JD. My parents are both lawyers (and inevitably, so are all of their friends), and I’ve never heard an attorney describe themselves as Dr. Such and Such.
@musicedguy:
I had a teacher in grad school who was a Harvard JD, and he said someone with a JD would never want to be called doctor after having been on either side of malpractice suits and dealing with doctors as clients…funny a Phd would get their nose bent out of joint about a DMA being called doctor, when MD’s used to refer to Phds as “Phony Doctors”.
DMA’s in academic music require a lot of research and thought, my son did a minor in music theory that included a thesis and that was no small amount of research, at the DMA level music theory and the like are just as intense as other Phd’s (I would make an exception for a science/tech/math Phd, I think that may be the most rigorous level), but a Phd in history isn’t going to be that much different than a DMA in music theory. A performance DMA from what I know if it isn’t just extended playing, it requires a lot of research as well from what I recall.
It had the following conclusion:
Although the term doctoral is often used only in conjunction with the PhD, a variety of doctoral programs exist to prepare students for careers in specific fields. The PhD is conferred upon students who achieve research excellence in many fields, but specific doctoral programs have been created for training professionals in areas like medicine, law, education, psychology and business administration.
@compmom That was exactly my point. The distribution of work is different as it accords to the area of study. Although, piano proficiency is actually fairly necessary for anyone with a PhD in composition/theory since they have to teach theory and aural skills courses if they go into academia, which is their main path. I even had a music history professor in college who played piano to help analyze scores in class.
@musicprnt I wasn’t aware that there was such thing as a DMA in music theory. Surely a cognate in music theory with the main focus being a different music area, but I’ve never even heard of a DMA with a music theory major.
Always go with the higher title. They will let you know how they want to be addressed.
As to the PhD’s not thinking the DMA is real. That’s ridiculous. I have a science PhD and I teach with professors with the DMA. I respect all of them.
