DMA: Performer-Composer
The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts
Explore and experiment
The ethos of CalArts’ Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) Performer-Composer program is exploratory and experimental through and through. The program is not a double degree in performance and composition, but instead seeks to foster musical artists who holistically combine innovative performance practices with new compositional models. You and your peers will arrive from diverse stylistic origins, but all are driven by artistic visions that can be realized only by a meaningful expansion of the language of music beyond its current boundaries.
Jeonghyeon Joo, DMA graduation recital
Investigate, integrate, innovate
DMA: Performer-Composer
CalArts’ distinctive DMA Performer-Composer program is designed for advanced students who are already accomplished composers and skilled executants who desire to thoroughly integrate these practices in their original work.
Where the wild things play
The composer Morton Feldman used the term “Wild Beast” as a metaphor for the ineffable generative force in art—making it the ideal name for CalArts’ iconic variable-use, indoor-outdoor music pavilion.
As a doctoral student in this challenging program, you will continue integrating your composing and performing practices, undertake rigorous research and creative projects to develop your work further, and become highly skilled as both an innovative professional able to disseminate your work, and potentially a future contributor to higher education in music.
Working closely with your faculty mentor, you will develop an individualized course of study built around composition and performance lessons, doctoral seminars, topic-driven research and explorations, performance projects, and a series of electives. Since DMA students also teach in The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts, you are required to continue developing your pedagogical skills through teaching practicums.
Designed to inspire you as a musician to evolve a practice in which you both create and perform your own work at the highest levels, the program draws upon practical and theoretical skills from music of the past and encourages you to speculate about music of the future. As you make new art, you’ll find the process of its creation is inseparable from its expression in the world. The program offers opportunities for study concentrations such as mastering original systems of improvisation, special methods for notation, nontraditional performance techniques, innovative approaches to interpretation of musical literature, incorporating new music and interactive media technologies, applied intercultural experimentation in music, interdisciplinary performance design, and more.
Students give recitals and other performances centered on original music and develop professional portfolios to highlight their creative accomplishments. In addition to solo performances, you may join or organize ensembles, sometimes with faculty participation, dedicated to exploring emerging musical languages. In keeping with the value CalArts places on interdisciplinary art, the Performer-Composer program also strongly supports opportunities to explore—and link your work with—disciplines beyond music.
Candidates admitted into the DMA program will have previously obtained a master’s degree in music, or in another field along with skills and knowledge that are commensurate with a master’s degree in music.
Meet the faculty
At CalArts, faculty and students are collaborators, teaching, learning, and working together as members of our community of artists.
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School of Music;
Nicholas England Chair in Music;
Assistant Dean for Communication and MarketingImage
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School of Music;
Dean;
Richard Seaver Distinguished Chair in MusicImage
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School of Music;
Co-Director, VoiceArts Program;
Assistant Dean for Research and CommunicationImage
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School of Music;
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Special Projects;
Director, Shared CurriculumImage
Collaborative Performance
Student and Faculty Ensembles
From world music and contemporary jazz to experimental sound art and interdisciplinary collaborations, a dynamic range of ensembles provides unparalleled opportunities to explore diverse genres, push creative boundaries, and perform innovative works with renowned artists and peers.
Improv Percussion Ensemble
Gallery
Sit with Sound: A Conversation with Sarah Belle Reid
Alumni interview
“Both Charlie [Hayden] and Wadada [Leo Smith] … gave me permission to explore,” said performer, composer, and “sonic polyglot” Sarah Belle Reid (DMA 20), discussing her CalArts mentors. “They were both committed to wanting me to follow my own path. Neither cared about the ‘correct’ way to do things like playing the ‘right’ notes. Instead, they wanted me to say something myself, in whatever way it came out.”
Photo by Scott Groller
Want to learn more?
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