Organ

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Doctor of Musical Arts in Organ

Major code: D724

Concentrations

Standard - R479 (PDF)Church Music - R114 (PDF)

Required Proficiencies

This degree requires the following proficiencies.

Music Theory

Contacts

Dr. Damin Spritzer

Associate Professor of Organ
Area Chair

Dr. Stephen Wurst

Interim Lecturer of Organ

Application Deadline

To receive full consideration for admission and graduate assistantships, the application deadline is December 1. The School of Music cannot guarantee an audition, interview, admission, or graduate assistantship if application is received after the deadline.

Residency Requirement

Per Graduate College policy 8.2.1.1, "The student must be in residence at OU for at least two consecutive 16-week semesters during the pursuit of the doctoral degree while enrolled and engaged in coursework or research activities as prescribed by the major academic unit."

Assistantships

There is no separate application for assistantship. Unless the applicant indicates otherwise, we assume that all applicants are interested in being considered for assistantships. Please note that assistantships are usually awarded for the Fall and Spring semesters together. We very seldom have assistantships available for anyone entering in a Spring semester. We do not award assistantships for Summer sessions.

Procedure for Applying

Submit the online application (see Graduate Admissions page) and all materials described below. After submitting the online application, applicants who pass prescreening will work with the organ faculty to schedule an audition. More details about the audition can be found at the bottom of this page.

Application materials required for all graduate degrees

These items must be submitted to the online graduate application system.

Resume
- Submitted to the online application under the Resume tab.
Statement of Purpose
- Submitted to the online application under the Statement of Purpose tab
- Please compose a brief personal statement (approximately 2–3 pages of double-spaced, 12-point font text with 1-inch margins) regarding your desire to pursue a graduate degree in music. Include responses to the following prompts:
  1. How would you describe your professional path to this point?
  2. Why do you want to pursue this degree at OU?
  3. How do you want to grow musically, artistically, pedagogically, and/or intellectually during your graduate studies?
  4. What skills, expertise, and experiences do you bring to graduate study at OU?
  5. Describe your post-degree plans (i.e., How will you apply your newly acquired academic knowledge and expertise?).
Three letters of reference
- Submitted to the online application under Recommendations tab
- Your three reference letters should include:
  - At least one letter from: your studio professor, ensemble conductor, chamber coach, etc., or a person who has considerable knowledge about your abilities as a performer or composer.
  - At least one letter from: a person who can speak to your abilities as a scholar of music.

Scholarly writing requirement

This degree requires you to submit a sample of your scholarly writing.

Submitted to the online application under the Supporting Documents tab
The guidelines for this writing sample are as follows:
1. Should represent your best writing and researching skills.
2. Preferably not more than 3 years old; should be recently revised. If you do not have a recent scholarly writing sample on hand, we ask that you compose something original.
3. Adhere to a consistent method of formatting and citations (e.g., Chicago, MLA, Turabian, APA) and include a bibliography/reference list.
4. A minimum of 5 pages of double-spaced, 12-point font text (not counting bibliography) with typical 1-inch margins.
5. Ensure your writing sample is representative of the field. Consider presenting a complete argument supporting a clear thesis, perhaps methodological in nature for empirical research, or other format reflective of various academic areas in music.
6. Please contact the Graduate Music Office (gradmusic@ou.edu) or the area chair for your program with any questions about meeting these requirements.

Prescreening Requirements

The following prescreening items must be submitted by December 1 to the online application under Digital Portfolio > Upload Media. You can upload files or submit links to online videos and documents in this section.

A repertoire list of significant solo, ensemble, and choral repertoire studied and performed to date.
Performance videos of at least 30 minutes of music representing contrasting styles. Performance videos may be edited between selections but no edits are permitted within a piece. See the audition requirements at the bottom of the page for guidelines. Recordings may be submitted in video format.

Audition

After submitting the online application and all materials described above, applicants who pass prescreening will work with organ faculty to schedule a live, on-campus audition. Recordings may be submitted for preliminary consideration, but they will not take the place of the live audition. Audio or video files or links to online recordings may be submitted to the online application under Digital Portfolio > Upload Media.

Auditions will include:

Up to 30 minutes of prepared music, demonstrating contrasting styles such as Baroque, Romantic, and/or 20th c. repertoire. Playing from memory is encouraged but not required. Applicants who do not include a prepared hymn with their audition repertoire will be asked to play a hymn of their choice during their audition. Ample time will be given for questions and an interview with the applicants and faculty.

Auditions may also include:

One sight-read piece
One figured bass exercise
One transposition exercise
One harmonization of a given melody

With the approval of the applied teachers/area chair, a current graduate organ student at OU who plans to apply to the DMA program within twelve months of their planned graduation from the MM may use their degree recital as the DMA audition. The recital must meet DMA audition requirements. In order for a faculty committee to be organized to attend the recital to evaluate it for DMA application purposes, the student must inform all members of the organ area faculty at least one week before the recital.