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Ph.D. Emphasis in Choral Pedagogy: General Information
Students pursuing the Ph.D. emphasis in choral pedagogy typically enter with significant background and experiences in conducting choral ensembles and teaching choral music,
along with a curiosity about advancing the profession's knowledge base and practices in these endeavors. Most entering students typically have earned a master's degree from an
accredited university in music education, choral conducting, or vocal performance. Among their career goals are (a) college or university teaching, either as choral conductors,
professors of choral pedagogy, professors of music education, or a combination of the three; (b) leadership positions in a variety of community, civic, or church/synagogue choral singing
contexts, including those focusing upon such specific populations as children, adolescents, adults, senior citizens, incarcerated or hospitalized persons, and choruses of persons who
identify themselves as gay, lesbian, or transgendered; (c) music teachers or fine arts administrators in public or private schools; (d) directors or researchers affiliated with private
or public foundations and research institutes; or (e) careers as self-employed choral conductors or choral music clinicians who possess deep knowledge of vocal anatomy, physiology,
acoustics of the singing voice, choir acoustics, and lifespan vocal development, along with evidence-based understandings of effective teaching and learning strategies in a variety of
contexts.
Choral singing phenomena and behaviors may be studied through various lenses and by means of an array of investigative methodologies, including historical, philosophical,
quantitative and qualitative research orientations. Our doctoral students are expected to gain facility in research methods and to demonstrate such by producing, prior to the
dissertation, a series of three doctoral projects deemed of sufficient quality to be published in a refereed journal. Students holding master's degrees that did not require a
research-based thesis comparable to that expected of our own master's degree graduates may be advised to undertake and complete a faculty-mentored research project prior to or
during the aspirancy semester to demonstrate equivalent skills.
Admission to the Ph.D. program is provisional, pending passing of an aspirancy examination near the end of the first semester of fulltime study. Aspirants who pass that examination
then become fully-admitted doctoral students. At that time, in consultation with a chosen advisor and program-planning committee, doctoral students plan their entire doctoral program,
including course requirements and residency.
Ph.D. students pursuing a Choral Pedagogy emphasis, in consultation with their advisor and program-planning committee, may elect coursework and practica geared both to their particular
academic and career goals and the meeting of overall requirements of the Ph.D. degree, from the wide range of possibilities available at a major research university, including work within
the Division of Music Education and Music Therapy, the Choral Division, the Voice Division, the Department of Music & Dance, the Department of Speech-Language-Hearing, other schools and
colleges of the University, and off campus study such as that offered by the National Center for Voice and Speech, the Voice Care Network, and the Voice Foundation. In addition,
individually designed independent study and individual research hours are both possible and encouraged.
A vibrant summer session also affords opportunity to undertake coursework and/or independent study and individual research. If desired, students may use the summer session in
addition to a contiguous spring or fall semester to satisfy the fulltime residency requirement.
Students applying for the Ph.D. program may also apply for Graduate Teaching Assistantships and University Fellowships. Please note the deadlines for these various applications.
Assistantships and fellowships typically are awarded for a regular academic year (fall-spring semesters); they are not available for summer study.
For more specific information about the Ph.D. emphasis in choral pedagogy, please follow the hyperlinks to the left. Should you have further questions,
please contact Dr. James F. Daugherty, Associate Professor of Choral and Vocal Pedagogy and Director of Graduate Studies (jdaugher at ku.edu).
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