MMA/DMA

Contact: research@gsmd.ac.uk

The MMA/DMA degree is run jointly by the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and City University, London with the final degree award made by City University, London. This is the first collaboration of its kind between a top-rated University Music Department and an internationally renowned Conservatoire.

The MMA/DMA programme aims to combine performance at a professional level with research on an aspect of performance. It is intended for performers who have a professional career underway and who are performing regularly in public, or for performers who are advanced practitioners (tutors and music college professors, for example).

The research should relate some aspect of performance to scholarly work which will enhance and deepen knowledge and understanding of the field. Submission for the degree comprises an integrated combination of thesis and performance: recital content should relate to furthering the aims of the research. Recent research has included work on virtuoso violinists' interpretations preserved in early recordings, and on the concepts of pianistic interpretation and pedagogy.

Initially students are registered for the MMA degree. Transfer to the DMA status occurs once good progress has been made on the initial stages of the research; this can take place at the end of the first year of full-time study, or later. The work completed at the time of transfer contributes to form the basis of the DMA.

The DMA will normally be completed after three years of full-time research (five years part-time), followed by a one-year period of 'writing-up' during which the final preparation of the thesis takes place. Students intending to complete the MMA only will normally carry out two years of full-time research (or three years part-time), plus the one-year period of 'writing-up'.

Applications for this programme only are made to City University, London.