There are no more than 10 graduate students in residence, the normal distribution being 5 master's and 5 doctoral candidates. Each candidate receives conducting experience with University ensembles, including the top level graduate chorale. Each candidate also receives orchestral conducting experience. A scholarship is regularly offered to selected students to cover the expenses of professional orchestral musicians playing for recitals. The scholarship allows students to receive a high level experience and a high quality tape for career purposes.
Most candidates receive graduate assistantships.
All assistanships carry conducting responsibilites except for the Choral Librarian. Candidates not receiving choral assistanships often receive voice, theory, music appreciation, or other assistanships, depending upon specialization or skills. Study focuses on the awareness of repertoire from all historical eras, with attention to perfomance practice considerations. Candidates will be exposed to a broad range of repertoire, with the expectation that by the completion of the degree they will be fully conversant with genres, composers, and representatives works. In addition, candidates will be involved in major research and will be active in the pursuit of knowledge of current trends, techniques, procedures, and historical data.