Prospective Graduate Students - Department of Music

Dear Prospective Graduate Student,

Thank you for your interest in graduate studies in musicology at UNC-Chapel Hill. Please see the graduate school’s application portal for more information about requirements and the application process. We do not require the GRE.

We offer an outstanding program with internationally-renowned faculty whose areas of expertise cover a broad range of areas across music studies, including ethnomusicology, history, theory, sound studies, and popular music studies. UNC consistently ranks high among graduate schools nationwide, and recent graduates of our Ph.D. program have gone on to teach at such institutions as Arizona State University, Texas Christian University, the University of Maryland, U.C.L.A., the University of Georgia, Michigan State University, Ramapo College, West Virginia University, Vanderbilt University, and Virginia Tech. Former students also have built careers in academic publishing and university administration, as well as in public arts institutions.

For more information about our graduate program and its requirements, see the Graduate School’s Catalog and Handbook. Take time to peruse the Music Department’s website, where you can learn about ongoing faculty research and teaching. You can also get to know the graduate student community, its activities, and peruse current dissertation topics.

We now have a virtual tour video created by current graduate student Kelli Smith-Biwer. For the link to this video, please email me (mebonds@email.unc.edu). We’d love to give you a small taste of what campus life is like at UNC. Once our admissions decisions have gone out in early 2023, we encourage you to visit us in person to speak with faculty and graduate students and to sit in on a graduate seminar or two as schedules permit.

Our faculty and graduate students would also be happy to visit with you during our reception at the joint meeting of the American Musicological Society, the Society for Music Theory, and the Society for Ethnomusicology in New Orleans in November 2022.

Should you have any questions about our program or the application process, please feel free to write me (mebonds@email.unc.edu). We look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Mark Evan Bonds
Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor of Music
Director of Graduate Admissions, 2022-23
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Departmental Contact Information:

Director of Graduate Admissions
UNC Department of Music
Campus Box 3320
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3320
phone: (919) 962-1039
mebonds@email.unc.edu