Re: Higher Education for Mandolin
Alas, classical mandolin hasn’t found an academic home yet in the USA, although there are some college programs that have been mentioned above that have included mandolin in some way. These programs tend to see “classical” as just another style, rather than as one of the wellsprings from which today’s American mandolin styles evolved. Perhaps before we get a dedicated classical mandolin program, we’ll need existing programs to acknowledge the contributions of classical mandolin to the foundations of American mandolin music.
But how to get a classical mandolin program started? To some degree, it’s a chicken/egg problem: you’ll need a DMA degree to begin such a program, but there’s no place to earn that degree within our system. (The DMA—the Doctor of Musical Arts—is the credential that acknowledge your expertise as both a performer and a scholar of your instrument). But I can think of possible ways around this dilemma.
Post #2 above mentioned Alison Stephens’ solution (earn academic credentials in another instrument first). A similar solution was found by Ugo Orlandi, who got his performance degree in trumpet, and with that credential went on to design the mandolin programs in the Italian conservatories. Maybe someone in the North American system will use the Alison/Ugo solution, and earn a DMA in another area first.
Or, perhaps some enlightened institution could bring in someone with an advanced performance degree from another country to establish the instrumental part of the DMA program, while scholars in other areas guided the DMA student through studying the history and literature of the mandolin. Or, maybe a more immediate solution would be for colleges with established classical guitar programs open their performance degrees to mandolinists (as Chapman is doing for the OP). Perhaps a mandolin program could grow this way, until there’s critical mass to establish a doctoral-level program.
I think, though, it’s only a matter of time that the broader historical roots of the American mandolin are acknowledged, and incorporated into academic programs.
Exploring Classical Mandolin (Berklee Press, 2015)
Progressive Melodies for Mandocello (KDP, 2019) (2nd ed. 2022)
New Solos for Classical Mandolin (Hal Leonard Press, 2020)
2021 guest artist, mandocello: Classical Mandolin Society of America
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