Sacred Music at Notre Dame is accepting applications for the Masters of Sacred Music degree and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in choral conducting for the 2020 academic year. The University of Notre Dame is a top 20 nationally ranked school that offers full tuition, generous stipends, and assistantships working as choir directors at local churches and with the Notre Dame Children’s Choir. Student stipends range from $12,500-$19,000 annually.

Choral conducting students work with a fully paid choral ensemble for recitals and as a laboratory ensemble. Each student receives funding for one a cappella recital and one recital with small orchestra. Additionally, our students travel to Rome biannually to study with musicians of the Vatican, and to England to work with the conductors and singers of cathedrals in Leeds, Liverpool, and London.

We operate as a team of conducting faculty that includes Dr. Mark Doerries, head of the graduate conducting program and children’s choir specialist; Dr. Carmen Tellez, contemporary music, Latin American music, and interdisciplinary arts specialist; Dr. Nancy Menk, women’s choir and new-music specialist; and Dr. Alexander Blachly, early-music scholar. Guest masterclasses have been led by Anne Howard Jones, Stephen Cleobury, Benjamin Saunders, Joseph Flummerfelt, Kimberly Dunn Adams, Jan Harrington, Alfred Calabrese, Donald Nally, Mark Miller, and, this spring, Dale Warland.

Our program is ideal for students interested in positions within churches and cathedrals, students with a background in music education interested in working with children at the highest level, and students honing their skills for the professional or university ensemble. Recent graduates work in Catholic and Episcopal Cathedrals and parishes across the nation, public and private K-12 schools, and Universities such as Minot State University, Goshen College, and Indiana University of South Bend.

Interested applicants may learn more about our program and apply by visiting our website: sma.nd.edu.

Interested musicians should not hesitate to contact Dr. Mark Doerries by email (mdoerries@nd.edu) or phone (574-761-6528) to discuss the program in greater detail or with questions regarding their application. Our application deadline is December 1, 2019. We accept international applications; we currently have students from Nigeria, Australia, the Philippines, Canada, and England in our program.

We look forward to receiving your application.

Dr. Mark Doerries, D.M.
Acting Director of Sacred Music at Notre Dame
Associate Professor of the Practice of Conducting
Head of the Graduate Conducting Studio
Artistic Director of the Notre Dame Children's Choir, sma.nd.edu
Sacred Music at Notre Dame, sacredmusic.nd.edu