The Conservatory of Music and Dance aims to meet or exceed the educational standards set by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) for the training of doctoral level music students. To that end, the Conservatory endorses the development of

• Intellectual awarness and curiosity sufficient to predict continued growth and contribution to the discipline.
• Significant accomplishment in performance, composition, scholarship, music education or conducting.
• A knowledge of the techniques of music theory sufficient to perform advanced analysis.
• A knowledge of representative literature and composers of each major period of music history.
• A knowledge of general bibliographic resources in music.
• Considerable depth of knowledge in some aspect of music, such as historical period, an aspect of theory, performance practice or compositional styles.
• Sufficient writing and speaking skills to communicate clearly and effectively to members of the scholarly community and to the wider community.
• A reading knowledge of one or more foreign languages, or other appropriate research skills.