Call for Applications: Fully Funded PhD in Music and Multimedia Composition at Brown University
Ed Osborn
Ph.D. in Music and Multimedia Composition at Brown University
Application deadline: December 15th, 2025
Applications are invited for the Ph.D. in Music and Multimedia Composition (MMC) at Brown University. MMC is one of the most inclusive composition and media graduate programs in the country, encompassing a wide range of musical fields and approaches, from acoustic composition to interactive sonic and visual media to hip hop and text-based music to sound art and instrument design to video, installation art, and performance. We encourage ambitious artists and musicians with similarly broad interests to apply.
Students in the MMC program conduct advanced inquiry into the cultural, theoretical, technical, and aesthetic issues of music and multimedia production in close collaboration with Brown’s award-winning interdisciplinary faculty. Faculty expertise includes acoustic composition and orchestration, real-time interactive sonic and visual media, sound art, contemporary hip hop and Black feminist sonic practices, and physical computing/instrument design. In addition, MMC students work with the department’s doctoral faculty in Musicology and Ethnomusicology, who specialize in technoculture, sound studies, copyright, improvisation and timbre. The philosophy of Brown’s open curriculum permeates graduate study, making all courses across the Brown curriculum and the neighboring Rhode Island School of Design open to MMC students. There are many opportunities to connect, as well, with the arts and digital media communities in Providence and greater New England.
The close, multidisciplinary community of the MMC program allows students to engage with faculty through structured seminar courses, individual studies, lessons, and advising meetings. An active colloquium series provides opportunities to engage with guest artists, scholars, and researchers. Each year students also develop, workshop, and premiere new works with the leading new music ensembles in the country through the department’s annual Visiting Artist Series. Recent guest artists have included the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Sandbox Percussion, International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, Talea Ensemble, Yarn/Wire, and Momenta Quartet, among others.
Brown’s research facilities in the arts are unmatched. Students have access to the Multimedia and Electronic Music Experiments (MEME) studios in the department of music, the facilities within the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, and the new state-of-the-art Lindemann Performing Arts Center, which provides a stellar new venue for research and performance, including an immersive multichannel audio/video experimentation lab and a world-class concert hall. Altogether, these facilities represent a wide array of professional recording studios, electronics shops, project studios, exhibition and performance spaces.
Funding
Successful applicants to the Ph.D. program receive full funding for six years, including costs for tuition and health insurance, stipend during summer months, as well as stipends for fellowships or teaching assistantships. All students are guaranteed six semesters of rotating teaching assistantships in the Department of Music, which can cover a wide range of courses including composition, music theory, music technology and multimedia, ensemble direction, history, and more. Many students have the opportunity to teach one course as instructor of record during their residency at Brown, preparing them for careers as college and university educators, applied researchers, and creative artists.
Open House Event
The MMC program will be hosting an online Open House event for prospective students on Monday, November 24, from 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm EST on Zoom
This Open House event will allow applicants to learn more about the MMC program and its research, curriculum, production resources, and student support. Faculty and current students will be available to answer questions. Please use this link to register:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd1QCTmX2WkKzERZ6AfmeeLlg0EslMH-g4BimmXs3_NuL7VVQ/viewform
Ph.D. Program Application Deadline is December 15th, 2025
More information about applying is available through he Brown University Graduate School website, and you can apply from the link on the MMC application page:
https://www.brown.edu/academics/gradschool/
https://graduateprograms.brown.edu/graduate-program/music-and-multimedia-composition-phd
For further information about the MMC program see http://brown.edu/go/mmc.