 A lot of music programs set you out a choice. Are you going to be a musician or are you going to be a researcher and an academic? And we don't really ask students that. We ask them what kind of music do you, are you into and are you going to keep it up? The culture of the program I really do think is one of this collegiality and interdisciplinarity. They don't just train you to be a performer. They train you to really be a well-rounded musician in the sense that we are taking the same classes as musicologists. We're taking the same classes as theorists. So it's a real hybrid between a conservatory and a university in the best sense. Here we can really get a strong foundation on some of, on a wide variety of music just due to the nature of our faculty here. We're really lucky to study under folks that are masters of music that span pretty much the entire world. Together with the consortium schools we're really able to have each student have a very customized curriculum for their particular strengths, their particular interests. What impressed me about the program was that there was a lot of freedom to explore. My name is Harry Potter and we are Harry and the Potters. The topic that is now the focus of my dissertation, which is the music that are created within media fan communities. So I look at people like Star Wars fans, Star Trek fans, Doctor Who fans, Harry Potter fans, and look at the music that they create in response to loving these texts so much. But I think it is the support that's given to us to be able to have the freedom to pursue our own research and go down roads that find fascinating and I think our professors are always flexible and willing to hear us out. The faculty is very hands on. They take care of you. They make sure that you're making the right choices, that you don't fall through the cracks and that you come in and finish what you started. Every single composer who is here as a student or faculty have something very different that they do. There's not so much of a competitive atmosphere as like an interest and like look at the kaleidoscope of colors and things that are going on here. Every day there are interesting shared problems that we work on together in collaboration and consultation with colleagues and with students with the distinction between colleagues and students not even that germane one. You will learn at least as much from your peers as you learn from the faculty. You will learn at least as much from hanging out in the lounge and sharing ideas and just you know being in on new trends in the field that even before the faculty are onto them. Music in Midtown is kind of a unique concert platform that the Graduate Center has. These concerts feature performances by our students, faculty and special invited guests as well as alumni. The audience turnout for these concerts is very impressive in a city where otherwise there are too many events and one often finds oneself with very few people in the audience. The people who go to this program I've found to be very high level performers. And it's just great working within and meeting new people so really the community is why I came. One bonus that we have that a lot of other doctoral programs don't have is that we are allowed to teach. We don't TA. And that was very attractive for two reasons. First its experience is building your CV and second I am personally a passionate teacher. I love teaching. Teaching is the main reason I applied for a PhD program in the first place. I find that the most important aspect of teaching is that it allowed me to formulate what is interesting in our work as specialists in the field of music from a wider social perspective. We take very serious our obligation not just to train students to be scholars in the field although that's our central focus but also to help usher them and mentor them into the career. I feel like I've come into my own as a scholar because of just how independent they encourage you to be here. If you have direction this is a great fit especially because of the location and the diversity of faculty to really branch out in meaningful ways. For me and for my studies I think it's just ideal that this is the place to be.