Faculty Profile

Nicolás Dosman
Assistant Professor of Teaching, Director of Choirs

Prior to accepting the position at UC Davis, Dosman was the Director of Choral Studies and associate professor at the University of Southern Maine. He was also the artistic director of the Community Chorus at South Berwick, the Chorus Master for the Portland Symphony Orchestra’s Magic of Christmas series and Opera Maine. He began his collegiate teaching career as the Director of Choral and Vocal Activities at Colby College and worked as an adjunct voice professor at Molloy University. Prior to entering academia, he was the director of the Casita Sings Children’s Choir in the Bronx, NY and was a public school teacher in Miami, FL for a decade. His research includes choral pedagogy, social justice and policy in music education, and the evolution of gender and male recruitment in choral programs. He is currently under contract with Rowman and Littlefield to publish a choral pedagogy text in the coming months. 

He holds degrees from Teachers College, Columbia University, Florida State University, and the Oberlin College-Conservatory of Music. He studied conducting with the late Dino Anagnost, André Thomas, and Kevin Fenton. 

Under his leadership his choirs have appeared in Carnegie Hall, Merrill Auditorium, Vietnam, performed for the Governor of Maine and have been invited as a feature group at the ACDA and NAfME music conferences. Additionally, his choirs have recorded for a motion picture that is currently a semi-finalist for the American Prize in Choral Performance. He frequently conducts honor choirs and All-State choirs and has been invited to guest conduct in Vienna and Salzburg in 2024. Dosman has served as a choral clinician at Latin America choral festivals. He has also presented his research at national and international conferences. 

nadosman[remove-this-and-replace-with-at]ucdavis.edu
Event

Choruses of UC Davis: “Sorrow and Joy: An American Story”
Nicolás Dosman, director

Nicolás Dosman Pete Nowlen
Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center

featuring the UC Davis Concert Band
Pete Nowlen, director

and Rollo Dilworth, visiting composer

If the American Dream includes hope of a better life in a promised land, then the story we tell must also acknowledge that dream has not always been equally available to all Americans. This concert gives us both sentiments of this “American Story.”

Rollo Dilworth set his choral and wind ensemble work “Weather” to the poem of the same name by Claudia Rankine. “Weather” (the poem) appeared in the New York Times Magazine shortly after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. It  captured in a few pointed phrases the pain of the pandemic and of America’s racial conflicts. Using American-born musical traditions, including the Blues, Rollo Dilworth juxtaposes Rankine’s words against a musical fabric, which challenges us to accept this part of our American story, and in time weather that challenge.

André Thomas, a composer known around the world for his spirituals, wrote his “Mass of Love and Joy” (filled with moving and joyous spirituals) in 2018 upon his own retirement, and which concludes and lifts up this choral concert. Thomas says of his work, “anyone can relate to spirituals. Everyone goes through trials and everyone looks for comfort.”

Program

Chamber Singers

Norman Dello Joio: A Jubilant Song

Samuel Barber: “Anthony O’Daly” from Reincarnations

William L. Dawson: Soon-Ah-Will Be Done

Concert Band

Selections to be announced.

— Intermission —

Combined Choruses

Rollo Dilworth: Weather
with the UC Davis Concert Band
and Shinae Kim, piano

“Historically, the arts have always fulfilled the dual roles of responding to change while at the same time creating change. Claudia Rankine’s poem, Weather, is a poem that gives voice to the voiceless, especially those who have been and continue to be marginalized because of difference. It responds to and reflects realities that are both culturally specific and humanly universal. Claudia Rankine challenges all of us (no matter your background or lived experience) to know better, to do better, to take action, and to become agents of social justice and social change.”

    —Rollo Dilworth

André Thomas: Mass of Love and Joy

$12 Students and Children, $24 Adults (Open Seating)

Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, Davis, CA
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Overview

Master of Arts in Conducting

Christian Baldini Nicolás Dosman

The Department of Music offers a Master of Arts degree in conducting designed to prepare students to conduct major symphonic and choral repertoire during their professional careers. In addition to developing practical technical skills, students study issues of performance practice and musical analysis, and gain experience in the preparation of performance materials.

Master of Arts candidates must be in residence for at least one academic year (typically two years), pass an exam in one foreign language (typically German, French, Italian, Spanish or Latin), and present a public concert and supporting written materials in lieu of a thesis.

Typical time to complete the Master of Arts degree is two years. Core course work requirements are the three proseminars in music plus at least three seminars and independent study (conducting lessons).

Residency

UC Davis CA residency requirements for graduate students are HERE. First year graduate students who are US citizens but not CA residents must complete the CA residency process before the end of their first quarter.

Contact Christian Baldini or Nicolás Dosman for more information regarding the master’s degree in conducting. For questions regarding the particulars of the program or application process, contact Graduate Program Coordinator Marian Bilheimer.

Graduate Coursework, Conducting

(48 units)

16 units of at least four seminars including the below,
18 units of conducting lessons (3 units each quarter for six quarters), and the balance of 14 units taking independent study (MUS 299 units over three quarters) in preparation for one public performance examination and a written project.

MUS 210A. Proseminar in Music (Theory and Analysis) (4)
MUS 210B. Proseminar in Music (Musicology and Criticism) (4)
MUS 210C. Proseminar in Music (Ethnomusicology) (4)

Admission Requirements

Consideration for program admission requires:

  • A bachelor’s degree comparable to a degree from the University of California in both distribution of academic subject matter and scholarly achievement
  • Three letters of recommendation
  • Transcripts (UC Davis requires academic records from each college-level institution you have attended.  You will be instructed to upload scanned copies of your transcripts after you have submitted your online application.  For more details visit https://gradstudies.ucdavis.edu/prospective-students/admissions-application/submitting-your-transcripts.)
  • TOEFL or IELTS score (if applicable)
  • A CV (including a list of works conducted, rehearsed, and studied)
  • Links to conducting videos (of rehearsal or concert) with 2 or 3 works showing different styles 
  • A minimum GPA of 3.0
  • An Office of Graduate Studies online application with fee by the stated admission deadline.
  • The most qualified applicants will be selected to take part in a live audition (and interview) conducting a university ensemble.
  • For eligibility requirements to apply for fellowships and financial aid, see here.

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