创造性实践和批判性探究课程旨在为杰出的，敬业的艺术家学者提供特殊的机会。这样的人可能将自己塑造成以研究敏感性为驱动力的作曲家/表演者，或者是同时积极参与音乐创作并促进和推动他们的智力计划的忠实学者。对此类感兴趣的候选人应明确列出他们的学术兴趣和音乐经验，包括研究目标和创意作品集。他们应针对其工作的综合，跨学科性质提出明确的理由。在课程的头两年中，学生在培养和完善自己的创造力的同时考察了智力探索的多个领域。该课程的学生可以修读音乐学系提供的任何研究生课程，并在获得研究生顾问的批准后偶尔修读其他系和课程的课程
The program in Creative Practice and Critical Inquiry (CPCI) is designed as a special opportunity for exceptional, engaged artist-scholars. Such individuals might frame themselves as composer-performers whose work is driven by a research sensibility, or as committed scholars whose concurrent active involvement in music-making informs and propels their intellectual projects. Candidates interested in this category should clearly lay out their academic interests and musical experience, including research goals and a portfolio of creative work. They should present a clear rationale for the integrated, cross-disciplinary nature of their work. In the first two years of coursework, students survey multiple fields of intellectual inquiry while nurturing and refining their creative work. Students in the program may take any of the graduate courses offered by the Department of Music, and occasional courses in other departments and programs with approval from the graduate advisor, as well as practice-based music-making courses (composition, improvisation, creative music, and interdisciplinary collaborations). During the summer after the second year of study, candidates will take three to four exams, to be determined in close consultation with the faculty. These include a preliminary portfolio of creative work, written exams on theoretical/analytical and historical/cultural topics relevant to the candidate's individual research goals, and an oral exam encompassing all of the above.