New England Conservatory (NEC) celebrates its 132nd Commencement exercises on Sunday, May 18, 2003 at 3:00 p.m., in NEC's Jordan Hall (290 Huntington Avenue, Boston).
Pianist/scholar Charles Rosen will present this year's Commencement Address, and will be awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree. Other honorary doctorate recipients include:
* 2003 Grammy-winning jazz double bassist Dave Holland * Curtis Institute of Music President Gary Graffman* NEC Music Theory and Composition faculty Robert Cogan* NEC Life Trustee David Scudder, Vice President of Trusts at the Harvard Management Company
Biographies are included below.
Approximately 250 musicians will receive the Bachelor of Music, Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees as well as undergraduate, graduate, and artist diplomas.
The Commencement Concert on Saturday, May 17, at 7:30 p.m. in NEC's Jordan Hall features the NEC Orchestra, conducted by NEC Assistant Orchestra Conductor Sergio Monterisi, in a program including solo performances by the following graduating student soloists (selected by competition):
* Jonathan Vinocour, student of Kim Kashkashian, violaTelemann Viola Concerto * Mana Tokuno, student of Victor Rosenbaum, pianoRavel Piano Concerto * Lambert Chen, student of James Buswell, violinSarasate Carmen Fantasy for Violin * Courtney Secoy, student of Laura Ahlbeck, oboeMozart Concerto for Oboe, K314 * Gabriela Diaz, student of James Buswell, violin, and Amalia Aubert, student of Kim Kashkashian, violaMozart Sinfonia Concertante
The concert will also feature performances by graduating students of the NEC Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation departments.
Both events are free and open to the public. NEC's Jordan Hall is located at 290 Huntington Avenue in Boston. For more information, please call 617-585-1122 or visit New England Conservatory on the web at www.newenglandconservatory.edu.
ABOUT CHARLES ROSEN
Charles Rosen began taking piano lessons at the age of four, and studied with Moritz Rosenthal at the Juilliard School from ages seven through eleven. His New York debut in 1957 followed his first complete recording of Debussy's Etudes. His career as a piano virtuoso has included tours of the United States and Europe, with frequent appearances on both national and international radio. Some of the world's most renowned composers have invited Rosen to record their works, including Igor Stravinsky, Elliott Carter, and Pierre Boulez. Rosen holds both master's and doctorate degrees in French literature from Princeton University and is also a distinguished writer on music. His 1970 book The Sonata Forms was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and his 1971 book The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven earned him a National Book Award. His 1975 book on Arnold Schoenberg earned him the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, and his 1998 book Romantic Poets, Critics, and Other Madmen was awarded the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism. Rosen delivered a series of Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University, under the banner of The Romantic Generation: Music 1827-1850, and was recently awarded the James Madison Medal by Princeton University.
ABOUT DAVE HOLLAND
Dave Holland began his double bass studies at the age of seventeen with James E. Merritt, principal bassist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Holland worked and toured with Miles Davis, recording with Davis on the classic albums In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew. In 1972, he began teaching privately at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, New York. Holland recorded his first album as a leader in 1982, the critically acclaimed Conference of the Birds, and also served as artistic director of the summer jazz workshop at the Banff School in Alberta, Canada. Holland was a full-time faculty member at NEC from 1987 to 1990, performing frequently with NEC faculty members such as Dominique Eade and Kenny Wheeler. Holland was voted number-one bass player in the Down Beat critics' poll for three consecutive years, has performed on three Grammy-nominated albums, including Herbie Hancock's 1996 The New Standard, and was awarded a Grammy in 2003 for best large jazz ensemble album for the Dave Holland Big Band's What Goes Around. Holland has released more than a dozen albums on ECM since his label debut in 1972.
ABOUT GARY GRAFFMAN
At the age of seven, Gary Graffman began his piano studies with Isabelle Vengerova at the Curtis Institute of Music. After graduation, Graffman was awarded the Rachmaninoff Prize, which led to his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra. In 1949, Graffman debuted at Carnegie Hall and received the Leventritt Award, which led to his engagements with several leading American orchestras. In 1980, he joined the piano faculty at the Curtis Institute, becoming Curtis's artistic director in 1986. In 1996, Graffman continued his evolution from being a renowned performer to leading a school where musicians are trained to be full-time performers when he became the eighth director of Curtis. Graffman took on the presidency as part of a new generation of music school directors that includes NEC's Laurence Lesser and Juilliard's Joseph W. Polisi. Graffman has received the Handel Medallion from the City of New York and a Governor's Arts Award from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He has studied with Vladimir Horowitz, at the Marlboro Festival with Rudolph Serkin, and holds a record of being the only piano soloist to have recorded with all six of the country's top orchestras (New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, and San Francisco.)
ABOUT ROBERT COGAN
Robert Cogan chaired NEC's graduate Theoretical Studies program and the music theory major for almost forty years, in addition to teaching on the composition faculty. He is the current codirector of the Talloires International Composers Conference in France. Cogan earned undergraduate and master's degrees from the University of Michigan, as well as a master's from Princeton University. He has studied with such musical luminaries as Ross Lee Finney, Nadia Boulanger, Aaron Copland, Roger Sessions, and Phillip Jarnach. Cogan's compositions have been performed worldwide, and he has spoken on theoretical and creative matters at music institutions in the United States and in Europe. His internationally acclaimed books include Sonic Design: The Nature of Sound and Music (coauthor, Pozzi Escot) and New Images of Musical Sound, which won the 1987 Distinguished Publication Award of the Society for Music Theory. Cogan has received the Young Composer's Radio Award (BMI), Chopin and Fulbright scholarships, German government grants, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residency. His Gulf Coast Bound was programmed at the Korean Cultural Olympics, Seoul, 1988.
ABOUT DAVID W. SCUDDER
David W. Scudder earned an A.B. degree in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard College in 1957. He has spent his professional career as an investment advisor and fund manager, and now is Vice President of Trusts at the Harvard Management Company. In 1966, he brought his talents in financial management and fundraising to the board of New England Conservatory, on which he served continuously until 2002, when he became a Life Trustee. Scudder has served as a member of the Executive Committee for many years, as treasurer from 1968 to 1976, and throughout his involvement has been a core participant in the Conservatory's fundraising. He is credited with having brought a major Ford Foundation grant to NEC in 1971, at a time when the Conservatory's financial survival was at stake. In 1992, Scudder was named NEC's board chair; he then worked hand in hand with President Lesser to complete the renovation of Jordan Hall. In 2002 he stepped down as board chair to become chair of NEC's capital campaign. Scudder's love of music, respect for youth, and leadership skills have been proven over his many years of unparalleled service to NEC. Besides his important roles at NEC, Scudder also serves as chair of the Advisory Committee for the Office of the Arts at Harvard, as a director of Boston Lyric Opera, as a trustee of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and as a director of Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.
ABOUT NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY
Recognized nationally and internationally as a leader among music schools, New England Conservatory, the only music school in America to be designated a National Historic Landmark, was founded in 1867. New England Conservatory presents more than 600 free concerts each year in NEC's Jordan Hall and throughout New England. The college program instructs more than 750 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral music students from around the world, and has a faculty of 225 artist-teachers and scholars.
Through its Preparatory School, School of Continuing Education, and Community Collaboration Programs for pre-college students, adults, and elders, NEC offers a complete music curriculum. Educated as complete musicians, NEC alumni fill orchestra chairs, concert hall stages, jazz clubs, and recording studios worldwide. Nearly half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is composed of NEC faculty and alumni.
NEC founded and is the educational partner and broadcast home for "From the Top," a weekly radio program that showcases outstanding young classical musicians from the entire country, now carried by more than two hundred stations throughout the United States.
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