New England Conservatory will
bestow honorary Doctor of Music (hon. D.M.) degrees on five distinguished
musicians at its 145th annual Commencement Exercises, Sunday, May 22, 2016 at 3
p.m. in NEC’s Jordan Hall. The recipients are Parliament/Funkadelic co-founder
Bernie Worrell, conductor Leonard Slatkin, composer and multi-instrumentalist
Anthony Braxton, soprano Martina Arroyo, and composer Malcolm Peyton.
In addition, approximately 275 graduating students in the
class of 2016 will be awarded degrees and diplomas including the Bachelor of
Music, Graduate Diploma, Master of Music, Doctor of Musical Arts, and Artist
Diploma. Leonard Slatkin will give the commencement address; additional
speakers will include NEC leaders and a student speaker. The public is welcomed
to this event, based on available seats.
At 7:30pm on May 21, 2016, the evening before NEC’s 145th
Commencement Exercises, a grand concert in Jordan Hall will take place. This
event will put the Conservatory’s graduating students on display before they go
off to take their place on the world's stages. The performance includes student
composers, jazz and Contemporary Improvisation, vocal and instrumental
soloists, chamber music, and large-scale works.
NEC conducting student Earl Lee will lead an orchestra made
up almost entirely of graduating students in Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture,
"Fingal’s Cave." They will also play “Larger than Life,” written by
graduating composition major Jeremiah Klarman '10 Prep, '16 B.M. and other
works.
Honoree Biographies
Bernie Worrell
Keyboardist, composer, and producer Bernie Worrell is one of
the most prolific funk and R&B artists to date. As a founding member of the
‘70s & ‘80s funk band Parliament/Funkadelic, Worrell’s work with the
synthesizer was what gave the band its futuristic sound, and made the band a
highly influential player in the world of R&B. In the 1980s, Worrell
frequently played with the rock band Talking Heads, both on the road and in the
studio. After leaving Talking Heads, he was a studio musician for countless
celebrated artists and groups, such as Keith Richards, the Pretenders, Jack
Bruce, and Bootsy’s New Rubber Band. Worrell has also released numerous
critically acclaimed solo albums, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame in 1997. He is currently a member of both the Bernie Worrell Orchestra
and Colonel Claypool’s Bucket of Bernie Brains. Worrell is a classically
trained pianist, having taken private lessons at Juilliard and pursued college
studies at NEC through 1967.
Leonard Slatkin
Internationally acclaimed conductor Leonard Slatkin is the
Music Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre National de
Lyon. He has conducted most of the world’s leading orchestras, as well as
numerous opera companies, such as the Metropolitan Opera. His more than 100
recordings have earned him a collection of seven Grammy Awards and sixty-four
nominations. Slatkin is also a music educator, as he is the founder and
director of the St. Louis Youth Symphony Orchestra and the National Conducting
Institute of Washington D.C. In addition, he has taught and conducted at some
of the world’s leading music schools. His tireless efforts in arts advocacy
worldwide have won him the National Medal of Arts, France’s Chevalier of the
Legion of Honor, and Austria’s Declaration of Honor. Slatkin hails from a
musical family, as his parents are the founding members of the Hollywood String
Quartet. He first began his musical studies on the violin and studied
conducting with his father, Felix Slatkin, Walter Susskind at Aspen, and Jean
Morel at Juilliard.
Anthony Braxton
American composer and multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton
is a seminal figure in the music of the late twentieth century. He is known for
his experimental methods of composition that combine jazz with serialism,
multi-media usage, and graphic notation methods. He has released over 100
albums since the 1960s and has written hundreds of compositions. In 2010, he
founded the Tri-Centric Foundation – a not-for-profit organization dedicated to
supporting the next generation of creative artists. In 2014, Braxton was named
a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master. Previous awards and honors
include a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1981, a MacArthur Fellowship in 1994, and a
New Music USA Letter of Distinction in 2013. Before becoming a music professor
and an emeritus music faculty member at Wesleyan College, he taught at Mills
College in California. Braxton studied music at the Chicago School of Music,
and philosophy and composition at Roosevelt University.
Martina Arroyo
American soprano Martina Arroyo has been a renowned member
of the Metropolitan Opera since 1958. She had her major-role debut in Carnegie
Hall in 1965 when, at the last minute, she was asked to fill in for Birgit
Nilsson as Aïda. Landing herself major roles in operas by Mozart, Puccini,
Wagner, Barber, and Stockhausen among others, she has proven herself to have an
impressively broad repertoire. She has collaborated with some of the world’s
most celebrated conductors on the stages of the world’s most renowned concert
halls. Arroyo was appointed by President Ford as a member of the NEA’s National
Council of the Arts, and won the NEA Opera Honors Award in 2010. In 2013, she was
awarded a Kennedy Center Honor. She is also a lifetime Honorary Trustee of
Carnegie Hall. In 2003, Arroyo established the Martina Arroyo Foundation, which
provides aspiring young opera singers with the tools they need to succeed in a
career in opera.
Malcom Peyton
Malcolm Peyton joined the New England Conservatory faculty
in 1965 and was the chair of NEC’s Composition Department for 36 years. He is
an active and distinguished figure in the world of new music. He has directed,
conducted, and concertized many new music concerts in Boston and New York, and
his music has been played throughout the U.S. and in Europe. The same year he
joined NEC’s faculty, he began conducting Evenings of New Music with Lyle
Davidson. More recently, he’s directed The NEC Composers Series. Some of his
celebrated and well-known works are Songs from Walt Whitman, Fantasies
Concertantes for orchestra, and The Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air We
Breathe. His compositions have been premiered with artists such as Bethany
Beardslee, Borromeo String Quartet, and Gunther Schuller. He has received a Woodrow Wilson National
Fellowship and awards from the NEA, Norlin Foundation, and American Academy and
Institute of Arts and Letters.
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