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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music is proud to announce that, this spring, six of its faculty members will receive honorary doctoral degrees, and one will become a Hall of Fame inductee—substantiating, yet again, why it has been said to have "the single greatest gathering of music faculty in the world."
Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Jazz Studies David Baker will receive an honorary doctorate from the New England Conservatory on May 21 at its 135th Commencement Exercises. A 1973 Pulitzer Prize-nominee, Baker was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1979, and has been honored three times by Down Beat magazine (as a trombonist, for lifetime achievement, and in their Jazz Education Hall of Fame). Among his other awards are the National Association of Jazz Educators Hall of Fame Award, the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching (Indiana University), the Arts Midwest Jazz Masters Award, and the Governor's Arts Award of the State of Indiana. He was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2000 and won an Emmy in 2004 for the music of PBS's For Gold and Glory. In 2001, Baker was honored as an Indiana Living Legend, and on March 7, 2007, he will receive the Living Legacy Jazz Award at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
On May 13, Professor of Music and Chair of the Department of Instrumental Conducting David Effron will receive an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from North Carolina State University. Effron received a Fulbright scholarship for study at Cologne, Germany, as well as a Rockefeller Foundation Grant. He served as head of the Merola Program in San Francisco and as artistic director of the Central City Opera in Colorado. Effron has worked with the San Francisco Opera and was a member of the New York City Opera conducting staff for 18 years. He has conducted major orchestras in Canada, Taiwan, Korea, Europe, Israel, Mexico, and the United States. Effron is a former faculty member of the Curtis Institute of Music and the former head of the orchestra program at the Eastman School of Music. The current artistic director of the Brevard Music Festival, his numerous recordings include a Grammy-winning version of Aaron Copland's A Lincoln Portrait. He won the Musician of the Year Award from the National Federation of Music Clubs in 2003.
Chaired Professor of Music Jamie Laredo will receive an honorary doctoral degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music on May 20 during its 81st Annual Commencement. In more than 40 years before the public, Laredo's career has embraced the roles of violin soloist, conductor, recitalist, and chamber musician. Since his orchestral debut at the age of 11 with the San Francisco Symphony, he has earned the admiration and respect of audiences, critics, and fellow musicians. His private coaches have included Josef Gingold, Pablo Casals, Ivan Galamian, and George Szell. He has performed at most of the venues across the United States and Europe, and is a member of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, winner of Musical America's Ensemble of the Year 2002. The trio celebrates its 30th anniversary in fall 2006. Laredo also has recorded extensively, receiving the Deutsche Schallplatten Prize and seven Grammy Award nominations, as well as one Grammy for a recording of the Brahms Piano Quartets. He is also artistic director of New York's Chamber Music at the Y series.
The San Francisco Conservatory of Music will confer an honorary doctorate on Distinguished Professor Menahem Pressler at its commencement ceremony on May 19. Pressler has also received honorary doctorates from the University of Nebraska and the School of the Arts in North Carolina. Other honors include four Grammy nominations, a lifetime achievement award from Gramophone magazine, Chamber Music America's Distinguished Service Award, the Gold Medal of Merit from the National Society of Arts and Letters, the German Critics "Ehrenurkunde" award, and election into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition, he has been awarded the German President's Deutsche Bundesverdienstkreuz (Cross of Merit) First Class, Germany's highest honor, and the Commandeur in the Order of Arts and Letters award, France's highest cultural honor. Internationally active as soloist and chamber musician, additional honors include England's Record of the Year Award, Ensemble of the Year from Musical America in 1997, a German Recording Award, and first prize in the Debussy Competition. Pressler is a continuing member of the Beaux Arts Trio, which recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, and has recorded almost the entire chamber literature with piano on the Philips label.
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Photo by: IU School of Music
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IU Jacobs School of Music Dean Gwyn Richards will receive an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Anderson University during its May 6 commencement ceremony. "Dean Richards exemplifies so many of our held virtues of integrity, excellence, compassion, leadership, and faith," said Dr. James L. Edwards, president of Anderson University. "His commitment to his students and teaching colleagues has become clearly evident to us through our warm association over these past few years. He understands and sponsors the very best in artistry as a means of developing the human spirit and our wider sense of community in the human family." Richards holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in music from the University of Michigan. He served as director of choral activities at McGill University in Montreal. From 1980 to 1986, he was the assistant dean of music and director of choral activities at Rice University, where he started a master's program in choral conducting. He then went on to serve as associate dean of music and associate professor of choral music at the University of Southern California. In 1992, Richards joined the Indiana University School of Music as director of admissions, eventually becoming the associate dean of admissions and financial aid. In July 2001, he was appointed dean, after serving as interim dean since 1999.
Alongside Baker, Distinguished Professor Janos Starker will also receive an honorary doctorate from the New England Conservatory on May 21. This will be the sixth honorary doctorate for this Hungarian-born cellist who is universally acknowledged as one of the world's greatest musicians. The former principal cellist with the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago, and Dallas symphony orchestras, Starker is, arguably, also the premier teacher of his instrument. He has been a soloist and recitalist on all continents with all major orchestras, festivals, and master classes worldwide. The author of An Organized Method of String Playing, Starker invented a bridge design to enhance the acoustical properties of stringed instruments. He has also written his memoir, The World of Music According to Starker. He has made over 165 recordings and is the recipient of a Grammy Award. Starker is also the first recipient of IU's Tracy Sonnenborn Award.
Professor of Music and Jack I. and Dora B. Hamlin Endowed Chair in Music André Watts will be inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame on June 23, along with rock legend Carlos Santana. World-renowned violinist and IU Jacobs School of Music alumnus Joshua Bell received the honor last year. One of the globe's most celebrated pianists, Watts continues to give numerous recitals and performs with the world's major orchestras and conductors, while making regular visits to the major summer music festivals. He entered the music scene in 1963 at the age of 16 when Leonard Bernstein chose him to make his debut with the New York Philharmonic. At age 26, he was the youngest person ever to receive an honorary doctorate from Yale University, and he has received numerous such honors from many of the nation's most respected conservatories. In 1984, the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University honored Watts with its Distinguished Alumni Award. In 1988, Watts was selected to receive the Avery Fisher Prize, one of the top individual honors for an American classical musician. He has made frequent television appearances, and his performance at the 38th Casals Festival in Puerto Rico was nominated for an Emmy Award.
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