Performances + Events
New England Conservatory is pleased to announce that its 155th Commencement will take place on Sunday, May 17, in Jordan Hall.
Acclaimed mezzo-soprano and NEC alumna Denyce Graves ’88 UD, ’14 hon. DM, whose accomplishments NEC recognized with an honorary Doctor of Music degree in 2014, will serve as the distinguished Commencement Speaker. Legendary jazz saxophonist and educator Gary Bartz and innovative Vivo Performing Arts (formerly Celebrity Series of Boston) President and Executive Director Gary Dunning will be awarded honorary Doctor of Music degrees. Matthew Shifrin ’21, ’23 MM will be the alumni speaker.
“We are thrilled to welcome back NEC alumna Denyce Graves, and to honor the extraordinary careers of Gary Bartz and Gary Dunning,” NEC President Andrea Kalyn said. “Each of these individuals reflects the excellence to which our students aspire and the impact they seek to have, both in our field and on society more broadly. As we celebrate NEC’s Class of 2026, these honorees offer truly inspiring examples for our graduates’ futures.”
Graves offered a measure of wisdom to graduating students in advance of Commencement.
“You graduate into a world that is, in many ways, unsettled and loud with division, restless with change, and often uncertain of its direction,” she said. “And yet, this is precisely why your work matters! Music is one of the few forces that can move freely across borders, speak where words fail, and remind us of our shared humanity. As musicians, you are not only interpreters of sound but you are carriers of memory, of truth, and of possibility. You have the power to comfort, to challenge, to illuminate, and to bring people together in ways that few other forms can.
“In a time when it is easy to feel fragmented, your artistry can create connection. Where there is noise, you can offer meaning, where there is despair, you can restore a sense of beauty and hope. Class of 2026, step forward with courage, with curiosity, and with a deep sense of responsibility, because the world does not just need more music, it needs what only you can say through it.”
About Denyce Graves
American mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves has captivated audiences across the globe for more than four decades, gracing the world’s most esteemed opera houses and concert halls. A consummate artist with an extensive discography, she has been prominently featured on national public television, appearing in celebrated programs ranging from Great Performances to Sesame Street.
Beyond her illustrious performing career, Graves is an Emmy and GRAMMY Award-winning artist and holds the distinguished title of Global Music Ambassador for the United States. Her enduring legacy is further enshrined in the Smithsonian Institution, where her portrait is part of the National Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection, and her image is commemorated in the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
While Graves remains an active performer and sought-after stage director, she envisions her greatest legacy extending beyond the stage. Through The Denyce Graves Foundation, she is shaping the future of vocal artistry, empowering the next generation of extraordinary singers, and illuminating the narratives of pivotal yet underrecognized musical pioneers.
About Gary Bartz
Gary Bartz has been one of the most influential purveyors of what he calls “informal composition” (as opposed to improvisation) on alto saxophone since the 1960s and has worked with such luminaries as Max Roach, Charles Mingus, Art Blakey, and Miles Davis. Bartz has released more than 45 solo albums and appeared on more than 200 as a guest artist, in addition to working with some of the most impressive up-and-coming artists in jazz today — including Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge for their Jazz Is Dead series, and the jazz-funk band Maisha.
Bartz was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to nightclub-owning parents and was exposed to many great jazz artists who played at their club. He was 6 when he was inspired by the sound of Charlie Parker and received his first alto saxophone at age 11. He attended The Juilliard School in New York City in 1958 and from 1962 to 1964 was affiliated with the Charles Mingus Jazz Workshop, where he met jazz giants Eric Dolphy and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Bartz also began working with the Max Roach/Abbey Lincoln group in 1964.
In 1965, Bartz was recruited into Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers while they played at his parents’ club, taking John Gilmore’s position in the band. He made his recording debut with Blakey on Soul Finger that same year.
In 1970, Miles Davis asked Bartz to join his band and perform at the historic Isle of Wight Festival and on his subsequent tour. Bartz is featured on Davis’s Live-Evil recording. Bartz also formed his own group, NTU Troop, named for the Bantu word for “essence.” The group blended soul, funk, African folk music, hard bop, and avant-garde jazz and recorded one of Bartz’s first classics, I’ve Known Rivers and Other Bodies, based on the poetry of Langston Hughes. His NTU Troop recordings are often sampled by hip-hop artists.
In 1997, Bartz received a Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Performance for his work on Roy Hargrove’s Habana album, and, in 2005, received a Grammy Award for his work as a sideman on McCoy Tyner’s recording Illuminations. In 2015, Bartz received the BNY Mellon Jazz Living Legacy Award, which honors jazz musicians from the mid-Atlantic region who have achieved distinction in performance and education.
In 2019, producer Gilles Peterson invited Bartz to play the We Out Here Festival with the London-based group Maisha, a move that proved so successful that Bartz played dates with them throughout Europe and cut an album with them in the Netherlands.
Since 2001, Bartz has been a professor of saxophone and jazz performance at Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Bartz focuses his teaching on finding new ways for his students to “open their ears” and presses his Oberlin students to truly hear the music they think they know so well.
About Gary Dunning
Gary Dunning holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University and a Master’s Degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science. A veteran of performing arts administration, Dunning began his career at the American Ballet Theatre before becoming executive director of the Houston Ballet in 1986. He returned to ABT as executive director in 1992. In 1996, he joined the Big Apple Circus as executive director. Dunning was appointed president and executive director of the Celebrity Series of Boston — now Vivo Performing Arts — in 2011, becoming the fourth president in the organization’s then-79-year history.
Dunning has served on and chaired numerous panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts. He also served for several years as chairman of the Board of Dance/USA, a national service organization for professional dance. He has served on the Board of ArtsBoston and on the steering committee of the Boston Cultural Leaders Coalition. He co-chaired Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s 2013 transition team for arts and culture.
About Matthew Shifrin
Matthew Shifrin is a leading voice in revolutionizing the world of entertainment for blind children and adults. As founder and CEO of Bricks for the Blind, a nonprofit organization that creates text-based instructions enabling blind people to build LEGO sets independently, he’s committed to making the world of LEGO accessible to disabled children.
Shifrin’s innovation and advocacy began at age 13, when a family friend’s gift of text-based LEGO instructions sparked his desire to share the joy of building LEGO sets with other blind kids. He founded Bricks for the Blind and established a partnership with LEGO resulting in the company’s Accessible Building Instructions Initiative. Shifrin’s nonprofit has created accessible instructions for more than 530 LEGO sets, and the sets have been built by more than 3,000 builders in more than 120 countries. Shifrin teaches LEGO-building workshops for blind people across the United States and runs robotics programs for blind children.
An accomplished musician, Shifrin has degrees from New England Conservatory, where he earned top honors showcasing his talents as an accordionist, composer, and countertenor.
He’s written multiple musicals, the most recent of which, My Grandma’s Mind Is Like An Ocean — a one-man musical in English and Yiddish — won the award for Best Musical at the United Solo Theatre Festival at Theatre Row in New York.
Shifrin wrote and hosted the award-winning podcast Blind Guy Travels, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was the first podcast on a major podcasting network (Radiotopia) to feature a blind host. He also convinced a braille-making company to create Yiddish braille. Shifrin hopes that his advocacy will inspire blind people to use their creativity to make the world a more accessible place.
