Performances + Events
Alumni hold a meaningful place in New England Conservatory’s graduation celebrations. Each year, graduates from reunion classes are invited to take part by serving as alumni marshals and speakers, representing the broader alumni community.
At this year’s Commencement, Matthew Shifrin ’21, ’23 MM will address the Class of 2026 as the Alumni Speaker, officially welcoming graduates into the alumni community. Obadiah Baker ’06 and Terry Wolkowicz ’86 will serve as Alumni Marshals, leading the ceremonial procession.
Matthew Shifrin ’21, ’23 MM
Alumni Speaker
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 creating text-based instructions that enable blind people to build LEGO sets independently, he’s committed to making the world of LEGO accessible to disabled children.
An accomplished musician, Shifrin has degrees from NEC, 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.
Obadiah Baker ’06
Alumni Marshal
Composer, filmmaker, and scholar Dr. Obadiah Baker ’06 is an Emmy Award winning artist whose work bridges music, film, and research. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree from NEC in 2006 and is the 2024 Emmy Award recipient for Musical Composition and Arrangement for the PBS documentary The Shadow Between Us.
In 2023, Dr. Baker was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Israel, where he studied the cross-cultural power of shadow dance as a conflict resolution and global peace intervention technique at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He serves as a civil affairs lieutenant colonel in the United States Army Reserve.
Terry Wolkowicz ’86
Alumni Marshal
For more than two decades, Terry Wolkowicz has designed innovative, integrated arts education curricula connecting music and science. She has served for 15 years as education director of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, for which she’s created and performed educational programs in more than 50 schools across Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
In 2021, she co-founded Sound Explorations, through which she’s developed projects in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Museum of Science, and Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, among other organizations.
