CIM COMMENCEMENT MONDAY, MAY 21

The Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) will graduate the Class of 2007 at its 82nd Annual Commencement on Monday morning, May 21, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. in the Institute's Kulas Hall. Included as part of the ceremony will be a musical program presented by select graduates.

David Cerone, president of CIM, will confer approximately 135 Bachelor and Master of Music degrees, Doctor of Musical Arts degrees, Artist Certificates, Artist Diplomas and Professional Studies Diplomas upon the 2007 graduates.

Honorary doctoral degrees will be conferred upon Commencement speakers Gary Graffman, celebrated pianist and recently retired president of the Curtis Institute of Music; and Franz Welser-Möst, music director and Kelvin Smith Family Endowed Chair of The Cleveland Orchestra.

Howard A. Roberts, distinguished vocalist, music director, conductor and arranger, will receive the 2007 Distinguished Alumni Award. Alumni Achievement Awards will be presented to well-known pianist Richard Glazier and producer/recording editor Thomas Moore.

Gary Graffman has been a major figure in the music world since winning the prestigious Leventritt Award in 1949. For the next three decades he toured almost continuously, playing the most demanding works in the piano literature both in recital and with the world's great orchestras. He also made a series of highly acclaimed recordings for Columbia (CBS) and RCA, including concertos by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Brahms, Chopin and Beethoven with the orchestras of New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago and Boston, and with such conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Eugene Ormandy and George Szell. In 1979, however, Mr. Graffman's performing career was curtailed by an injury to his right hand. His performances are now limited to the small but brilliant repertoire of concertos written for the left hand alone, most of them commissioned early in the century by Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in World War I. The reduction in Mr. Graffman's concert activity has provided him with a remarkable opportunity to expand his horizons beyond the stage. Most notable has been his leadership of the renowned Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He first joined its piano faculty in 1980 and became Director of the all-scholarship conservatory in 1986, following such illustrious predecessors as Josef Hofmann, Efrem Zimbalist and Rudolf Serkin. He was appointed president of the Curtis Institute in 1995 and remains active as a teacher and coach of piano and chamber music students. Mr. Graffman was born in New York, of Russian parents, and began to play the piano at age 3. His father, a violinist, had given him a small fiddle, but when the instrument proved too cumbersome, piano lessons were substituted, though a return to the violin was planned. The young Graffman's affinity for the piano soon became evident, however, and at 7 he was accepted by the Curtis Institute for study with the renowned Isabelle Vengerova - exactly 50 years before he would become the school's director. After graduation from Curtis, he worked intensively for several years with Vladimir Horowitz and, during the summers, at the Marlboro Music Festival with Rudolf Serkin.

Franz Welser-Möst is in his fifth season as music director of The Cleveland Orchestra. His long-term commitment to the Orchestra extends through the 2011-12 season. In addition to partnerships with area colleges and universities, Mr. Welser-Möst is involved with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. Under his direction, The Cleveland Orchestra has toured extensively, to critical acclaim. In Europe, the Orchestra has biennial residencies at the Musikverein in Vienna, the first of their kind by an American orchestra, and regular appearances at European festivals. Mr. Welser-Möst became general music director of the Zurich Opera in September 2005 and has made a commitment to the Opera that extends through 2011. He served as the Opera's principal conductor from 2002 to 2005, and previously served as music director from 1995 to 2002. During his tenure as music director, he conducted many new productions and, each season, led numerous revivals, including operas from the French, German, Italian and Slavic repertoires. Mr. Welser-Möst also has conducted at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, at the Glyndebourne Festival in Great Britain, and at the Vienna State Opera, where he led acclaimed performances of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in 2003 and returned to conduct performances of that opera in February 2006. In November 2005, he participated in the gala concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the reopening of the Vienna State Opera. Mr. Welser-Möst's rise to international fame as a conductor began in 1986 when he made his debut with the London Philharmonic, for which he was appointed music director in 1990, a position he held for six years. He works regularly with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic. He also appears with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (which he will lead in concerts and a recording in May 2007), and has conducted the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra many times since the ensemble's founding in 1986. Following his 1989 American debut with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Welser-Möst returned regularly to the U.S., appearing with the orchestras of Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and Saint Louis.

Howard A. Roberts (B.M., 1950, M.M., 1951, voice), student of Mordecai Bauman and Marie Kraft, was playing trumpet professionally by age 16. He performed in the acclaimed revival of Porgy and Bess and toured as tenor soloist with The Robert Shaw Chorale. He has served as musical director/conductor/vocal and choral arranger for many Broadway shows, including Raisin and Guys and Dolls. As musical director for Harry Belafonte, he conducted concert performances across the U.S. and Canada. Mr. Roberts collaborated with Alvin Ailey to create the American Dance Theater's Revelations, and served as the company's musical director for 15 years. Blood Memories, choreographed by Donald McKayle, was commissioned and performed by the Ailey company. Mr. Roberts has received ASCAP Standard Music Panel awards for nine consecutive years and two Emmy Award nominations for In Performance at the White House with Leontyne Price and Lorraine Hansberry's To Be Young, Gifted and Black. He retired recently as professor of music at the City University of New York.

Richard Glazier (D.M.A., 1994, piano), student of Elizabeth Pastor, is one of today's foremost interpreters of the American Popular Songbook and is closely associated with music of George and Ira Gershwin. At age nine, Mr. Glazier heard a recording of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue by Oscar Levant with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. When Mr. Glazier was 12, Ira Gershwin invited him to his home. Mr. Glazier has performed in nearly every U.S. state, bringing audiences the music of the Golden Age of American Popular Song with fascinating commentary about the composers of the era. Weaving stories, film clips and piano performances, his programs are entertaining, educational and inspiring. Mr. Glazier has performed several times at CIM, including a well-received "Salute to the Hollywood Musical."

Thomas C. Moore (B.M., 1986, M.M., 1988, oboe), student of John Mack, is producer and senior recording editor for Telarc International. He was recently named Outstanding Producer of the Year by Outmusic Awards. In 2006, he won his third GRAMMY Award for producing 4 + Four with the Turtle Island String Quartet. He also garnered the nomination for Classical Producer of the Year in 2005. Mr. Moore is principal oboist and a founder of Red {an orchestra}. He has served as principal oboist with the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Opera Orchestra, Cleveland Ballet Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra and Glimmerglass Opera Orchestra.

For more information, call CIM at 216-791-5000.