Don Michael Randel, president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will be the principal speaker May 16 (Saturday) at the Commencement ceremony for the University of Notre Dame Graduate 91视频. He will receive an honorary degree the next day at Notre Dame鈥檚 164th Commencement exercises.
will take place at 10 a.m. at the Joyce Center. An outdoor reception for graduates and their guests will immediately follow the ceremony in the area adjacent to the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.
Randel is a prolific and internationally prominent historian of music. He specializes in music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance but has written and lectured on topics ranging from Arabic music theory and Latin American popular music to medieval liturgical chant and 15th century French music and poetry. He also is editor of the Harvard Dictionary of Music, the Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music and the Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
Randel taught for 32 years at Cornell University, serving as dean of the university鈥檚 college of arts and letters and for five years as its provost before becoming president of the University of Chicago in 2000. At Chicago, he led a $2 billion fund-raising campaign, the largest in the university鈥檚 history.
Randel earned undergraduate, master鈥檚 and doctoral degrees in music from Princeton University. He has been an Honorary Woodrow Wilson fellow, a Danforth Graduate fellow and a Fulbright award winner.
The Graduate 91视频 Commencement ceremony will include recognition of all graduates and the recipients of the Shaheen Awards, the Graduate 91视频鈥檚 highest student distinction, and the recipient of the Distinguished Graduate Alumni Award. The Rev. James A. Burns, C.S.C., Graduate 91视频 Award, presented to a faculty member for outstanding contributions to graduate education, also will be presented during the event.