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Colgate University 2023 Commencement Address by Wynton Marsalis
Thank you, Marietta Cheng for the humbling introduction. Thank you, President Casey, Dean Cushing, Colgate Trustees, and the faculty and staff of Colgate for having me with you today. My fellow honorees, it’s a pleasure to be up here with you. Keep reading »
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University of Michigan’s 2023 Spring Commencement Speech
Class of 23. You have finally made it to the finish line, congratulations. As you congregate here to the rightful chorus of kudos from family, friends, mentors, professors and others, please take in the size, the grandeur, and the pomp of this - your graduation from the mighty University of Michigan. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis announced as 2023 commencement speaker at University of Michigan
The University of Michigan has announced that Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, will be the 2023 Spring Commencement speaker at the April 29 commencement ceremony, which will be held at the Michigan Stadium. Keep reading »
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Jazz Legend Wynton Marsalis Named Colgate University 2023 Commencement Speaker
Marsalis to receive honorary degree alongside Joe Castiglione ’68, IIya Kaminsky, Mary Ann Moran ’77 and Mark Siegel ’73. Keep reading »
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Kenyon College 191st Commencement Speech
The following is the prepared text of the address delivered on the occasion of Kenyon’s 191st Commencement. He spoke to the Class of 2019 assembled on Samuel Mather Lawn. (Video of Marsalis’s speech will be posted soon.) Keep reading »
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Six Questions With Wynton Marsalis
On Saturday, May 18, musician, composer and all-around jazz legend Wynton Marsalis will address the Class of 2019 at Kenyon’s 191st Commencement. Before his arrival in Gambier, we talked to Marsalis about his career, the importance of music education, and how a life full of music can have a positive impact for individuals and communities. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis to speak at Kenyon spring commencement
Internationally acclaimed musician and educator Wynton Marsalis, winner of nine Grammy Awards and the first jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, will be the featured speaker at Kenyon’s 191st Commencement on May 18, 2019. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis Addresses Juilliard’s 294 Graduates
Your art can be the vaccine for the types of self-involved hysterias that have so often stained human history,” Wynton Marsalis told Juilliard’s nearly 300 graduates and their family members and friends at the school’s 113th commencement ceremony. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis to deliver the Commencement Address at Juilliard’s 113th Commencement Ceremony
The Juilliard School today announced that alumnus Wynton Marsalis—trumpeter, director of Juilliard Jazz Studies, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center—will address the graduates at the school’s 113th commencement ceremony, which takes place Friday, May 18, 2018, at 11am in Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center. Keep reading »
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Transcript: Wynton’s Keynote Address at Tulane University’s Commencement 2014
Here at home in New Orleans, we have a tradition of starting important gigs by calling out the names of legendary musicians from the past. In evoking the memory of legendary artists, this roll call inspires a higher level of performance. In 2007, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra went on tour with Odaadaa!, a group from Ghana led by master drummer Yacub Addy. Each concert started with a long roll call of distinguished ancestors chanted and spoken in Ga, their native tongue. At the end of the chant, Mr. Addy would say “Trah trah o manyaba.” Whereupon we would say Yow!
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