Juilliard Announces Honorary Doctorate Recipients for 120th Commencement Ceremony

 Gustavo Dudamel, Masaaki Suzuki, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich are among those who will be honored on May 24, 2025

The Juilliard School will hold its 120th Commencement Ceremony on May 24, 2025, at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall and 293 graduates from across the school's artistic disciplines will cross the stage to receive their qualifications. 

The ceremony will also honor a number of prominent figures with honorary doctorates. The musicians among them are Gustavo Dudamel, Masaaki Suzuki, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich — while the other recipients from across the arts are Alicia Graf Mack, Marsha Norman, and Darren Walker.

Historically informed performance expert Masaaki Suzuki is the founder and music director of Bach Collegium Japan and is a leading authority on the performance of music by J. S. Bach. He has also led groups such as Collegium Vocale Gent and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, as well as mainstream orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin. 

In 1983, composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich became the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Music. She is also the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, four Grammy nominations, and the NPR and WNYC Gotham Award for her contributions to the musical life of New York City. 

Her catalog of works includes five symphonies, as well as concerti commissioned by some of America's foremost ensembles. Zwilich holds a doctorate from Juilliard and is presently the Krafft Distinguished Professor at Florida State University.