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They already received their degrees from the �Ӱ�ԭ��. Soon, they’ll also hold some of the school’s highest honors.  

Ahead of Commencement this year, during Honors Convocation at 10am on Friday, May 13, �Ӱ�ԭ�� will bestow special awards on three alumni. The Distinguished Alumni Award will be presented to composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate (MM ’00, Pastor/Erb) and posthumously to trumpeter Ryan Anthony (BM ’91, MM ’93, Zauder). The Distinguished Alumni Award honors alumni who have attained the highest stature in their field. Pianist Michelle Cann (BM ’09, MM ’10, Schenly/D. Shapiro) will receive the 2022 Alumni Achievement Award, which recognizes significant professional contributions to the field. The three awardees join a storied group of past alumni award recipients, spanning �Ӱ�ԭ��’s 100-year history. Cann and Tate will speak at the convocation and perform that evening at the second annual Luminaries Benefit Concert along with Honorary Doctor of Musical Arts recipient Jennifer Koh. More information about Luminaries will be announced later this spring.

Scott Harrison, �Ӱ�ԭ��’s executive vice president and provost, praised the nominees, citing the breadth of their talents and the profound, ongoing impact of their work in classical music. “�Ӱ�ԭ�� could not be prouder of these exceptional members of our community,” Harrison said. “All of our graduates are remarkable, but the choice to grant these three our Distinguished Alumni and Alumni Achievement awards was not difficult. Tate, Cann and Anthony took their �Ӱ�ԭ�� training and applied it in daring, inventive ways to improve our field and empower communities, reflecting not only on themselves but also on �Ӱ�ԭ�� and our faculty. Their contributions to art and music have expanded the cultural world and made our society more curious and empathetic.”

Learn More �Ӱ�ԭ�� This Year's Award Recipients

Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate

Pianist-composer is dedicated to the development of American Indian classical composition. He is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, and his music reflects the heritage of multiple tribes including the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Navajo, Cherokee, Lakota, Hopi and Shoshone. His work has been commissioned and performed by major orchestras and festivals across the US, including the Dallas Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. He is guest composer/conductor/pianist for the San Francisco Symphony Currents program Thunder Song: American Indian Musical Cultures and was recently guest composer for a Metropolitan Museum of Art Balcony Bar program. Tate also has received multiple commissions from Chamber Music America and the American Composers Forum, and his music has been featured on the HBO series Westworld. He records regularly with Azica Records, the Grammy Award-winning label based in Cleveland. Before earning a dual master’s degree in performance and composition from �Ӱ�ԭ��, Tate studied piano performance at Northwestern University. He also is a committed educator, working regularly with Native students and having founded the Chickasaw Chamber Music Festival. �Ӱ�ԭ�� granted him an Alumni Achievement Award in 2006.

Ryan Anthony

Until his death in June 2020 at age 51, trumpeter Ryan Anthony was principal trumpet of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, having joined the orchestra in 2004. Prior to that in 2000, the Yamaha artist became a member of the world-renowned brass ensemble Canadian Brass. Anthony’s career began at age 16, when he won the Seventeen Magazine/General Motors Concerto Competition. He then went on to appear with major orchestras and festivals all over the world, and to take part in numerous recordings with the Center City Brass Quintet and Burning River Brass, of which he also was a member. As an educator, Anthony was professor of practice in trumpet and chair of the winds and brass department at Southern Methodist University and from 1998-2000 was assistant professor of trumpet at Oberlin College Conservatory. In 2019, he was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Trumpet Guild joining previous recipients Doc Severinsen, Louis Armstrong and Maurice Andre. He also edited and recorded both the Haydn and Hummel trumpet concertos for Hal Leonard Publishing. The Distinguished Alumni Award is Anthony’s second notable honor from �Ӱ�ԭ��. In 2001, he received the school’s Alumni Achievement Award. After his diagnosis of multiple myeloma in 2012, Anthony founded the non-profit CancerBlows/The Ryan Anthony Foundation which to date has raised over $3 million toward cancer research through concerts featuring brass musicians.

Michelle Cann

Hailed as a “compelling, sparkling virtuoso,” pianist is in demand by orchestras across the US. Since her orchestral debut at age 14, she has appeared with the orchestras of Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Detroit and St. Louis, among others. She made her Cleveland Orchestra debut in July 2021. She also appears regularly as a chamber musician, performing at major venues worldwide, and has appeared as co-host and collaborative pianist on the NPR program From the Top. Cann is a champion of the music of Florence Price, having given the New York premiere of Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement with The Dream Unfinished orchestra in July 2016. In addition to �Ӱ�ԭ��’s Alumni Achievement Award, Cann received the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, the highest honor from the Sphinx Organization, and the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award. In 2019, Cann served as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s MAC Music Innovator, in recognition of her role as an African-American classical musician who embodies artistry, innovation and a commitment to education and community engagement. In addition to performing, Cann holds the inaugural Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies at the Curtis Institute of Music.