By any measure, the 2024-2025 academic year brought extraordinary challenges, among which were two historic fires that forced an evacuation of UCLA in January. Ever resilient, the stalwart students and faculty of The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music met the moment. Reaffirming their mutual love of music and scholarship, and support of each other, they ended the academic year in spectacular fashion. Our commencement ceremony was more than the honoring of our graduates–it was a collective moment of joy and celebration.
The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music gave me more than an education; it gave me the reassurance that I have a place in this field…. To the professors who guided the tempo and the classmates who brought the harmony—thank you for being the bridge between who I was and who I’m becoming.
– Luna Seng-Lay
Preparing for Commencement
Students gathered before the ceremony with their classmates, designated by department.
Ethnomusicology has not only changed me as a musician, but it has changed my worldview forever. Thank you to the Ethnomusicology department!!!
– Gabriela Acosta
While students gathered on Dickson Court, the faculty undertook the solemn, and often arduous, labor of donning their academic robes and hoods. Fortunately, good help was at hand.
The Ceremony Commences
Procession of faculty and candidates for graduation is always a colorful affair, and a unique one. Processional music was written by Francis Awe and Steve Loza and performed by the UCLA Commencement Brass Ensemble and the West African Drum Ensemble. Fun fact: the only other ceremony that has been graced with this procession music was the inauguration of Julio Frenk as the Seventh Chancellor of UCLA.
My journey as a K-12 student teacher in the Music Education program ignited my passion for community-building and embracing inclusive leadership. I witnessed firsthand that all students have the potential to thrive through transformative music-making experiences.
– Kobe Sanders
Acting Dean Robert Fink welcomed family and friends and presided over the ceremony. His opening speech reflected on transitions as a vital element of both music and life. He then welcomed the commencement speaker Denyce Graves. A mezzo-soprano singer who has been an international opera star since her Met debut in 1996, Graves has since become a director as well as maintaining a rigorous singing schedule that has her performing on stages around the world. Her address urged candidates for graduation to take the full force of their education and training and discover their own voice.
The people I’ve met here have not only been by my side through some of the most pivotal educational and professional moments of my life, but they’ve also helped me build my home away from home. Thank you all for sharing your insane talent with me. I’ve been honored to be a small piece in the incredible mosaic that is the music industry program.
– Cathryn Kuczynski
The Honors and Degrees Come One by One
After inspiring speeches came an emotional performance of “One by One,” a gospel song written by Dr. Diane White-Clayton and performed by the African American Music Ensemble, accompaied on piano by Dr. James Lent.
Next, student speakers addressed their classmates. Wade Dean, a newly minted PhD in musicology, spoke about the inherent courage it takes to show up every day and carry out one’s mission as a musician and educator. Mia Ruhman, BA in music composition, told her story about coping with the loss of her childhood home in the Pacific Palisades and completing her pop opera “Nannerl.”
There was a day during my first quarter at UCLA when I took a voice lesson with a world-renowned opera singer, listened to a lecture from one of the leading Beethoven scholars and saw Jacob Collier perform and inspire. That was the day I truly realized how lucky I was to be here at UCLA.
– James Scott
The faculty and graduates recessed to the sounds of the student ensemble Mariachi de Uclatlán.
My favorite experience was the night of my master’s conducting recital. Seeing the final product of a massive collaboration of the UCLA and the Virginia State University choral departments, as we featured music by all Black composers, and witnessing how invested the audience was the entire night was quite touching for me.
– Kevin Cornwell
Coda
The celebration continued on Dickson Court South. Congratulations to our class of 2025, their families, mentors and friends.
