Byrne to serve as Bard commencement speaker
ANNADALE-ON-HUDSON
» Former Talking Heads lead singer and guitarist David Byrne will be the commencement speaker at Bard College’s graduation ceremonies on Saturday, May 23.
Byrne will receive an honorary doctorate of fine arts at the 116th Bard College commencement ceremony.
Honorary degrees will also be awarded to multimedia artist Laurie Anderson, physicist Steven Chu, composer Gao Xiaosong, curator Thelma Golden, Brooklyn Public Library President Linda E. Johnson, educational historian Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, and biophysicist George D. Rose, who graduated from the college in 1963.
Byrne, 67, is the founder of the new wave band Talking Heads which produced such hits as “Psycho Killer,” “Burning Down the House,” “Take Me to the River,” “Once in a Lifetime,” and “Wild Wild Life.”
The band, which formed in 1975, broke up in 1991.
The college commencement will also feature Board President Leon Botstein conferring 445 undergraduate degrees on the Class of 2020 and 163 graduate degrees.
The program, which begins at 2:30 p.m. in the commencement tent on the Seth Goldfine Memorial Rugby Field, will include the presentation of honorary doctoral degrees.
Other events taking place during Commencement Weekend include class reunions; a concert by Bard student soloists and composers with The Orchestra Now, with Botstein serving as conductor; and the granting of Bard College awards for 2020.
The Bard Medal will be presented to Barbara S. Grossman, a 1973 graduate; the John and Samuel Bard Award in Medicine and Science to Juliet Morrison, 2003; the Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters to Xaviera Simmons, 2005; the John Dewey Award for Distinguished Public to Nicholas Ascienzo and Matt Taibbi, 1992; the Mary McCarthy Award to Carolyn Forché; and the Bardian Award to Peggy Ahwesh, Matthew Deady, Michèle D. Dominy, Bonnie R. Marcus, and Richard Teitelbaum.