In a ceremony to be filled with music, reflection, and inspiration, Claremont McKenna College will celebrate the Class of 2021 with a student-only, in-person graduation on May 15.
Graduation Ceremony 2021: What to know
- Only pre-registered students are allowed on campus for the event. Those attending in-person will have completed the CMC Health Screening Questionnaire prior to arriving on campus for check-in.
- No family members, friends, or guests are permitted on campus for the ceremony. We encourage them to join the event virtually by viewing the livestream.
- All ceremony participants are required to wear a mask while on campus, to follow social-distancing guidelines, and to adhere to all health and safety instructions provided by the College and its staff members.
- Student participants should arrive on campus graduation-ready in their caps and gowns. Check-in is from 2:45 – 3:30 p.m. at designated locations—last names A-M, Roberts Pavilion Plaza; N-Z, Bauer Center.
- The campus will be closed to the public on Saturday, May 15. No family photography will be permitted on campus that day.
Vijay Gupta, a renowned violinist and thought leader dedicated to creating spaces of belonging, healing, and wholeness through music, is this year’s featured speaker. Gupta is the creative mind behind Street Symphony, a project that serves the Skid Row community of Los Angeles through musical encounters and intimate conversations. Gupta is a former first-chair violinist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and a 2018 MacArthur “Genius” Fellow. He will also perform at the ceremony. (see below)
The graduation event at Parents Field will honor the accomplishments of this year’s senior class and will also be livestreamed. While social distancing, students’ names will be read as they walk across the stage and are congratulated by CMC’s Chair of the Board of Trustees David Mgrublian ‘82 P’11. Students who are attending the ceremony virtually will be individually recognized during the program and will be viewable by the in-person audience through the use of large screens and other technology.
This year’s event theme is “perspective.” In addition to Gupta, featured speakers include Timothy Wright ’77, who will lead the invocation; Dianna “DT” Graves ’98; senior class president Grace Wang ’21; class-elected student speaker JaDa Johnson ’21; CMC Board of Trustees Chair David Mgrublian ‘82 P’11; and CMC President Hiram E. Chodosh.
This year’s modified ceremony will mark a long-awaited return to campus for seniors who spent the entire academic year off campus. For a fuller commencement experience, CMC also has planned an additional multi-day, in-person celebration over the weekend of June 3-5, 2022, for members of the Classes of 2020 and 2021, their families, and friends.
The June 2022 celebration weekend will feature opportunities for graduates to stay in residence halls on campus with classmates; connect with faculty, coaches, and staff; engage in senior activities and traditions; and enjoy festivities with family, friends, and the entire CMC community during a traditional commencement ceremony.
Further details can be found here.
—Anne Bergman
Vijay Gupta to give commencement address at CMC
The acclaimed violinist, homeless advocate and 2018 MacArthur genius prize-winner shares his vision of bringing music to the marginalized.
Violinist and social justice activist Vijay Gupta will be the speaker at Claremont McKenna College’s students-only, in-person graduation ceremony on May 15.
Described by the New Yorker as “one of the most radical thinkers in the unradical world of American classical music,” Gupta has made it his life’s work to bring music to the marginalized. Endorsing his bold vision, the MacArthur Foundation awarded him a 2018 “genius” grant.
Gupta, 34, grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, the child of Indian immigrants. His father “peeled potatoes in New York City kitchens and worked the baggage claim at JFK,” Gupta said in a 2018 KCRW interview, while he dreamed of turning his son into a world-class musician.
Gupta picked up the violin at 4. He was taking lessons at Julliard by age 7, and he made his concert solo debut with the Israel Philharmonic at 11, under the baton of Zubin Mehta.
But Gupta was also a precocious science student, earning his bachelor’s degree in biology at Marist College when he was only 17. He went on to get a master’s in music from Yale.
Torn between pursuing a career in music or medicine, at 19 Gupta hedged his bets: while interning in a Harvard medical lab, he auditioned for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He chose music after beating 300 other violinists to become the youngest member in the orchestra’s history.
In Los Angeles, Gupta befriended a musician who had fallen on hard times. Julliard-educated bassist Nathaniel Ayers who had experienced a series of psychotic episodes and was living on Skid Row. First reported by Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez, Ayers’ story reached global audiences through the book and movie, The Soloist.
Gupta became Ayers’ violin teacher, and Ayers became Gupta’s inspiration.
In 2011, Gupta started Street Symphony, a nonprofit orchestra that performs in shelters, clinics, prisons and transitional facilities. Today, it presents more than 90 world-class events annually, reaching thousands of people who have no access to Disney Concert Hall.
Gupta’s social activism is rooted in both spirituality—he is a practicing Hindu—and a sustained interest in neurobiology. In a TED talk from 2011, he cited neurological evidence that “music can change us and infect us with joy. And that’s why, as a performer, the most rewarding audiences I perform for are those that need joy the most—the homeless and the mentally ill on Skid Row.”
Winning the 2018 MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant”—with its $625,000 stipend over five years—has allowed Gupta to devote himself full-time to bringing music to the marginalized. In 2018, he resigned from the L.A. Philharmonic.
As part of his commencement presentation, Gupta will perform music for solo violin.
The event is only open to students. To watch a live-stream of the ceremony, which begins at 4 pm on Saturday, May 15, click here.
—Diane Krieger