J'Nai Bridges, Misty Copeland and Donna McKechnie to Receive Honorary Degrees at MSM
Jane Chu and jazz pianist Jason Moran will also be honored at The Riverside Church in NYC.
Manhattan School of Music will hold its annual Commencement Ceremony on Thursday, May 21, 2026, at 1:00 PM at The Riverside Church. This year, in addition to degrees being awarded to graduating students from the School's graduate and undergraduate programs, MSM President James Gandre will confer the Degree of Doctor of Musical Arts, honoris causa, on MSM alumna and Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano and Metropolitan Opera artist J'Nai Bridges (BM '09), who will also make the Commencement Address; former Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts Jane Chu; former principal dancer of the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) Misty Copeland; Tony Award-winner and musical theatre legend Donna McKechnie; and Grammy-nominated jazz pianist, composer, educator, visual artist, and MSM alumnus Jason Moran (BM '97). Ms. Bridges and Mr. Moran both received their Bachelor of Music from Manhattan School of Music.
The President's Medal for Distinguished Service, an annual award bestowed by the MSM President upon current members of the MSM Community who have demonstrated extraordinary commitment to the School, will be awarded to: composition faculty member Susan Botti (MM '90); MSM Board Chair Lorraine Gallard (PC '66); percussion faculty member Duncan Patton; long-time maintenance staff member Felix Rodriguez; and Performance Librarian Manly Romero.
Owne Xayboury (BM '26), a classical viola student graduating with his Bachelor of Music, will be the Student Speaker.
ABOUT THE 2026 HONORARY DOCTORATE RECIPIENTS:
J'NAI BRIDGES (BM '09)
Three-time Grammy Award-winning American mezzo-soprano J'Nai Bridges (BM '09) is an alumna of Manhattan School of Music where she studied with Joan Patenaude-Yarnell. Praised for her rich expressive voice and commanding Stage Presence, she has performed on the world's leading operatic and concert stages, including Arena di Verona, Carnegie Hall, Houston Grand Opera, and The Metropolitan Opera.
A native of Tacoma, Washington, J'Nai earned a Bachelor of Music at MSM and a Master of Music at the Curtis Institute of Music. She further honed her craft through a three-year residency at the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, which served as a springboard for her now-celebrated international career as a mezzo-soprano.
J'Nai made her Met Opera debut as Queen Nefertiti in the 2019-20 production of Philip Glass's Akhnaten. In the 2025-26 season, she performed Maddalena in Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera and made her house debut in the title role of Carmen at Teatro Real in Madrid, reprising the role at Seattle Opera and Cincinnati Opera. She returned to Washington National Opera as Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible. Her upcoming engagements include Carmen with Seattle Opera and Cincinnati Opera, Rigoletto with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and an opening night appearance with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Marian Anderson Hall, as well as Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette with the Seattle Symphony and Diamond Jubilee: 60 Years at Lincoln Center at the Met Opera.
Ms. Bridges has emerged as a leading figure in classical music's shift toward conversations of inclusion and racial justice in the performing arts. In 2022 she was announced as one of the Kennedy Center's NEXT50 cultural leaders, and appeared with The National Philharmonic in the world premiere of MSM alumnus Adolphus Hailstork's A Knee on the Neck that same year. Ms. Bridges led a highly successful panel on race and inequality in opera with the Los Angeles Opera that drew international acclaim for being a "conversation of striking scope and candor" (The New York Times). Ms. Bridges was also featured in the Converse shoe brand's All Stars Campaign for its Breaking Down Barriers collection, and performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel for two episodes of the digital SOUND/STAGE series. She was also a part of the Global Citizen movement's Global Goal campaign, a program which also included Coldplay, Shakira, Usher, and more, and was featured as a "DVF" Woman, a campaign started by clothing designer Diane Von Furstenberg recognizing leading women who also love fashion.
Ms. Bridges is a recipient of the prestigious 2018 Sphinx Medal of Excellence Award, a 2016 Richard Tucker Career Grant, first prize winner at the 2016 Francisco Viñas International Competition, first prize winner at the 2015 Gerda Lissner Competition, a recipient of the 2013 Sullivan Foundation Award, a 2012 Marian Anderson award winner, the recipient of the 2011 Sara Tucker Study Grant, the recipient of the 2009 Richard F. Gold Grant from The Shoshana Foundation, and the winner of the 2008 Leontyne Price Foundation Competition.
Jane Chu
Jane Chu combines her academic research and professional practice in the arts, philanthropy, and business administration. In 2014, she was appointed to serve as the eleventh chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts, completing her term in June 2018.
During Ms. Chu's four-year tenure at the National Endowment for the Arts, she traveled to 50 US states and four countries; 200 communities; and made more than 400 site visits to meet with artists and arts leaders, government and civic leaders, philanthropists, and the general public. The NEA awarded $430 million over those four years to support the arts in 16,000 communities across 50 states, US jurisdictions, and every Congressional District. In 2016, the NEA was ranked number one in the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government for small agencies.
Jane Chu straddles multiple cultures, having been born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and raised in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, the daughter of Chinese immigrants. She received bachelor's degrees in piano performance and music education from Ouachita Baptist University, as well as a master's degree in piano pedagogy from Southern Methodist University. Additionally, Ms. Chu holds an associate degree in visual arts from Nebraska Wesleyan University, an MBA from Rockhurst University, a Ph.D. in philanthropic studies from Indiana University, and six honorary doctorate degrees.
A practicing visual artist and writer, Ms. Chu lives in New York. Her artwork can be found at https://janechuart.com
Misty Copeland
Misty Copeland is a former principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre who made history in 2015 as the first Black woman promoted to that role in the company's 75-year history. After a 25-year career with ABT, she officially retired from the company in 2025.
She is a New York Times bestselling author and founder of the Misty Copeland Foundation, which focuses on advancing diversity and inclusion in dance. Through the Foundation's signature BE BOLD program, Manhattan School of Music students play an integral role as one of three teaching artists in each introductory ballet class for children ages 5-12, supporting a model that keeps ballet free, accessible, and fun for communities in the Bronx and Harlem. Ms. Copeland also runs Life in Motion Productions, producing acclaimed short films including Flower, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and Match in a Haystack. She has been recognized as one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People and Glamour's Women of the Year.
Donna McKechnie
Donna McKechnie, who was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2019, was last seen on Broadway playing the role of Madame Morrible in Wicked in 2024. Ms. McKechnie received a Tony Award for her performance as Cassie in A Chorus Line.
She is regarded internationally as one of Broadway's foremost singing and dancing leading ladies, having starred in and choreographed productions in London's West End as well as major productions in Paris and Tokyo.
Some of her Broadway credits include How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying, The Education of Hyman Kaplan, Sondheim: A Musical Tribute (as both performer and choreographer), Promises, Promises, Company, On the Town, State Fair (Fred Astaire Award Winner), and The Visit.
Donna has starred in regional plays and musicals, symphony concerts, and television specials, as well as TV series such as Fame, Cheers, and Dark Shadows. Film credits include playing the Rose in The Little Prince and Every Little Step. Her memoir, Time Steps-My Musical Comedy Life, was published by Simon & Schuster.
JASON MORAN (BM '97)
Houston-born pianist, composer, educator, and visual artist Jason Moran earned a bachelor's degree from Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Jaki Byard. Moran has recorded 20 critically acclaimed solo recordings for Blue Note Records and his label Yes Records. He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2010 and was recently inducted into the Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has composed scores for Alonzo King's Lines Ballet, Ronald K. Brown's Evidence Dance Company, and the Martha Graham Dance Company. He has collaborated with artists Joan Jonas, Kara Walker, Adrian Piper, Lorna Simpson, Julie Mehretu, and Glenn Ligon.
He has had solo art exhibitions at the Whitney Museum, MCA Denver, the Walker Art Museum, and Mass Moca. He scored the films Selma and 13th by Ava DuVernay and is currently working on her latest film about the 14th Amendment. He and his wife, Alicia Hall Moran, were named artists in the Whitney Biennial, the Venice Bienniale, and created the touring concert Two Wings: The Music of Black America in Migration for Carnegie Hall.
Working broadly, Moran aims for the intersections between music and the world. This has led to collaborations with an array of people, including novelists Haruki Murakami, skateboarder Mark Gonzales, poet Elizabeth Alexander, fashion brand sacai, and others. He was the Artistic Director for Jazz at The Kennedy Center from 2011-2025 and currently curates the Artist Studio series at the Park Avenue Armory. As a curator, Moran created the permanent exhibition Here to Stay for the newly opened Louis Armstrong Museum in Queens and co-curated the exhibition I've Seen the Wall: Louis Armstrong on Tour in the GDR 1965 at DAS MINSK Kunsthaus in Potsdam. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory
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