The University’s Transfusion and Big Band ensembles will perform jazz versions of standards in addition to original compositions. The University will bestow an honorary doctorate of fine arts upon one of its most distinguished alumni, jazz legend Stanley Clarke. A native of Philadelphia, Clarke studied double bass at the Philadelphia Musical Academy, now The University of the Arts, and went on to earn to earn a Grammy Award, several other Grammy and Emmy nominations, and a place at the top of numerous reader and critic polls during his nearly 40-year career as a bass virtuoso. He’s also become one of the most in-demand composers in Hollywood.
A native of La Plata, Md., Buffington graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and American literature and Afro-American studies. He was a Harvard College National Scholar and is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. A Regents Fellow, Buffington earned his Master of Art degree in American culture from the University of Michigan in 1994.
Named Harvard’s Associate Provost for Arts and Culture and Director of Cultural Programs in 2005, Buffington oversaw arts activities and planning for the cultural elements of Harvard's new campus in Allston, Mass. As the University's principal representative to arts and cultural institutions in the Boston region, he was responsible for overseeing Harvard's Tony-award winning American Repertory Theatre; the Harvard University Art Museums; and Villa I Tatti, Harvard's Center for Italian Renaissance Studies.
For more information, visit www.uarts.edu/inauguration or email inauguration@uarts.edu.
