Noted Wisconsin Naturalist, Acclaimed Chinese Composer Receiving Honorary Degrees at Lawrence University's 153rd Commencement
APPLETON, WIS. -- One of Wisconsin's best-known naturalists and a Chinese musician who survived labor camp "re-education" as a child to become one of the world's most acclaimed composers will receive honorary degrees from Lawrence University Sunday, June 16 during the college's 153rd commencement.
Lawrence will recognize author, teacher and nature photographer Roy Lukes with an honorary doctor of science degree, while award-winning composer Chen Yi will be awarded an honorary doctor of fine arts degree. Lawrence awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters degree to poet Edward Hirsch last month at its annual Honors Convocation.
Lawrence will confer 248 bachelor's degrees during commencement exercises, which begin at 10:30 a.m. in the Main Hall Green. In the event of inclement weather, commencement ceremonies will be moved inside the Lawrence Memorial Chapel.
A baccalaureate service, featuring Dirck Vorenkamp, assistant professor of religious studies, will be held Saturday, June 15 at 11 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. Both events are free and open to the public.
Lukes and Chen Yi, along with Lawrence President Richard Warch, Lawrence Board of Trustees Chair Jeffrey Riester and student representative Erin Garland, a senior from Waukesha, will each address the graduates during commencement.
Born in Kewaunee, Lukes taught school for 20 years in Madison, Wisconsin Rapids and Door County and spent 27 years as the chief naturalist at The Ridges Sanctuary in Door County before retiring in 1990. With his wife, Charlotte, Lukes currently operates NATURE-WISE, an adult outdoor education school in Door County.
Since 1968, Lukes has written a weekly nature column that appears in several Wisconsin newspapers and contributes a nature essay for each issue of Newmonth Magazine. He is the author of five books, among them "Tales of the Wild, A Year with Nature," which was published in 2000.
Lukes, who lives in Egg Harbor, has served as president of numerous nature and environmental organizations, including the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology and the Botanical Club of Wisconsin and his conservation and education efforts have been recognized with awards from the Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy and the Audobon Society. In 1998, he was honored as Environmentalist of the Year by the Door County Environmental Coucil.
Chen Yi, the Cravens/Millsap/Missouri Distinguished Professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, began studying violin and piano when she was only three years old, but her formal education was interrupted in 1966 by China's Cultural Revolution. At the age of 15, she was separated from her parents and siblings and sent to a forced labor camp.
When the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing was reopened in 1977, Chen Yi applied for and was accepted as a composition student, graduating from the conservatory's five-year bachelor's degree program. In 1986, she became the first woman in China to earn a master's degree in composition, an event that was celebrated with a nationally televised concert of her work.
After serving as composer-in-residence for the China National Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, Chen Yi came to the United States, where she earned the doctor of musical arts degree from Columbia University.
Her music has been performed throughout the world and has been premiered by world-renowned musicians and ensembles, including the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., percussionist Evelyn Glennie and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
She has been recognized with the highest honors and awards in the field of composition, among them the prestigious Charles Ives Living Award in 2000, a three-year, $225,000 grant enabling her to compose full-time, the first prize from the Chinese National Composition Competition and the adventurous programming award from ASCAP. In addition, she has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Chen Yi has been awarded commissions from the Koussevitsky, Fromm, Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, Carnegie Hall, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Chamber Music America, among many others.