Honorary Degrees of Retiring Faculty
Mari Taniguchi, Professor of Music, 2001
"Mari Taniguchi, for forty years you have served the Conservatory of Music as soprano soloist, teacher of voice and vocal literature, choral conductor, vocal coach, accompanist, master chef, and dispenser of invaluable advice.
As a performer you have distinguished yourself not only with your meticulous attention to text and phrase contour, but also by the remarkable longevity of your performance career, a testament to the physical soundness of your singing. Early in your career you performed as a part of Robert Shaw's Chorale for broadcasts on NBC and CBS and on some of Toscanini's legendary recording-broadcasts of operas and orchestral works. You made your operatic debut in Turin in Madame Butterfly and subsequently sang in cities including Rome, Venice, Malta, and Milan. Throughout much of your time at Lawrence, you remained an active performer in recitals and concerts in a variety of locations and settings.
As a teacher and coach, you are well known for your insistence upon excellence of diction and musical phrasing, for the rigor of your expectations, and for the intensity of your scrutiny. The success of your efforts is well-documented by the national and international careers of your students, including Grammy Award winning baritone and Lawrence Artist-in-Residence, Dale Duesing, American Song Contest Winner William Sharp, and, more recently, Metropolitan Opera Audition Winner, Mark Uhlemann. Your students have won awards and fellowships from the National Federation of Music, the Watson Foundation, and the Fulbright Foundation, and they remain profoundly grateful for--and influenced by--your guidance.
As a community member you have tricycled to many a concert, knitted your way through many a faculty meeting, graced many a voice jury with homemade biscotti, and taken many a young faculty member under your wing and into your famous kitchen. In addition, you are the only patient in the history of Appleton Medical Center to have baked cookies for herself before checking into the hospital for knee surgery. You will understand that we salute you today not only for your artistry, but for your unflagging devotion to nosh, traits that have made you for all the incomparable Miss T.
By the authority vested in me, I now confer upon you the degree of Master of Arts, ad eundem, and admit you to its rights, its privileges, and its obligations."