Honorary degrees are granted to those of great scholarly or artistic achievement. They must be approved by the Faculty Committee on Honorary Degrees, the President of the University, and the Board of Trustees. For a complete list of honorary degrees awarded by the University of Rochester, including PhDs in Music, please click here.
2024 Maria Schneider
2017 Chick Corea Steve Gadd
2015 Robert Freeman
2014 Sir James Galway Itzhak Perlman Andre Previn Mark Volpe
2013 Douglas Lowry Jessye Norman
2012 George Walker
2011 Renée Fleming
2010 Ron Carter
2009 Christopher Seaman
2008 David Brubeck
2007 Marian McPartland
2006 Joseph Turrin
2001 John T. Williams
2000 Catharine (Gleason) Crozier
1998 Teresa Stratas Christoph von Dohnanyi
1997 Milton Babbitt
1996 Robert D. Levin Norio Ohga David Joel Zinman
1994 Leonard Slatkin
1991 Alice Tully
1990 Maxwell Lemuel Roach
1989 Nicolas Slonimsky
1988 Fredrick Fennell William Warfield
1987 Georg Solti
1985 Charles Frank Mangione
1981 Donald J. Grout
1978 Allen Forte
1976 Aaron Copland
1974 Goddard Lieberson
1973 Edward T. Cone Fernand Gillet Ralph Kirkpatrick Alec Wilder
1972 Krzysztof Penderecki William Schuman Rudolph Serkin Isaac Stern Shinichi Suzuki
1959 Joseph Edgar Maddy
1958 Alan Hovhaness
1956 Ernest MacMillan
1955 Harold Spivacke
1954 Herbert Elwell
1952 Guy Fraser Harrison
1951 Fred Waring
1949 Ettore Massoleni
1948 Victor Alessandro
1947 Douglas Stuart Moore
1946 Roy Ellsworth Harris
1944 Quincy Porter
1942 Ernest Hutcheson
1941 Frederick August Stock
1940 Serge Koussevitsky
1939 Deems Taylor
1938 Rudolph Ganz
1934 Leo Sowerby
1933 Randall Thompson
1932 Daniel Gregory Mason
1929 Earl Vincent Moore