Westminster Choir College of Rider University will hold its 74th annual commencement ceremony 10:30 a.m. Saturday in the Princeton University Chapel.
Undergraduate and graduate degrees will be awarded to 120 students.
Noted piano teacher Robert Pace will deliver the commencement address and Jay Kawarsky, professor of music composition, history and theory, will deliver the charge to the graduating classes.
Honorary doctorates will be awarded to Robert Pace and to Marion Buckelew Cullen, a community leader and a former member of the Westminster Choir College board of trustees.
Dr. Pace has been a leader in music education for over 40 years as performer, teacher and author. As a Juilliard School undergraduate, he studied with the famed Josef and Rosina Lhevinne and earned his master’s and doctoral degrees at Teachers College, Columbia University. He first taught at Juilliard before being appointed in 1952 as head of piano instruction at Teachers College, where he later became chairman of the music department.
He was a member of the original four-member committee appointed by President John F. Kennedy to make a study of music in the United States. Dr. Pace’s theories, which stress the development of each student’s musical literacy and creativity, have had a major impact on music teaching both in the United States and abroad.
Mrs. Cullen is a graduate of New Jersey College for Women, now Douglass College, where she majored in history, English and dramatic arts. While a student, she was inducted into the National Honorary Dramatic Arts Society. During World War II, she worked on an atmospheric testing project with the Research Foundation in New York.
Mrs. Cullen has served the Princeton area by participating in voter registration campaigns and working as a volunteer for a number of organizations, including the Women’s Association of First Presbyterian Church, Church Women United and the Women’s College Club. She has also served on the board of trustees at the American Boychoir School and Westminster College.
Dr. Kawarsky earned a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University and a master’s degree and doctorate from Northwestern University. He studied composition with Alan Stout, Stephen Syverud, Gary C. White and John Paynter; and conducting with Robert Molison, Frederick Ockwell and Robert Harris. He is a member of Phi Kappa Phi and Pi Kappa Lambda. He has received numerous commissions for works that have been performed throughout the United States.
Distinguished by its unique choral focus, Westminster Choir College is the home of the world-renowned Westminster Choir, which has performed and recorded with virtually all of the great orchestras and conductors. Westminster merged with Rider University in 1992.

