Marquette, UWM to Bestow Honorary Doctorates

By TOM STRINI

Two local universities will bestow honorary doctorates on musical figures at their commencement ceremonies, both to be held Sunday.

Marquette University will honor Andreas Delfs, music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra since 1997.

"You have been an invigorating presence in Milwaukee — someone who has helped people appreciate the importance of music and the performing arts in our society," wrote Marquette President Father Robert A. Wild in a letter to Delfs.

"Your conducting, particularly of Beethoven and other German composers from the Romantic era, is sublime. In short, you are the sort of person who would be a fine role model for our graduates."

Delfs will return to Milwaukee from New York a day early to be present at the commencement.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, whose music department has a burgeoning and diverse guitar program, will grant Leo Kottke an honorary doctorate in music performance.

Kottke will attend.

Kottke was a pioneering player of what has come to be called American finger-style guitar, a virtuoso sort of folk-based playing involving complicated right-hand technique and all manner of non- standard tunings. He is best known for his work on 12-string guitar, but he plays six-string guitar, as well.

Kottke’s relationship to UWM dates back to 1985, when he performed and taught at the first American Finger-style Guitar Festival, held on the UWM campus.

Since the guitar area was reconstituted within the Peck School of the Arts in 2004, Kottke has been an adviser and visitor.

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