On May 16, conductor Diane Wittry will receive the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music during the school’s Honors Convocation. Wittry—who received undergraduate and graduate degrees from USC—will also address the school’s graduating class on May 17 during Thornton’s commencement ceremony. Wittry is music director of the Allentown Symphony Orchestra in Pennsylvania; she is former music director of the Norwalk Symphony in Connecticut and artistic director of the Ridgewood Symphony in New Jersey. Wittry, recently named U.S. artistic director for the International Cultural Exchange Program for Classical Musicians through the Sarajevo Philharmonic in Bosnia, is also author of Beyond the Baton (Oxford, 2007). Prior winners of the USC Thornton Outstanding Alumnus Award include composer Morten Lauridsen and conductors Grant Gershon and Michael Tilson Thomas.
Posted May 16, 2013
