Five outstanding artists will receive honorary Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) degrees at the 2026 Manhattan School of Music (MSM) Commencement Ceremony, which will take place this week.
They are mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges (who will also deliver the Commencement Address), former Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts Jane Chu, former principal dancer of the American Ballet Theatre Misty Copeland, Tony Award-winner and musical theatre legend Donna McKechnie, and Grammy-nominated jazz pianist, composer, educator, and visual artist Jason Moran.
A three-time GRAMMY Award winner, J’Nai Bridges is presently an artist at the Metropolitan Opera, having made her debut there as Queen Nefertiti in the 2019/20 production of Philip Glass’s Akhnaten. She received her bachelor’s degree from the MSM, where her teacher was Joan Patenaude-Yarnell.
Jane Chu was appointed as the eleventh Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts in 2014, and served a four-year term. During this time, she traveled to 50 US states and four countries to meet with artists and arts leaders, government and civic leaders, philanthropists, and the general public. The NEA awarded $430 million over those four years to support the arts in 16,000 communities.
In 2015, Misty Copeland became the first woman ever appointed to a Principal Dancer role at the American Ballet Theatre. She retired from the company in 2025, and is also a New York Times bestselling author and founder of the Misty Copeland Foundation, which focuses on advancing diversity and inclusion in dance.
A member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame, Donna McKechnie was last seen on Broadway playing the role of Madame Morrible in Wicked in 2024. She received a Tony Award for her performance as Cassie in A Chorus Line, and has appeared in London’s West End, as well as major productions in Paris and Tokyo.
Pianist, composer, educator, and visual artist Jason Moran has made more than twenty critically acclaimed solo recordings for Blue Note Records and his own label Yes Records. A 2010 MacArthur Fellow in 2010, he has composed scores for Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet, Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence Dance Company, and the Martha Graham Dance Company.