Don Michael Randel, president of the Andrew Mellon W. Foundation, will be the keynote speaker at Notre Dame's Graduate School Commencement ceremony Saturday.
Randel, who is also receiving an honorary law degree at Sunday's Commencement ceremony, is an "internationally prominent historian of music" according to University press release. His work focuses on the Middle Ages and Renaissance, but he also lectures on Arabic and Latin American popular music.
According to the press release, Randel is editor of the Harvard Dictionary of Music, the Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music and the Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
He taught at Cornell University for 32 years, serving as the dean of arts and letters for a time. Randel also spent five years as the university's provost.
In 2000, he became the president of the University of Chicago where during his tenure he headed a $2 billion fundraising campaign, which was the largest in the school's history.
He is an alumnus of Princeton with undergraduate, masters and doctoral degrees in music.
