President Joan Coley's remarks
Honors Convocation at McDaniel College
on the occasion of presenting
the Trustee Alumni Award
May 2, 2004

When the scholars who labored on the King James Bible sat down to translate the description of Babylonian religion in the book of Daniel, they wrote that "Everyman shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery and dulcimer É shall fall down and worship."

To them, music held the power to draw listeners to worship, even if that worship was of a false god, a golden calf. But music also has the power to draw listeners to those things that are good and true and eternal. It is no coincidence that the term harmony applies equally to music and to the kind of world and kind of relationships with one another that we should all try to create. And bringing about that harmony - indeed using the same dulcimer mentioned in the book of Daniel is is precisely what Walt Michael has endeavored so successfully to do.

Walt Michael, you have made quite a name for yourself. But that is old news. You did it when you ere a student here on the Hill, showing your classmates the importance of reaching out to the dispossessed through social action in organizations like SOS and Hinge. After graduating in 1968, your achievements have been manifold. You became one of the leaders in the 1970s' revival of interest in and appreciation of the hammered dulcimer and its extensive catalog of music. Nine feature recordings, guest performances with other noted musicians and singers, and published instructional materials bear eloquent witness to your influence. So does the list of your concert appearances that stretch from coast to coast and major music festivals in Britain and continental Europe.

You have appeared on television on the Tonight Show back in the Johnny Carson days, on radioÕs Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, and played your own composition at the closing ceremonies of the 13th Winter Olympics. YouÕve played at the White House, the Smithsonian, the Kennedy and Lincoln Centers. But what you have done best has been right here on the Hill. In

1994, you founded Common Ground on the Hill, a yearly celebration that brings together master musicians, artists, writers, and crafts people who share their gifts with others in classes and performances, and, thereby, explore cultural diversity in search of the ways in which music, art and craft can find common ground among ethnic, gender, age and racial groups. In this endeavor, you have carried our one of the fundamental purposes of a liberal arts education.

Therefore, long after N Sync, Jessica Simpson, and Sir Mix A Lot have become too forgotten even to serve as obscure answers in some future version of Trivial Pursuit, your music, and all of your endeavors to awaken the human and humane harmony that resides in all of us, will endure in changed lives. In recognition of
of this, it gives me great pleasure to present you with the McDaniel College Trustee Alumni Award.

Congratulations!

President Joan Coley
McDaniel College
May 2, 2004