Distinguished pianist, conductor Martin Isepp to receive honorary degree at WFU commencement

Isepp will be one of three honorary degree recipients at the 2001 commencement ceremony, which features former First Lady Barbara Bush as commencement speaker.

Isepp has conducted productions for the Canadian Opera Company, the Washington Opera and the Orchestre de Picardie, France. He has worked with the Young Artists Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera, the Ensemble of the Canadian Opera and the Chicago Opera Theatre. He also travels widely to give master classes in Lieder and Opera, including those in the Merola Program of the San Francisco Opera.

Isepp has been head of opera training at the Julliard School in New York, head of the music staff at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and head of music at London’s National Opera Studio. He and his wife, Rose Isepp, live next door to Wake Forest’s Worrell House in London, a residential study center for Wake Forest students.

The other honorary degree recipients are former First Lady Barbara Bush and William Hytche. Barbara Bush, the third member of the Bush family to appear at Wake Forest, has volunteered with and supported hundreds of charity and humanitarian causes. She will receive an honorary doctorate of humanities degree. William Hytche is president emeritus of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. He will receive an honorary doctorate of laws degree.