2026 Commencement Ceremony

In-person tickets will be made available to graduates for their friends and families. This year's Commencement will also be livestreamed.

Additional Commencement Week events are planned to recognize the Graduating Class of 2026 and to celebrate with their families. All relevant commencement activity information and details will be shared directly with the students graduating, and friends and family members should reach out to their graduate for all pertinent information.

Follow this link for more information regarding the 2026 Commencement Speaker and the full program.

2026 Commencement Speaker

The winner of a GRAMMY Award and Musical America's 2022 Conductor of the Year, Teddy Abrams has been the galvanizing force behind the Louisville Orchestra's extraordinary artistic renewal and innovative social impact since his appointment as Music Director in September 2014. His Kentucky achievements include the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps, a trailblazing residency initiative for composers; the In Harmony Tour, a grand-scale community-building project funded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky; and adventurous collaborations with artists including Chris Thile, Jim James, Jack Harlow, Storm Large, and Jecorey "1200" Arthur, with whom Abrams founded the Louisville Orchestra Rap School. 

Beyond Louisville, Abrams has conducted the Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Cincinnati, National, Houston, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Vancouver, and Phoenix Symphonies; the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; the Buffalo and Los Angeles Philharmonics; and the Minnesota, Florida, and Sarasota Orchestras—all in North America—as well as the Helsinki and Luxembourg Philharmonics and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Europe. He will debut with the Atlanta Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Ottawa's National Arts Centre Orchestra, and London's BBC Symphony Orchestra in the 2025-26 season before starting a new role as Artistic and Executive Director of California's Ojai Music Festival in September 2026. 

Abrams is an award-winning composer. His recent compositions for the Louisville Orchestra include his rap opera, The Greatest: Muhammad Ali; a piano concerto for Yuja Wang, which they recorded for Deutsche Grammophon's The American Project, winning the pianist and himself a GRAMMY Award; and Mammoth, premiered with Yo-Yo Ma and Davóne Tines at Kentucky's Mammoth Cave National Park. Abrams' recording of his piano collection Preludes was released on New Amsterdam Records in 2025. He is now at work on a Broadway musical, ALI, and an orchestral history of the state of Kentucky.