Read about 2023 Faculty Alumni Service Award winner Donna M. Di Grazia, part of our "A Closer Look" series, featuring 2023-24 Alumni Award winners. The Faculty Award is awarded during fall semester of the academic year. Di Grazia was honored at the 2023-24 New Faculty Dinner and at Alumni Weekend 2024.
For her exemplary service to the Alumni Association over decades, Donna M. Di Grazia, David J. Baldwin Professor of Music, was named the 2023 Faculty Alumni Service Award winner. On many occasions since joining the College in 1998, Di Grazia has been recognized for her dedication to her students, her peers and the College. She is also a two-time recipient of the Wig Distinguished Professor Award for Excellence in Teaching.
A Northern California native, Di Grazia received her B.A. and M.A. from the University of California, Davis, where she studied choral conducting with Albert McNeil and musicology with D. Kern Holoman. She received her Ph.D. in musicology from Washington University in St. Louis; she studied there with Hugh Macdonald, Michael Beckerman and Craig Monson.
In addition to her lengthy conducting and performance work, Professor Di Grazia is an active musicologist and published scholar, and her research in the areas of nineteenth-century music and early seventeenth-century English sacred music has received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Professor Di Grazia teaches courses for majors and non-majors alike, and she leads the choral program as the conductor of the ½ûÂþÌìÌà Choir and the ½ûÂþÌìÌà Glee Club.
This award recognizes Di Grazia’s deep and persistent relationships with alumni and her longstanding, gracious partnership across events and traditions, such as Alumni Weekend and annual Winter Choral Teas. The breadth and depth of Professor Di Grazia’s service to Pomona’s alumni community are unparalleled.