Knowledge For the World Award (2012)

Lawrence Manchester, today we recognize and congratulate you for your distinguished professional achievement.

You have become one of the most in-demand talents in New York City, as a producer, mixer and engineer.

You grew up in Maine, and came to Peabody to study percussion. You graduated in 1994 with a Bachelor of Music degree in Percussion performance, but somewhere along the way you discovered your interest in Recording Arts, and in 1995 earned a Bachelor of Music in Recording Arts and Sciences.

You have said of your time at Peabody that “The knowledge and training that I acquired as a student at Peabody form the foundation of my diverse professional work today.”

That diverse body of work now includes such impressive accomplishments as recording a 90-piece orchestra for a Martin Scorsese film, tracking vocals with Beyonce, engineering “Slow Jamming the News” with President Obama, and mixing “The Roots” in 5.1 surround sound to a live TV audience of millions.

You have partnered with Grammy Award-winning producers Phil Ramone and Neil Dorfsman, and have collaborated on gold and platinum records including the soundtrack to “Across the Universe.”

You have engineered three Academy Award-winning films: The Departed, Frida, and the Red Violin, with film score composers Howard Shore, Elliot Goldenthal, and John Corigliano, respectively.

And in 2010, you yourself were nominated for a Grammy.

Currently you are the music mixer for NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and in this capacity you have mixed live performances by the Beastie Boys, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Coldplay, and the Muppets, to name a few.

With this award we celebrate all that you have accomplished, and we couldn’t be more proud to have you as part of the continuing legacy of this great conservatory.

On behalf of The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University it is our distinct honor to confer upon you the Johns Hopkins Knowledge for the World Award.