17/05/2022
CIM Begins Commencement with Game of Musical Chairs
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
University Circle, Cleveland—
On Saturday, May 14, 2022 at 11:00AM EDT, a majestic organ prelude rolled out the red carpet for the graduating students at the Cleveland Institute of Music, who made their way down the aisles in Kulas hall late that morning. Upon approaching the hall’s front section of seats, which were clearly marked with name tags, the students began their game of Musical Chairs, in which they were encouraged to participate as per instruction by one of CIM’s registrars and academic advisors, Hallie Moore.
The game, which can be seen on video on External CIM’s YouTube channel, lasted about 15 minutes, with no clear winner determined at its conclusion. During the game, the students walked in circles as the organ played, and when the organ stopped playing, they then took their seats. The students who had not arrived at their seats were then eliminated, and the game progressed with the end goal of concluding when all students were eliminated. However, the game abruptly ended early on, and the ceremony continued thereafter.
Some students expressed disappointment regarding the cut-short nature of the pre-ceremony game. One student remarked, “Since it’s a music institution, I was really glad we did this ‘cause it showed that music can, like, be fun sometimes, ya know? I wish they would’ve let us finish the game.”
Other students found the game to be a waste of time. “The chairs were literally bolted to the floor,” one student noted, “You can’t play unless you can remove chairs. I don’t know why no one thought of that beforehand.”
Hallie Moore, who set up the game immediately prior to the ceremony, did not respond to any request for comment. In fact, External CIM received an auto-reply saying she would be out of the office indefinitely, but would respond as soon as she returned.