After the students, new and returning, had settled in, President Joseph Polisi and Dean Ara Guzelimian officially kicked off the school year at the annual convocation with help from Music History Department chair L. Michael Griffel, two pianists, a string quartet, and fourth-year dance student Sumaya Jackson along with the other members of the Dogodogo Project. The School then turned its attention to welcoming its first guest artists of the season, as the Drama Division hosted its Playwrights Lab and Maestro Vladimir Ashkenazy visited on September 23 to conduct an open rehearsal and performance of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto.