Joni Mitchell received an honorary doctorate degree from Berklee College of Music during a ceremony in Santa Monica yesterday (August 23).
Berklee's Office of the President and Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice — founded by Terri Lyne Carrington — presented the honour to Mitchell at the private event hosted by Linda Brown and Russell Brown of the MaddocksBrown Foundation.
Carrington said: "I am thrilled that we are finally able to honour Joni Mitchell. Her career and social principles stand for the values our institute pursues — imagination, freedom, equity, and identity. I can think of no one more deserving."
"Well, luckily I'm too old to get a swelled head," Mitchell said during her acceptance speech. "It's a beautiful event. Words can't describe it. I've got my good friends here with me."
Mitchell explained that her mother, in particular, "would be really proud of this because she wanted [her] to go to college," having dropped out of Alberta College of Art in Calgary in the '60s at age 20. "She thinks of me as a quitter," added Mitchell. "So to see this achievement would be really impressive to her. I wish I could share it with her."
Mitchell earned the doctorate based on her "consequential influence on the styles and sounds that shaped 20th century music and culture."
Berklee President Erica Muhl added in her introduction, "Since her debut in the late 1960s, Joni has been a force for change in the industry, blazing the trail for women in music with an unwavering commitment to achieving the status rightfully due her as one of the world's great musical artists."
See shots of Mitchell at the ceremony below.
Berklee's Office of the President and Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice — founded by Terri Lyne Carrington — presented the honour to Mitchell at the private event hosted by Linda Brown and Russell Brown of the MaddocksBrown Foundation.
Carrington said: "I am thrilled that we are finally able to honour Joni Mitchell. Her career and social principles stand for the values our institute pursues — imagination, freedom, equity, and identity. I can think of no one more deserving."
"Well, luckily I'm too old to get a swelled head," Mitchell said during her acceptance speech. "It's a beautiful event. Words can't describe it. I've got my good friends here with me."
Mitchell explained that her mother, in particular, "would be really proud of this because she wanted [her] to go to college," having dropped out of Alberta College of Art in Calgary in the '60s at age 20. "She thinks of me as a quitter," added Mitchell. "So to see this achievement would be really impressive to her. I wish I could share it with her."
Mitchell earned the doctorate based on her "consequential influence on the styles and sounds that shaped 20th century music and culture."
Berklee President Erica Muhl added in her introduction, "Since her debut in the late 1960s, Joni has been a force for change in the industry, blazing the trail for women in music with an unwavering commitment to achieving the status rightfully due her as one of the world's great musical artists."
See shots of Mitchell at the ceremony below.
