Bob Dylan has received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, his first such honour from a US university in over five decades.
In a statement, the 83-year-old icon said: “Thank you, Berklee College of Music, for bestowing on me this prestigious honour. What a pleasant surprise. Who knows what path my career might have taken if I’d been fortunate enough to learn from some of the great musicians who taught at Berklee.”
Berklee said it was recognising Dylan’s “extraordinary influence on modern music” and his “lifelong commitment to creative exploration”. College president Jim Lucchese called the award “an incredible moment”, adding, “Bob Dylan’s music has shaped how the world hears itself. He’s an artist who never stops evolving; always chasing truth through sound and language.”
Matt Glaser, artistic director of Berklee’s American Roots Music Programme, praised Dylan’s “deep immersion in every American song tradition”, noting his influence across genres. “As Dylan once quoted Thelonious Monk: ‘We all play folk music,’” Glaser said.
Although Dylan will not attend a formal ceremony, Berklee is hosting a tribute concert in his honour on November5, featuring performances from students, alumni and visiting artists celebrating his vast influence on popular culture and roots music.
Dylan, who dropped out of the University of Minnesota in 1959, last received an American honorary degree from Princeton in 1970, an event that inspired his song Day of the Locusts.
Currently on his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour, Dylan is set to perform across the UK and Ireland this week, following reports that he has been recording new material with his band in New York.
