Music legend Bob Dylan has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College Of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.
Dylan received this doctorate for the Doctor Of Music degree by the university, who recognised him for his “extraordinary influence on modern music” as well as his “lifelong commitment to creative exploration".
According to Rolling Stone, this also marks the first the first time that Dylan would receive such an honour from a US college or university since 1970.
“Thank you, Berklee College of Music, for bestowing on me this prestigious honour. What a pleasant surprise", Dylan said in a statement. “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. It’s something to think about".
Elsewhere, Jim Lucchese, Berklee President, also called Dylan's awarding of this doctorate as an "incredible moment for this institution".
He said: “Bob Dylan’s music has shaped how the world hears itself. He’s an artist who has never stopped evolving, who keeps chasing truth through sound and language. That’s the spirit we try to cultivate here every day".
“Honouring him feels like a reaffirmation of the creative impulse that built this place".
Paying tribute to Bob Dylan, Matt Glasner, Berklee's American Roots Music Program artistic director, added: “Bob Dylan has spent a lifetime learning, absorbing, and transforming every American song tradition, and Berklee strives to teach all the music that Dylan loves".
“His deep immersion in African American blues parallels much of Berklee’s curriculum, which is rooted in the distinctly American variants of the music of the African diaspora".
“As anyone who has read his books or listened to his hundred-plus radio programs can attest, Dylan is also a great teacher and learner. He shows us how to keep learning about music and the arts our whole lives through, and to embrace it all as one thing".
“I love the anecdote Dylan himself tells: he once went up to Thelonious Monk at the Five Spot in Greenwich Village, introduced himself, and said, ‘I play folk music down the street’. Monk replied, ‘We all play folk music’".
Berklee also confirmed plans to host a concert in honour of Bob Dylan, who will not attend any ceremony there. The show is to celebrate Dylan's “immeasurable impact on popular culture with performances from students, faculty, alumni, and visiting artists that highlight his deep knowledge and nuanced appreciation of roots and Americana music”.
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