Joni Mitchell Receives Honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of Music

In a private ceremony earlier this week (August 23), Joni Mitchell was awarded an honorary doctorate from Berklee College of Music.

Berklee shared a handful of photos from the event on Instagram, including a touching shot of Mitchell alongside her friends and occasional collaborators, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter. Mitchell’s team also shared a photo of the songstress holding her doctorate while sporting a matching “Dr. Joni Mitchell” beret.

“Well, luckily I’m too old to get a swelled head,” Mitchell said during the ceremony. “It’s a beautiful event. Words can’t describe it. I’ve got my good friends here with me… I wish my parents were alive. My mother in particular would be really proud of this because she wanted me to go to college. I went to art school and I quit after a year. She thinks of me as a quitter. So to see this achievement would be really impressive to her. I wish I could share it with her.”

Berklee wrote in its caption, “At the request of Ms. Mitchell, Berklee honored her influential catalog of work at a small ceremony at a private home in Los Angeles. The ceremony also highlighted Ms. Mitchell’s work as an activist for social justice.”

“I am thrilled that we are finally able to honor Joni Mitchell,” Added Terri Lynne Carrington, founder and artistic director of Berklee’s Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. “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.”

Mitchell’s honorary doctorate is a cherry on top of a year not wanting for accomplishments. Back in April, the Recording Academy’s charitable organization, MusiCares, honored her as its Person of the Year. Just last month, she took the stage at the Newport Folk Festival for her first full concert in nearly two decades.

Recently, her label teased the potential for new music from the music legend saying, “Joni has been going through therapy to get beyond her aneurysm, and in the three years I’ve known her, the improvement has been incredible…I think we’re going to be hearing more from her all the time. She is really getting back into the swing of things.”

Photo: Photo: Norman Seeff / NAMM