Nearly 900 graduates from 62 countries received degrees today at Berklee's 2015 commencement. Berklee President Roger H. Brown presented honorary doctor of music degrees to music legends Julio Iglesias, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Harvey Mason, and Doug Morris. Bridgewater delivered the commencement address to the graduating class and an estimated audience of nearly 7,000 guests at the Agganis Arena. The annual commencement concert, held the previous evening at the Agganis Arena, featured some of the college's most accomplished students paying tribute to the honorees with performances of music associate with their careers.
Bridgewater opened her address by thanking the audience and recognizing that the students and faculty were in the room because they dared to dream. You all have a collective dream that involves music, or else you would not be at this illustrious Berklee College of Music, she began. No matter whether you are out front or behind the scenes, please, stay honest in your dreams. Don't let anyone steal your dreams. Continuing to encourage the new graduates, Bridgewater added, Do not accept the word no.' No,' when you are going for your dreams, can be one of the most destructive words you have ever heard. When someone tells you no,' step around, go to the next door. There is a door that will open.
After hearing President Brown share words from Afo Verde, chairman/CEO of Latin America, Spain, and Portugal at Sony Music Entertainment; tennis legend Rafael Nadal; and former President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy speaking to his prolific recording career and exemplifying what it means to be a global music ambassador Iglesias spoke extemporaneously, first in Spanish and then English. I am an artist that has sung in different languages, I've sung in a multitude of languages, and the most beautiful thing that has happened to me in my life as an artist is this honor from Berklee. Yesterday, I asked the president how many students study at Berklee and where they are from, and he told me that 35-40% of the students are foreign. That means this open, global feeling instilled in all of you will help bring peace to the world.
Accepting his honorary degree, Mason 68, an alumnus of the college, said, The Berklee experience helped me become my own man. He also stressed the importance of music education in public schools. Every child should have the opportunity to discover music. Had that not been the case for me, I wouldn't be standing here today, said Mason. He closed his speech by offering some inspiring words for the class of 2015. As you go out into the world, I urge you to search your heart, search your soul, and always be open and ready to take advantage of every opportunity.
Before accepting his honorary degree, Morris heard remarks read by President Brown from Bono, Pete Townshend, Jimmy Iovine, and Simon Cowell, attesting to his influence over a long career in the industry. I've lived my dream, he said. Starting as a musician and a songwriter gave me a big advantage because it gave me a commonality with the artists. I know what it's like to be waiting for your record to come on the radio it can give you a heart attack. Now, the industry is changing, but it's not changing in any dramatic way. What's changing is how we distribute and sell music. And, there would be nothing to distribute or sell if we didn't have brilliant people creating what people love. When I got here I noticed something different, that everyone here loves music. It's not like these tech companies who want the music to be free. I want the music to be valuable and worth something to everyone.
This year's honorary doctorate recipients were recognized for their achievements in contemporary music, for their enduring contributions to popular culture, and for the influence their careers and music have had on Berklee's international student body. Iglesias, Bridgewater, Mason, and Morris join the ranks of such esteemed recipients as Duke Ellington (the first, in 1971), Jimmy Page, Aretha Franklin, Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, Smokey Robinson, David Bowie, Bonnie Raitt, Amar G. Bose, Annie Lennox, Count Basie, Sting, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, B.B. King, Billy Joel, Chaka Khan, Steven Tyler, Carole King, George Clinton, and Pattie LaBelle.
About Berklee's class of 2015:
This year s class hails from 62 countries, including South Korea, Canada, Japan, China, India, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Iceland, Iran, and Kenya. The graduates will follow in the footsteps of alumni who are innovators in music business, education, music therapy, production, and every area of performance and writing. Berklee alumni are winners of more than 300 Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards, including Esperanza Spalding, Quincy Jones, John Mayer, Diana Krall, Imagine Dragons, Melissa Etherdige, Gary Burton, Juan Luis Guerra, A.R. Rahman, Alejandro Sanz, Lalah Hathaway, and professors Terri Lyne Carrington, Danilo P rez, and Paula Cole.
Liz Lupton is a publicist in the Office of Media Relations. Media inquiries: llupton@berklee.edu.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Nearly 900 graduates from 62 countries received degrees today at Berklee's 2015 commencement. Berklee President Roger H. Brown presented honorary doctor of music degrees to music legends Julio Iglesias, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Harvey Mason, and Doug Morris. Bridgewater delivered the commencement address to the graduating class and an estimated audience of nearly 7,000 guests at the Agganis Arena. The annual commencement concert, held the previous evening at the Agganis Arena, featured some of the college's most accomplished students paying tribute to the honorees with performances of music associate with their careers.
