Ballinasloe native, Amie Doherty, was honoured by Berklee College of Music in Boston at the annual Alumni Achievement Awards on Thursday, March 30 for her outstanding accomplishments as a composer, orchestrator and conductor.
As well as her substantial achievements, Doherty made history for women in film scoring as the first female composer to score a DreamWorks Animated feature film with Spirit Untamed, released in 2021.
Doherty graduated from the Berklee Valencia campus in 2013, going on to work on dozens of high-profile projects, such as Lady Gaga’s Grammy nominated 2020 album, Chromatica, and Emmy nominated documentary, Light in the Water, Golden Globe winners Fargo and The Night Of as well as CBS’s acclaimed series, Picard and Star Trek: Discovery.
Speaking about the award, Doherty stated that attending Berklee had once just been a pipe dream.
“To have the name Berklee attached to me has always meant so much to me. It was a pipe dream of epic proportions growing up. To be here to represent the Valencia campus…[our class] was the first year, and it was the best year of my life.”
Among the other honourees were Torres, an extremely sought-after producer and songwriter in Latin Pop, Quinton Morris who is the director of instrumental and chamber music and assistant professor at Seattle University and one time The Voice contestant turned coach and Courtney Harrell, who is also a singer-songwriter and casting director.
The honoured guests spent the day sharing their experiences with students and faculty before a pre-show reception at The Westin Copley Place and had a chance to address attendees during their acceptance speeches. Boston Conservatory at Berklee interim executive director Lucinda Carver offered high praise to the alumni in her opening remarks at the beginning of the ceremony. A special musical tribute capped off the evening, as the Berklee House Band performed an original work by director, arranger, and award-winning screen scoring student April DiDomenico, who led the ensemble through a piece that represented the career of all four honourees.
