Beth Morrison and Moses Pendleton to be Honored at Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s Commencement Ceremony

Boston Conservatory at Berklee Executive Director Michael Shinn will present honorary doctorates to Grammy-nominated opera producer Beth Morrison and acclaimed choreographer and dancer Moses Pendleton at Boston Conservatory’s commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 9.

Morrison and Pendleton will be recognized for their decades of professional achievement and artistic influence in opera and dance, respectively. Both have distinguished themselves as relentless innovators and champions of the performing arts, blazing creative trails and engaging new audiences with imaginative updates on opera and dance traditions.

They will join the illustrious company of past honorary degree recipients for Boston Conservatory at Berklee, including Debbie Allen, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Betty Buckley, André De Shields, Cynthia Erivo, Sutton Foster, LaChanze, Victoria Livengood (MM '85, voice), Lar Lubovitch, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Nicholas Paleologos, Billy Porter, Awadagin Pratt, Leontyne Price, Chita Rivera, Kelli O’Hara, and Tania León, among others.

“It is a joy to honor Beth Morrison and Moses Pendleton as part of this year’s Boston Conservatory at Berklee commencement ceremony and festivities,” said Shinn. “Beth Morrison’s visionary leadership as the founder of Beth Morrison Projects and the PROTOTYPE festival has made her one of the most recognized figures in the opera world, while Moses Pendleton’s choreographic influence has changed how we view acrobatics, gymnastics, mimicry, and prop work as tools of artistic expression.”

Boston Conservatory at Berklee will hold its commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 9 at 4 p.m. at the Berklee Performance Center.

About Beth Morrison

A three-time Grammy-nominated producer, Beth Morrison is the president and creative producer of Beth Morrison Projects (BMP), and the artistic and cofounding director of the PROTOTYPE: Opera | Theatre | Now festival. Hailed as a “contemporary opera mastermind” by the Los Angeles Times, and “a powerhouse leading the industry to new heights” by WQXR-FM/New York Public Radio, she founded BMP in 2006 to champion living composers and redefine the future of opera. Under her leadership, BMP has commissioned, developed, produced, and toured over 65 works in 19 countries, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning operas Angel’s Bone and p r i s m. A recipient of the 2020 Musical America Award for Artist of the Year/Agent of Change and a Kennedy Center NEXT 50 honoree, Morrison is also a sought-after speaker at major institutions and conferences worldwide. She holds degrees from Boston University, Arizona State University, and Yale University, where she currently serves as a lecturer.

About Moses Pendleton

Moses Pendleton has been one of America’s most innovative and widely performed choreographers and directors for almost 50 years. A cofounder of the groundbreaking Pilobolus Dance Theater in 1971, he formed his own company, MOMIX, with Alison Chase in 1980, rapidly establishing an international reputation for inventive and often illusionistic choreography. The troupe has been creating new work under his direction and touring worldwide for four decades. Pendleton also has worked extensively in film, TV, and opera, and as a choreographer for ballet companies and special events, including the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid in 1980 and the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, featuring Diana Vishneva and 50 Russian ballerinas. He also has made music videos with Prince, Julian Lennon, and Cathy Dennis, among others.

Pendleton was born and raised on a dairy farm in Northern Vermont. He received his Bachelor of Arts in English literature from Dartmouth College in 1971. He is an avid photographer whose work has been presented in Rome, Milan, Florence, and Aspen. He was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1977, as well as a recipient of the Connecticut Commission on the Arts Governor’s Award (1998), the Positano Choreographic Award (1999), and the American Choreography Award (2002) for his contributions to choreography for film and television.