Tania León and Kelli O’Hara to be Honored at Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s Commencement Ceremony

Boston Conservatory at Berklee Executive Director Michael Shinn will present honorary doctorates to Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Tania León and Tony Award–winning actress and singer Kelli O’Hara at Boston Conservatory’s commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 10. 

León and O’Hara will be recognized for their achievements and influences in the worlds of stage, screen, education, and music. Past honorary degree recipients for Boston Conservatory at Berklee include 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, and Chita Rivera, among others.

"It is a true honor to welcome Tania León and Kelli O’Hara to Boston Conservatory at Berklee as part of this year’s commencement ceremony and festivities,” said Shinn. “Tania León’s beloved compositions and advocacy for the arts have made her one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of our time, and Kelli O’Hara's unique career spanning Broadway, opera, and television is the epitome of artistic versatility.”

Boston Conservatory at Berklee will hold its commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 10 at 4:00 p.m. at the Berklee Performance Center.

Tania León
Cuban-born American composer, conductor, and educator Tania León is one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of her, or any other, generation. She was the first Latin American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2021; in 2022, she was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime artistic achievements; in 2023, she received the Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in music composition from Northwestern University and became the first woman to be honored with the highest composition prize conferred by Spain, the XIX Premio SGAE for Iberian American Music Tomás Luis de Victoria; and in 2025, she was the recipient of the Recording Academy’s Special Merit Award, the Trustees Award.

As a composer, León has been commissioned by leading orchestras around the world, held Carnegie Hall’s Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair for its 2023–2024 season, and currently serves as a composer in residence with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. As a conductor, she studied under Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa, and has guest conducted the New York Philharmonic, Gewandhausorchester, Santa Cecilia Orchestra, and many more.

As an educator, she has guest lectured and served as visiting professor at Harvard University, Yale University, Chicago University, Musikschule in Hamburg, and others, and has received honorary doctorate degrees from the Juilliard School, Columbia University, Oberlin College and Conservatory, Curtis Institute of Music, Colgate University, SUNY Purchase, New Jersey City University, and Brooklyn College. 

León has served as an advisor to the New York Philharmonic and American Composers Orchestra. In 2010, she founded Composers Now, a presenting, commissioning, and advocacy organization for living composers. She was also a founding member and first music director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, founder of the Brooklyn Philharmonic's Community Concert Series, and cofounder of the American Composers Orchestra’s Sonidos de las Américas Festivals.

Her other honors include the New York Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award, inductions into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and fellowship awards from ASCAP (including the Victor Herbert Award), the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation, among many others. 

Kelli O’Hara
Kelli O’Hara has established herself as one of Broadway’s greatest leading ladies. The Tony Award winner, Emmy-, SAG-, and Grammy-nominated actress has appeared in 12 Broadway shows for which she has garnered eight Tony nominations.

She won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, along with Grammy Award, Drama League, and Outer Critics nominations for her portrayal of Anna Leonowens in The King and I. O’Hara’s other Broadway credits include Kiss Me, Kate, The Bridges of Madison County, Nice Work If You Can Get It, South Pacific, The Pajama Game, The Light in the Piazza, Sweet Smell of Success, Follies, Dracula, and Jekyll & Hyde.

O’Hara received an Emmy Award nomination for her portrayal of Katie Bonner in Topic’s hit web series The Accidental Wolf and can currently be seen on HBO’s The Gilded Age, which was nominated for a SAG award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series for its second season. Additional film and television credits include Showtime’s Masters of Sex, 13 Reasons Why, Blue Bloods, All My Children, All the Bright Places, Peter Pan Live!, Sex and the City 2, Martin Scorsese’s The Key to Reserva, The Good Fight, N3mbers, and Car Talk.

In 2015, O’Hara made history as the first artist to cross over from Broadway to opera when she made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Lehar’s The Merry Widow opposite Renée Fleming; and in 2018, she returned as Despina in Mozart’s Così fan tutte. She was last seen at the Metropolitan Opera as Laura Brown in the world premiere of Kevin Puts’s The Hours, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Opera Recording.

O’Hara is a frequent performer on PBS’s live telecasts and the Kennedy Center Honors, and performs often alongside the New York Philharmonic and the New York Pops. Along with her two Grammy Award nominations, her solo albums, Always and Wonder in the World, are available on Ghostlight Records.

O’Hara recently completed a critically acclaimed limited Broadway engagement of the 2023 musical Days of Wine and Roses, which also garnered rave reviews during its off-Broadway run at the Atlantic Theater Company. She won the Outer Critics Circle Award and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lead Performer in a Broadway Musical in addition to receiving Tony and Drama League nominations for her role.