Galway native honoured by Berklee for outstanding body of musical work

The Galway-born composer who made history as the first female to score a DreamWorks Animated feature film two years ago has been honoured by her prestigious Alma Mater for her outstanding body of work.

Amie Doherty was honoured by Berklee College of Music in Boston at their recent Alumni Achievement Awards for her outstanding accomplishments as a composer, orchestrator, and conductor.

The Ballinasloe native made history for women in film scoring as the first female composer to score a DreamWorks Animated feature film with the 2021 summer release Spirit Untamed, featuring the voices of Julianne Moore and Jake Gyllenhaal among many others.

Since she graduated from the Berklee campus in Valencia in 2013, she has worked on dozens of high-profile projects – including Lady Gaga’s Grammy-nominated 2020 album Chromatica; the Emmy-nominated documentary Light in the Water; Emmy and Golden Globe winners Fargo and The Night Of, and CBS’s acclaimed series Picard, and Star Trek: Discovery.

“To have the name Berklee attached to me has always meant so much to me,” she said afterwards.

“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.”

It’s the latest acknowledgement of a career that continues to hit new heights, having started out in the Ballinasloe Brass Band – although music was an integral part of her life from the very start!

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