_photos by Dave Green_

Phish bassist Mike Gordon has a new honor to add to his career accolades, as Berklee College of Music has announced a new scholarship named after him. The bassist stopped by the college on Friday to lead a student-only seminar.

According to a release from Berklee, the Mike Gordon Endowed Scholarship will go to “Berklee students studying bass who are also well-rounded artists, with skills in other areas such as songwriting, production, arranging, or creative entrepreneurship.”

Gordon’s seminar covered an array of topics, including his first meeting with bandmate Trey Anastasio when both were wearing white Puma sneakers, Phish’s “no analyze” rule between sets, meditative listening exercises with his bands and Phish’s ability to stick around for decades: “It’s about being open, being able to say when we don’t like something, finding compromise despite the differences. Of course there have been rifts—leading to a whole album named Rift!”

In attendance were a few Berklee staff members with ties to Gordon, including event moderator and associate professor Loudon Stearns—a friend and teacher to Gordon who helped create his interactive crowd keyboard device REEL, which debuted in 2016—plus professor Pat Pattison, who has been an influence on Gordon’s songwriting, and associate professor and vocal coach to Gordon Linda Balliro.