Berklee College of Music
| Berklee College of Music | |
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| Motto: | Esse quam videri (Latin) |
| Motto in English: | To be, rather than to seem |
| Established: | 1945 |
| Type: | Private |
| Endowment: | 231.7 million [1] |
| President: | Roger H. Brown |
| Faculty: | 522 [2] |
| Students: | 4,054 [2] |
| Location: |  Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
| Campus: | Urban |
| Colors: | Red and gray |
| Mascot: | Cat |
| Website: | berklee.edu |
Berklee College of Music, founded in 1945, is an independent music conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. It has an enrollment of approximately 4,000 students and a 2008 faculty of approximately 500.[2] Berklee offers an accredited four-year baccalaureate degree or diploma, with majors in composition, contemporary writing & production, film scoring, jazz composition, music business/management, music education, music production and engineering, music synthesis, music therapy, performance, professional music, and songwriting.
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History
Berklee was founded by Lawrence Berk and was originally named Schillinger House of Music, after his teacher Joseph Schillinger. The original purpose of the school was to highlight the Schillinger System of musical harmony and composition. After expansion of the school's curriculum in 1954, Berk changed the name to Berklee School of Music after his son Lee Berk. When the school received its accreditation in 1973, the name was changed to Berklee College of Music. In 2003, Berkleemusic, the online branch of Berklee College of Music, was founded.[3] The school's current president, Roger H. Brown, was installed in 2004.
At the time of its founding, almost all music schools focused primarily on classical music. The original mission of Berklee was to prepare students for careers in music through the study and practice of contemporary music, providing formal training in jazz and other contemporary music not available at other music schools. Since then, Berklee has added additional areas of study including film scoring, music synthesis, songwriting, education, and music therapy.
Timeline
- 1945 - Founded by Lawrence Berk, Schillinger House is the first U.S. school to teach the popular music of the time, jazz.
- 1960s- Name changed to Berklee School of Music. Guitar is recognized as a principal instrument.
- 1966 - Berklee's first fully accredited baccalaureate degree class graduates.
- 1970 - Name changed to Berklee College of Music.
- 1971 - Duke Ellington receives the college's first honorary degree.
- 1979 - Lee Eliot Berk becomes the college's second president. Establishes the world's first undergraduate degree program in film scoring.
- 1984 - Launches the world's first college-level major in music synthesis.
- 1987 - Begins offering the world's first college-level songwriting major. Students spend several days in Nashville, attending clinics, concerts, and jam session, giving birth to an annual pilgrimage to Music City.
- 1991 - City Music, Berklee's program to make music education available to underserved youths, is launched.
- 1993 - Hand percussion established as a principal instrument. Berklee International Network founded to support contemporary music education globally.
- 1994 - Berklee Center in Los Angeles opened.
- 1995 - Student-run Heavy Rotation Records is launched to promote student rock, pop, and hip-hop talent.
- 1996 - Music therapy major is established.
- 1999 - Hip-hop is incorporated into the curriculum.
- 2002 - Berkleemusic.com, an online music school, is launched.
- 2003 - Student found the college second label, Jazz Revelation Records.
- 2004 - Roger H. Brown is named the college's third president.
- 2005 - Music business/management becomes the most populated of the college's 12 majors.
- 2006 - Presence of bluegrass on campus increases, as mandolin and banjo become principal instruments.
- 2006 - The Berklee Internet Radio Network (BIRN) hits the digital airwaves: http://thebirn.com
- 2008 - Cafe 939 opens, a student-run, 200-seat, live-music venue and coffeehouse.[4]
Admission
The College recommends two years of music study on a primary instrument and/or significant practical experience in musical performance, a diploma from an accredited secondary school with satisfactory marks in college-preparatory courses. The admission process also includes a mandatory audition and interview conducted in Boston and sites around the world. [5] The current listed acceptance rate on The College Board is now 44%. [6]
Demographics and statistics
Berklee has a large percentage of undergraduate students from outside the U.S.—23 percent—representing more than 70 countries.[7] Women comprise 28 percent of the student body. Domestic minority enrollment is African-American, 11 percent; Latino, 10 percent; Asian-American, 3.4 percent. The five countries that supply the largest percentage of foreign students to Berklee are Japan, Korea, Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.
Berklee offers three full time semesters per year: Fall, Spring, and Summer. The Fall and Spring semesters are 16 weeks in length, whereas the Summer semester is 12 weeks.
The average class size is 11 and entering students also receive private, individual instruction on their principal instrument. The holdings of the College's Stan Getz Media Center and Library include more than 32,000 recordings, 26,000 books, 22,000 musical scores, 23,000 lead sheets, and 5,000 videos/DVDs.
Facilities
- 17 buildings in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood
- 3 dormitories in the Back Bay and Fenway-Kenmore neighborhoods
- A practice and rehearsal building in Boston's Allston neighborhood
- An Internet radio station: The BIRN - Berklee Internet Radio Network. Five channels of music which broadcast Special Events, Interviews, Concerts, Clinics, Alumni Music and International Music.
- The Berklee Performance Center - Housed in the renovated, historic Fenway Theater, the Berklee Performance Center seats 1,200 in its main hall and facilitates over 130 student and faculty concerts each year. Its direct link with the college's recording studios and video taping facilities allows professional quality recording of events and concerts. In addition, there are approximately 75 outside professional shows, special seminars, and clinics featuring important members of the music community which are held at the Performance Center throughout the year. The Berklee Performance Center is located at 136 Massachusetts Avenue, near the intersection with Boylston Street. Many notable musicians have started their musical career on this stage, including John Mayer and Paula Cole, both of whom attended the college during the 90s.
- Cafe 939, a state-of-the-art, all-ages, student-run music venue and coffee house.
- Four additional recital halls equipped with a variety of sound reinforcement systems.
- Berklee Internet Radio Network - The BIRN: Four room production facility with Broadcast, Production, Live, and Edit studios
- 16 Recording Studios[8]
Majors
- Composition
- Contemporary Writing & Production
- Film Scoring
- Jazz Composition
- Music Business/Management
- Music Education
- Music Production & Engineering
- Music Synthesis
- Music Therapy
- Performance
- Professional Music
- Songwriting
Alumni
Many alumni of the college are notable figures in the music industry.[9] Some notable artists that have studied at Berklee include producer Quincy Jones, pianists Bruce Hornsby, Keith Jarrett, Hiromi Uehara, and Diana Krall, guitarists John Petrucci, Steve Vai, Rivers Cuomo, Ian Thornley, Kevin Eubanks, Pete Huttlinger, Shane Gibson, Adam Dutkiewicz of Killswitch Engage, John Mayer (dropped out during his second semester), John Scofield, critically acclaimed session drummer Steve Hass, bassist and keyboardist Matt Wachter, bassist John Myung and drummer Mike Portnoy (both of whom, along with John Petrucci, are part of the progressive metal band Dream Theater), songwriters Aimee Mann, Paula Cole, Bruce Cockburn, Gavin DeGraw, Tracy Bonham, and Melissa Etheridge, film scorers Alan Silvestri and Howard Shore, jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis, New York composer-arranger and producer Rob Mounsey, Danish producer and jazz drummer Thomas Blachman and electronic music/film composer "BT" (Brian Transeau). Two members of the hard rock band Aerosmith, guitarist Brad Whitford and drummer Joey Kramer, are also Berklee alumni. Trey Parker, the co-creator of the animated series South Park, attended Berklee with an interest in film scoring, but transferred to University of Colorado to complete his degree. Guitarist, producer and graphic artist Hal Lester, Berklee alum, attended with an interest in performance, then created many magazine & cd covers around the world. Juan Luis Guerra, famous merengue/bachata singer/composer from the Dominican Republic is also an alum and 2009 recipient of an honorary doctorate from Berklee. He is arguably one of the most famous and most popular merengue singers in the world. Argentinian bass player and solo artist Pedro Aznar, Wang Lee Hom, a very successful Taiwanese American singer songwriter, attended a semester at Berklee in the Professional Music program to further his studies. Eru, K-pop singer. Ted Lo, one of Hong Kong's top jazz pianist and successful record producer, arranger and composer graduated in 1976. Ted also gave Berklee Associate Professor Toru “Tiger” Okoshi his nickname[10]. Other alumni include multi instrumentalist, Lauren Passarelli the first woman to graduate as a guitar performance major in 1982, the first to join Berklee's Guitar Faculty in 1984 & the first to be promoted to full Professor in 2009. Jack Evans of Reverend Zen, Joe Guese, Ben Romans, Ethan Mentzer, Joey Zehr, and Kyle Patrick, all of The Click Five, alongside Meekal Hassan, founder and lead guitarist of the revolutionary Pakistani group Meekal Hassan Band. Acclaimed hip hop/pop music producer, JR Rotem earned a degree in Jazz Composition from Berklee, and Konami (BEMANI) Famous composer Sota Fujimori. Brendan Small, creator of Adult Swim show Metalocalypse, also graduated from Berklee. Staff songwriter and producer Dawaun Parker for Dr. Dre's Aftermath entertainment also graduated from Berklee.
Some people in the music industry have been awarded honorary doctorates from Berklee including Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of Steely Dan fame, the Dominican pianist Michel Camilo, songwriter Melissa Etheridge, singer Chaka Khan, Motown Legend Smokey Robinson, The Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, and the inventor of the Moog synthesizer, Robert Moog. Bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs was awarded an honorary doctorate on March 18, 2008, during a performance at the Grand Ole Opry[11].
To date, 61 Berklee alumni have received 175 Grammy Awards, popular music's highest honor.
Athletics
Since Berklee is a music school, athletics are not a focus of campus life. If students want to play sports, they can sign up for NCAA Division III athletics at Emerson College due to Berklee's membership in the Professional Arts Consortium. Students are also offered discounted or no-cost memberships at some nearby fitness centers, like the Boston Kung Fu Tai Chi institute and the Tennis and Racquet club, as part of Berklee's LiveWell program.
In February 2006, several students organized the Berklee Ice Cats, an ice hockey team named after former Massachusetts team, the Worcester Ice Cats, that is Berklee's first official athletic institution. The Ice Cats first competed in the New England Senior Hockey League in the 2006–2007 season. It will begin its first official intercollegiate season in the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) in 2007-2008. The team practices in Cambridge. Berklee's debut into the world of intercollegiate sports was on September 16, 2006, against Emerson College for the inaugural Boylston Cup, emerging victorious.
In 2007, the Ice Cats signed on former Boston Bruin and two-time All-Star John McKenzie as head coach.[12]
References
- ^ "Berklee College of Music: Private Company Information". BusinessWeek. http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=4211164.
- ^ a b c "College Board At A Glance". http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=3750. Retrieved on 2008-01-30.
- ^ "Berklee Today: The State of the College". http://www.berklee.edu/bt/173/leadsheet.html. Retrieved on 2006-12-20.
- ^ http://www.berklee.edu/about/history.html
- ^ "BERKLEE". http://berklee.edu/admissions/domestic/admissions_faqs.html. Retrieved on 2009-1-7.
- ^ "College Search - Berklee College of Music - Berklee - Admission". http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=3750&profileId=1. Retrieved on 2008-12-26.
- ^ "Berklee About Berklee". http://www.berklee.edu/about. Retrieved on 2006-11-28.
- ^ "BERKLEE". http://www.berklee.edu/facilities/recording_studios.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-02.
- ^ "BERKLEE". http://www.berklee.edu/about/alumni.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-02.
- ^ Tiger Okoshi at All About Jazz
- ^ Ricky Skaggs to Receive Honorary Doctorate from Berklee on Grand Ole Opry Stage
- ^ "Berklee News: March 2007". http://www.berklee.edu/news/2007/03/hockey.html. Retrieved on 2008-01-30.
External links
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Coordinates: 42°20′48″N 71°05′19″W / 42.34669°N 71.088705°W / 42.34669; -71.088705
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