Sounds Of Berklee

Adam Olenn | February 7, 2013 2009 alumna Ivonne Hernandez learned to play violin by ear by the time she was 3. She has released albums both as leader and sideman, and is in high demand as a session player. Cellist Eric Wright distinguished himself as one of the best young cellists in Vermont before also graduating from Berklee in 2009. Hernandez and Wright have joined up with string superstars Karrnnel Sawitsky and Trent Freeman '10 to form the Fretless, a string quartet that plays fiddle tunes in a way that sounds anything but traditional. The 2012 Canadian Music Awards recognized its virtuosity and artistic cohesion with wins for both Ensemble of the Year and Instrumental Group of the Year.

Rob Hochschild | February 1, 2013 After honing his chops as a teenager in the jazz clubs of Philadelphia, alto saxophonist Jaleel Shaw studied at Berklee on a full-tuition scholarship. He graduated with degrees in music education and performance and has orchestrated an impressive and multifaceted career as a bandleader, composer, sideman, and educator. Shaw is a member of the Roy Haynes Quartet and the Mingus Big Band, has performed on a Grammy-nominated album, and released three discs as a bandleader. Shaw returns to Berklee in February 2013 to meet with students and perform in The Checkout — Live at Berklee, a concert and live radio broadcast jointly presented by New York's WBGO Jazz 88.3 FM and NPRmusic. He'll perform at Cafe 939 on February 7, 2013.

January 24, 2013 Guitarist and composer Stephane Wrembel ’02 learned to play in the style of Django Reinhardt in the gypsy camps of the French countryside before coming to Berklee. His command of the gypsy-inflected jazz and mastery on the guitar earned him the opportunity to score Woody Allen’s Academy Award-winning film Midnight in Paris. Wrembel recently performed at the Oscars, and is currently touring in support of his fifth album, Origins, which presents a wide range of musical textures and cultural mashups.

Rob Hochschild | January 22, 2013 Drummer Wil Tecla and pianist Kevin Clark were first-year students when they met at Berklee during the 2011-12 school year. The two musicians shared an interest in jazz and hip-hop music, and wasted littled time forming a band to explore their interest in composition and playing. They arrived at a band name—English Tom in the Bookstore—whose origin and meaning remains a mystery, at least for now. In addition to Tecla and Clark, the band features saxophonists Derrick Tate and Utril Rhaburn, flutist Julia Price, bassist Mike Dyer, and vocalist Gracie Jessop. The group executed a successful Kickstarter campaign to fund an EP it released in May 2012. One of the tracks from those sessions was selected out of many submissions to appear on Ripple Effect, the latest release from Berklee's student-run Jazz Revelation Records.

Adam Olenn | December 20, 2012 2007 alumnus Joe Matzzie is a Los Angeles-based film and television composer, an accomplished classical guitarist, and an aficionado of early music. His band Moat Jumper combines medieval and Renaissance instruments–things like the hurdy gurdy, crumhorn, sackbut, and bladder pipe–with modern recording technology to produce songs with a timeless, esoteric quality. Moat Jumper’s album Christmas at the Renaissance Fair features 14 holiday songs played on arcane instruments in ear-catching arrangements.

December 19, 2012 | Rob Hochschild A widely influential jazz guitarist, alumnus John Scofield is bringing one of his most exciting groups, Überjam, to Berklee to help ring in the new year. Scofield's band will kick off NPR's annual worldwide jazz broadcast of Toast of the Nation, providing one of the highlights of this year's First Night Boston festival. "Ideofunk," a Scofield composition, was recorded live at the 2006 Monterey Jazz Festival, featuring Scofield on electric guitar; Avi Bortnick, acoustic guitar and whistle; Mark Kelley, bass; and Adam Deitch, drums. Scofield's Überjam will perform at 9 p.m. on December 31, 2012, in the Berklee Performance Center.

December 11, 2012 2003 alumna and faculty member Christiane Karam is the champion of world music at Berklee. She directs the Balkan choir, the Middle Eastern Fusion ensemble, and is the founder and director of the annual Berklee Middle Eastern Festival. Her new record, Eastern Tapestries, blends musical vocabularies from India to the Mediterranean with an emphasis on Balkan and Middle Eastern styles. Of her original composition "Balkan Dance," she says, “Being part Armenian and part Lebanese, musical influences from both cultures naturally come out in my writing, which often stems from spontaneous improvisations. This particular piece combines a Bulgarian dance rhythm called kopanica with an Arabic mode known as bayati.”

by Curtis Killian | August 21, 2015 Avers, from Richmond Virginia, offers an ethereal swirl of psychedelic pop, shoegaze and garage rock. Formed with Head and The Heart's Tyler Williams on drums, and James Mason, James Lloyd Hodges, Charlie Glenn, and alumni Alexandra Spalding '09 (Professional Music) and Adrian Olsen '08 (Music Business & Management / MP&E) swapping between bass, guitar, and keyboard. Olsen also serves as producer/engineer, and owns the recording studio Montrose Recording where most of their album material is recorded, including their 2014 debut LP Empty Light.

Berklee Alumni Advice - Tower of Power Vocalist Ray Greene '96 by Berklee College of Music

Berklee Alumni Advice - Violinist Ben Powell '09 by Berklee College of Music

November 19, 2012 Fifth-semester Berklee student Bryce Milano began playing the mandolin when he was 9 years old, with an early interest in bluegrass and American folk music. A Philadelphia native, he began exploring genres from around the world, from gypsy jazz to Bulgarian folk. As a teenager, Milano performed around the U.S., sitting in with artists such as David Grisman and Darol Anger. A few months after beginning his studies at Berklee in fall 2010, he was invited to New York's Lincoln Center to accept ASCAP’s Lieber and Stoller Scholarship for his performance studies. Milano incorporates the myriad musical influences of his youth through his own compositions. By weaving in and out of contemporary and traditional styles, and utilizing unique instrumentation, MIlano aims to make music that will obscure the distinctions between musical genres across the globe. His "Megatune" is one of 11tracks on the latest release, Ripple Effect, from Berklee's student-run Jazz Revelation Records.

Sara Rachele, "Listen, Judas" by Berklee College of Music

In this episode, Larry Watson talks about his work at Harvard, the resilient messages of African-American music, and the power of shedding light on secrets.

Trumpeter Sean Jones joined the Berklee faculty as chair of brass last year, adding to an already very long list of striking careeer accomplishments as a recording artist, educator, and artistic director of the Cleveland and Pittsburgh jazz orchestras. He has performed and/or recorded with Joe Lovano, Jimmy Heath, and Nancy Wilson, as well as with Marcus Miller, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter in the 2011 Tribute to Miles tour. He has released seven albums as a leader on the Mack Avenue Records imprint. Jones was originally a drummer but discovered the trumpet at the age of 10 upon hearing Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue and Amandla. Soon after earning his master’s degree from Rutgers University, he was named lead trumpeter for the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra—a position he held for six years while continuing to tour, perform, and record regularly. Jones performs on July 31, 2015 at the Newport Jazz Festival with the Berklee Concert Jazz Orchestra.

By Adam Renn Olenn | October 26, 2012 The world music supergroup Women of the World is almost entirely comprised of Berklee students and alumnae, including Ayumi Ueda '10, Annette Philip '09, Giorgia Renosto '09, Hinako Sato '2011, Sara Cristal Peña-Coffin '11, Noriko Terada '09, Sue Buzzard '10, and Kazuyo Kuriya '10. With members representing Japan, India, Italy, Haiti, Mexico, and the United States, Women of the World has performed at Carnegie Hall and Boston’s Symphony Hall, presented at TEDx Boston, and collaborated with the United Nations. On September 23, 2012, they took the stage at the Blue Note in New York in support of their debut EP, Koloro, an Esperanto word meaning “color.”

By Rob Hochschild | November 4, 2012 Bent Knee is a Berklee band that builds its sound on orchestral textures and haunting vocals, delivering a dynamic sound and presence. In addition to its original music, Bent Knee puts its stamp on other artists' tunes, creating warped and distorted arrangements. The seven-member group will be featured on Berklee's student-run record label, Heavy Rotation Records' eighth Dorm Sessions compilation. Listen to Bent Knee's original track, "After Years of Love."

October 19, 2012 Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Juana Aquerreta blends her musical roots with contemporary styles. The seventh-semester harp principal has focused much of her time recently on singing and songwriting, and the result is a set of beautiful tunes recorded in Berklee studios. Majoring in contemporary writing and production, Aquerreta is fronting one of several students bands at the Boston Book Festival, October 26, 2012. Styles range from soul to Arabic music, and the concerts are free. Learn more about the lineup on our events calendar.

By Rob Hochschild | October 9, 2012 Larry Monroe has been a force at Berklee since the 1960s. Hailing from a small town in Vermont, he enrolled at Berklee as a saxophonist and later joined the faculty. As the years went by, he rose through the ranks, as an academic chair, dean, and, most recently as vice president of academic affairs working to establish Berklee's campus in Valencia. With programs off the ground in Spain, Monroe recently decided to retire. Berklee celebrates Monroe's many contributions over his 42 years at Berklee with a concert, Larry Monroe's Recuerdo, in the Berklee Performance Center, on October 18. Monroe will perform his original compositions and arrangements, supported by an all-star faculty band. This week's podcast features a Monroe original that he and the band will perform in the BPC show.

By Adam Renn Olenn | October 1, 2012 2009 alumnus Keenan O’Meara moved to New York City right after graduation. There he teamed up with fellow Berklee graduates Owen Ross, Bryan Percivall, Marie Kim, Chris Holdridge, and Megan Lui. Together these alumni have been touring throughout the northeast in support of O’Meara’s debut EP, Mania. O’Meara and his fellow alumni perform together as The Spindle Room Band. For more information and upcoming shows, visit keenanomeara.com.

By Adam Renn Olenn | September 11, 2012 2000 alumnus Kip Jones has traveled extensively throughout North America, South America, Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, absorbing a huge range of musical idioms. This itinerant fiddler has used his Berklee education to fuse these diverse musical experiences with material he studied at Berklee—artists like J.S. Bach, the Delta blues, and Steve Reich—into his a genre-busting style he refers to as "experimental folk," folk music from people and places that don't exist.