Berklee College of Music

Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock, and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip hop, reggae, salsa, and bluegrass.To date, 99 Berk lee alumni have received 221 Grammy Awards.

Berk lee College of Music is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). NEASC is the regional accreditation agency for schools and colleges located in the New England region of the United States.

In 1945, pianist-composer-arranger and MIT graduate Lawrence Berk founded Schillinger House, the precursor to the Berklee School of Music.Located at 284 Newbury St. in Boston’s Back Bay, the school specialized in the Schillinger System of harmony and composition[6] developed by Joseph Schillinger. Berk had studied with Schillinger. Instrumental lessons and a few classes in traditional theory, harmony, and arranging were also offered. At the time of its founding, almost all music schools focused primarily on classical music, but Schillinger House offered training in jazz and commercial music for radio, theater, television, and dancing. At first, most students were working professional musicians. Many students were former World War II service members who attended under the G.I. Bill. Initial enrollment was fewer than 50 students,but by 1949 there were more than 500 students.In 1954, when the school’s curriculum had expanded to include music education classes and more traditional music theory, Berk changed the name to Berklee School of Music, after his son Lee Eliot Berk, to reflect the broader scope of instruction.

Lawrence Berk placed great emphasis on learning from practitioners, as opposed to academics, and generally hired working musicians as faculty members. Several of the school’s best-known musician-educators arrived after the school’s name changed. In 1956, trumpeter Herb Pomeroy joined the faculty, remaining until his retirement in 1996.Drummer Alan Dawson and saxophonist Charlie Mariano became faculty members in 1957. Reed player John LaPorta began teaching in 1962.Like many of Berk’s ideas, this practice continues into the present. Although far more emphasis is placed on academic credentials among new faculty hires than in the past, experienced performers such as Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Joe Lovano, and Danilo Perez have served as faculty over the years.

Another trend in the school’s history also began the mid-’50s. During this period, the school began to attract international students in greater numbers. For example, Japanese pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi arrived in 1956.Multiple Grammy-winning producer Arif Mardin came from Turkey to study at the school in 1958.The number of international students has grown steadily to 24.2 percent of total enrolment in 2010.

In 1957, Berklee initiated the first of many innovative applications of technology to music education with Jazz in the Classroom, a series of LP recordings of student work, accompanied by scores. These albums contain early examples of composing, arranging, and performing by students who went on to prominent jazz careers such as Gary Burton, John Abercrombie, John Scofield, Ernie Watts, Alan Broadbent, Sadao Watanabe, and many others. The series, which continued until 1980, is a precursor to subsequent Berklee-affiliated labels. These later releases provided learning experiences not only for student composers and performers, but also for students in newly created majors in music engineering and production and music business and management.

Berklee awarded its first bachelor of music degrees in 1966.Members of the first graduating class to receive degrees included Alf Clausen, Stephen Gould and Michael Rendish. Gould taught film scoring at Berklee and is currently the Program Director for the Educational Leadership PhD program at Lesley University. During the 1960s, the Berklee curriculum began to reflect new developments in popular music, such the rise of rock and roll, soul and funk, and jazz-rock fusion.In 1962, Berklee offered the first college-level instrumental major for guitar. The guitar department initially had nine students. Today it is the largest single instrumental major at the college. Trombonist Phil Wilson joined the faculty in 1965.His student ensemble, the Dues Band, helped introduce current popular music into the ensemble curriculum, and later as the Rainbow Band, performed world music and jazz fusions.In 1969, new courses in rock and popular music were added to the curriculum, the first ever offered at the college level.The first college course on jingle writing was also offered in 1969.