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.^[3] To date, 99 Berklee alumni have received 221 Grammy Awards, popular music's highest honor.^[4]

Accreditation[link]

Berklee 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.

History[link]

Schillinger House, 1945–1954[link]

In 1945, pianist-composer-arranger and MIT graduate Lawrence Berk founded Schillinger House, the precursor to the Berklee School of Music.^[5] 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.^[5] 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,^[7] but by 1949 there were more than 500 students.^[8] 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.^[9]

Berklee School of Music, 1954–1970[link]

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.^[10] Drummer Alan Dawson and saxophonist Charlie Mariano became faculty members in 1957.^[11] Reed player John LaPorta began teaching in 1962.^[12] 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.^[13] Multiple Grammy-winning producer Arif Mardin came from Turkey to study at the school in 1958.^[14] The number of international students has grown steadily to 24.2 percent of total enrolment in 2010.^[1]

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.^[15]

Berklee awarded its first bachelor of music degrees in 1966.^[16] 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.^[16] 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.^[17] 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.^[17] In 1969, new courses in rock and popular music were added to the curriculum, the first ever offered at the college level.^[16] The first college course on jingle writing was also offered in 1969.^[18]

Berklee College of Music, 1970–present[link]

The school became Berklee College of Music in 1970^[19] and bestowed its first honorary doctorate on Duke Ellington in 1971.^[20] Vibraphonist Gary Burton joined the faculty in 1971, helping to solidify the place of jazz-rock fusion in the curriculum.^[21] As Dean of Curriculum from 1985 to 1996,^[22] Burton led the development of several new majors, including music synthesis and songwriting, and facilitated the school’s transition to technology-based education.^[23] Curriculum innovations during the 1970s included the first college-level instrumental major in electric bass guitar in 1973,^[24] and the first jazz-rock ensemble class in 1974.^[25] In 1979, Berklee founder Lawrence Berk stepped down as president.^[26] The board of trustees appointed his son, Lee Eliot Berk, to replace him.^[27]

Under the leadership of Lee Eliot Berk, the school underwent further growth and diversification of its curriculum. The college offered the world’s first undergraduate degree program in film scoring starting 1980.^[28] Beginning in 1981, the string department curriculum expanded to include many idioms besides classical music.^[29] In 1986, the world’s first college-level major in music synthesis was offered,^[30] followed by the world’s first college songwriting major in 1987.^[31] Instrumental majors also expanded to include the first college hand-percussion major in 1988.^[32]

Berklee expanded its community outreach efforts in 1991 with the launch of City Music, a program designed to make music instruction available to underserved youth in the Boston area.^[33] On a more global scale, Berklee partnered with selected music schools around the world to form the Berklee International Network in 1993.^[34] Another new major, Music Therapy, was offered beginning in 1996. In 2002, the school began offering classes online through Berkleemusic.com.^[35] Other curriculum developments included the incorporation of a hip-hop course in 2004.^[36]

In 2004, Lee Eliot Berk stepped down as president of the school his father had founded and Roger H. Brown was installed as the college’s third president.^[37] Under Brown’s leadership the college's enrollment has grown and diversified, admission is now highly selective, while further expansion of the school’s academic offerings have continued. In 2006, mandolin and banjo were accepted as principal instruments for the first time. The college also initiated an Africana Studies program, the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, and an American Roots Music Program.^[38][39][40]

Academics[link]

Students at Berklee are exposed to a range of instruments, musical styles, and career options, so they can explore possibilities and find their own paths. Toward that end, Berklee offers student musicians courses of study toward a fully accredited four-year baccalaureate degree or professional diploma. Students may combine many of Berklee's 12 majors, depending on the nature of the program. The dual major program requires a five-year course of study and is available to both degree and diploma candidates.

Majors offered in Berklee are Composition, Contemporary Writing and Production, Electronic Production and Design, Film Scoring, Jazz Composition, Music Business/Management, Music Education (degree only), Music Production and Engineering, Music Therapy (degree only), Performance, Professional Music, and Songwriting.^[41]

Starting Spring 2012, Berklee offers Global Studies Program students currently enrolled in Berklee College of Music in Boston. The program takes Berklee students to Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain to study courses that range in 2 areas: International Music Business and Mediterranean Music.^[42]

Admission[link]

Berklee's admission process is holistic. It focuses primarily on the audition, the interview and the applicant's previous academic record.^[43]

As part of the application to the college, applicants are required to complete a live audition and interview. An integral part of selecting the entering class is the audition and interview experience, designed to show applicants' strengths while helping the school to assess applicants' talent and potential to succeed in Berklee's dynamic environment. Although there is a general format for the audition and interview, each experience is unique. Berklee considers all applicants for both admission and scholarship through the audition and interview process.^[44]

The acceptance rate for the entering class of 2010 was 30%.^[45]

Demographics[link]

As of the 2010–2011 academic year, total enrollment at Berklee was 4,270. Of students enrolled in degree programs, 29% are female, 11% are African American, and 10% are Hispanic. Students from 80 countries outside the U.S. account for approximately 25% of the student population. South Korea, Japan, Canada, Mexico, and Italy are the top five countries of origin. In addition to students attending the Berklee campus in Boston, in the 2009–2010 academic year, approximately 2,500 students took online courses through Berkleemusic.com.^[1]

Facilities[link]

Berklee classroom building at 130 Massachusetts Avenue

Berklee remained at its original location at 284 Newbury Street from its founding in 1945 to 1966, when it moved into the larger 1140 Boylston St. building, the former Hotel Bostonian.^[46] Beginning in 1972 an era of more rapid expansion began with the purchase of the Fenway Theatre and the adjoining Sherry Biltmore Hotel at 150 Massachusetts Avenue. The theater was renovated and opened as the 1,227-seat Berklee Performance Center in 1976.^[47] The former Biltmore Hotel provided additional classroom and practice room spaces and residence halls. It also houses the library, which was renamed the Stan Getz Library and Media Center in 1998.^[48] The 150 Massachusetts Avenue building is also the site of the Berklee Learning Center, which when it opened in 1993, was the world’s largest networked computer learning facility for music education.^[49]

The Genko Uchida Center at 921 Boylston Street opened in 1997 and houses the offices for enrollment, admissions, scholarships and student employment, the registrar, financial aid, bursar, rehearsal and classroom space, and the 200-seat David Friend Recital Hall.^[50] At 939 Boylston Street, Café 939, the nation’s only student-run, all-ages night club, hosts a full program of student performers, local and national acts, and community programs.

As of 2011, Berklee occupies 21 buildings primarily in the Back Bay area of Boston, near the intersection of Boylston Street and Massachusetts Avenue.^[1] Within these buildings are 13 recording studios, 5 film/video scoring and editing facilities, and 9 music synthesis facilities.^[51] The studios of the five-channel, commercial-free Berklee Internet Radio Network (BIRN), which launched in 2007, are also housed on campus.^[52] A new Liberal Arts building at 7 Haviland Street was dedicated in 2010. It houses the Liberal Arts, Music Therapy, and Music Business Departments, as well as the Africana Studies program.^[53]

In early 2011, Berklee College of Music announced its master plan of building 3 new buildings along the Massachusetts Avenue. First expected to be completed by Fall 2013 is the 16-story mixed-use building at 160 Massachusetts Avenue. This building will include 370 dorm rooms, a two-story cafeteria, a performance center, recording studios, and retail space. The second building is going to be built at the top of existing 130–136 Massachusetts Avenue (The Berklee Performance Centre). The new building is expected to house additional 450 students, as well as a state-of-the-art performing center, in its 24-story tall building. The third building is planned to be in 161–171 Massachusetts Avenue, which is expected to contain more academic and administrative space for the Berklee College of Music.^[54]

Berklee Valencia[link]

Berklee in Valencia is the college’s first international campus, with a unique curriculum. With Valencia, the college offers a new way for musicians around the world to join the global music community—as performers, as practitioners, and as leaders.

The new campus is housed in the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, an iconic building designed for music and equipped with state-of-the-art technology, with an unparalleled faculty of inspiring educators and cutting-edge industry professionals. Students in Valencia also benefit from a city where music is essential to its history and its citizens, and that offers exposure to a panoply of cultures, audiences, and master musicians. Students are in direct connection to some of the richest musical cultures in the world—including South America, the Middle East, Europe, and North Africa.^[55]

Berklee Valencia campus will be housed in a 27-story "Music Tower", which includes an auditorium seating more than 1,000 people, lecture halls, recording and editing studios, library, conference areas, multimedia centre, commercial area music sales, and residential area. The residential area will comprise 104 apartments including duplexes with 20 to 25% of these for both students and teachers. At the base of the building there will be a large water feature which can be emptied to provide an outdoor concert venue. There will also be a rooftop solarium dubbed the "beach" as well as numerous terraces and squares throughout the building.^[56]

Master's Degree Programs[link]

Berklee Valencia campus focuses primarily on graduate programs in the following areas: Contemporary Studio Performance; Contemporary Writing and Production; Electronic Production and Design; Global Entertainment and Music Business; Symphonic Band Studies; and Scoring for Film, Television, and Video Games.

Global Music Studies[link]

Berklee Boston undergraduates will have the opportunity to spend a semester in the new Valencia campus starting in spring 2012. A program in International Music Business Studies and a program in Mediterranean Music Studies will be offered to students who seek to specialize in the global music industry and who want to develop their skills, competences, and mindset to become leaders at an international level. In its first year, the opportunity will be offered to music business, professional music and performance majors. All credits earned will apply towards graduation. Following the semester, students may complete an internship in their field of study.

The International Career Center[link]

This center expands international opportunities for Berklee students through a variety of initiatives that include internships for those candidates with the most talent and qualifications, and networking opportunities in the Valencia signature areas of study.

Mediterranean Music Institute[link]

Students, experienced Berklee educators, visiting musicians, and new faculty from Spain and beyond meet in Valencia to explore the many fusions of global music prevalent in and around the Mediterranean rim. The institute will help make Berklee in Valencia a hub for the study, evolution, and proliferation of the many musical genres associated with the Mediterranean region, including flamenco. Javier Limón serves as the Artistic Director of the Berklee College of Music's Mediterranean Music Institute.^[57]

Special Programs and Professional Certificates[link]

Berklee’s campus in Valencia regularly offers unique programs in contemporary music. These include clinics, workshops, and seminars as well as short, concentrated sessions in areas such as performance, flamenco, film scoring, music business, technology and production, and education.

Alumni[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Small, Mark, "All the Right Moves – Lee Eliot Berk", Berklee Today, Vol. 15, Issue 3, Spring 2004. Interview with Lawrence Berk's son, Lee Eliot Berk, the then retiring second president of Berklee College of Music.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Berklee College of Music

• Berklee College of Music official site
• The Music Business Journal at Berklee College of Music

Coordinates: 42°20′48″N 71°05′19″W / 42.34669°N 71.088705°W / 42.34669; -71.088705

The term music school refers to an educational institution specialized in the study, training and research of music. Different terms refer to this concept such as school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger institution) or conservatory.

Music instruction can be provided within the compulsory general education system, or within specialized children's music schools such as the Purcell School. Elementary school children can access music instruction also in after-school institutions such as music academies or music schools. In Venezuela El Sistema of youth orchestras provides free after-school instrumental instruction through music schools called núcleos. The term “music school” can be also applied to institutions of higher education under names such as school of music, such as the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University, music academy, like the Sibelius Academy, music faculty as the Don Wright Faculty of Music of the University of Western Ontario, college of music, characterized by the Royal College of Music and the Berklee College of Music, music department, like the Department of Music at the University of California, Berkeley or the term conservatory, exemplified by the Conservatoire de Paris and the term higher school of music or university of music such as the Cologne University of Music known as Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln in German. Instruction includes training in the performance of musical instruments, singing, musical composition, conducting, musicianship, as well as academic and research fields such as musicology, music history and music theory.

Graduates of Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg Conservatory include Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Sergey Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, and George Balanchine.

History[link]

Notre Dame Cathedral. Notre Dame School was an important centre of polyphonic music.

Although music and music education may have been in existence for thousands of years, the earliest history is speculative.^[1] Even when history starts to be recorded, music is mentioned more frequently than music education. Within the biblical tradition, Hebrew litany was accompanied with rich music, but the Torah or Pentateuch was silent on the practice and instruction of music in the early life of Israel. However, by I Samuel 10, Alfred Sendrey suggests that we find “a sudden and unexplained upsurge of large choirs and orchestras, consisting of thoroughly organized and trained musical groups, which would be virtually inconceivable without lengthy, methodical preparation.” This has led some scholars to believe that the prophet Samuel was the patriarch of a school which taught not only prophets and holy men, but also sacred-rite musicians.^[2]

The Schola cantorum (papal choir), may be the first recorded music school in history, when Gregory the Great (590–604) made permanent an existing guild dating from the 4th century ('schola' originally referred more to a guild rather than school). The school consisted of monks, secular clergy, and boys.^[3] Wells Cathedral School, England founded as a Cathedral School in 909 a.d. to educate choristers, continues today to educate choristers and teaches instrumentalists. However the school appears to have been refounded at least once.^[4]

Saint Martial school, 10th to 12th century, was an important school of composition at the Abbey of Saint Martial, Limoges. It is known for the composition of tropes, sequences, and early organum. In this respect, it was an important precursor to the Notre Dame School.^[5] It was the Notre Dame school (late 12th and early 13th century) which was the earliest repertory of polyphonic (multipart) music to gain international prestige and circulation. The school was a group of composers and singers working under the patronage of the great Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris.^[6]

The term Conservatory derives from Renaissance (16th century) Italy where orphanages were attached to hospitals. The Orphans (conservati) were given a musical education and the term gradually applied to music schools.^[7] The Conservatories have been the first secular institutions equipped for practical training in music. By the 18th century, Italian conservatories were already playing a major role in the training of artists and composers.^[8]

The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (English: National Academy of St Cecilia) is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, based in Italy. It is based at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, and was founded by the papal bull, Ratione congruit, issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints prominent in Western musical history: Gregory the Great, for whom the Gregorian chant is named, and Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music. It was founded as a "congregation" or "confraternity" – a religious guild, so to speak – and over the centuries, has grown from a forum for local musicians and composers to an internationally acclaimed academy active in music scholarship (with 100 prominent music scholars forming the body of the Accademia) to music education (in its role as a conservatory) to performance (with an active choir and symphony orchestra).

It is in the city of Naples where the term “conservatorio” was strictly associated with a secular place for teaching and learning specializing in music education. In Naples, there were four conservatoires already active in the 17th and 18th century: "I poveri di Gesù Cristo", founded in 1599 by Marcello Fossataro and already including in their official record a “magister musicae” and “magister lyrae” in 1633 ; "Santa Maria di Loreto" where the composer Giovan Battista Pergolesi (1710–1736) studied; "La pietà dei turchini" was founded in 1583 and the earliest findings suggest musical activity around the year 1615; "Sant'Onofrio a porta Capuana", where the composer Giovanni Paisiello (1740–1816) studied and then thought, started teaching music in the mid-1600 and in the following decades will give more priority to the “opera buffa”; plus one only for girls called "dell'Annunziata"^[9] It is in these very institutions that the so called Scuola Musicale Napoletana was developed thanks to the work of musicians and educators like Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725) and Francesco Durante (1684–1755), who was also Pergolesi’s and Paisiello’s teacher.

It was the example set in Naples, where admission was by competitive examination and tuition was free, that was then copied, with modifications, in many European cities, including Paris (1795), Bologna (1804), Milan (1807), Florence and Prague (1811), Warsaw and Vienna (1821), London (1822), the Hague (1826), and Liege (1827). The second half of the 19th century saw the network expanding to the Americas, Rio de Janeiro (1847), Boston (1853), Baltimore and Chicago (1868), Havana (1885), and Buenos Aires (1893). Establishments for advanced training in music were organized in the 1940s in several Asian and African countries, including Iraq, Lebanon, and Kenya.^[8]

To this extent, projects like El Sistema are more in line with the tradition set in Italy (where tuition at conservatoires are still free) than English speaking country where there is a tendency to charge students with very little access to bursaries (see the Royal Academy of Music or the Royal College of Music in the UK).

Primary and secondary education[link]

Specialist music schools[link]

Musikgymnasium Schloss Belvedere is a specialist music school in Germany

Specialist music schools exist in many countries and whose purpose is to identify, and assist, children with exceptional potential, to benefit from world-class specialist training as part of a broad and balanced education, which will enable them, if they choose, to proceed towards self-sustaining careers in music.^[10] These schools may be formally^[11] or informally attached to a Conservatory. Entry is typically between the ages of ages 8 and 18 and admission is through competitive audition. Schools may be public or independent, where schools are independent pupils may be in receipt of governmental^[12] or private scholorships. Typically as students progress through the school the time spent on music increases and on academic subjects decrease. These schools usually wholly comprise of instrumentalists but may also include choristers. Some schools (like conservatories) are broader and may cover the performing arts; music, drama, dance.^[13]

Music schools within schools[link]

Many music schools are located within existing schools. The pattern is quite diverse and may include;

Specialist music units (Scotland) where students are drawn from an area wider than the host schools catchment. Students will receive specialist music tuition within the music school but are fully integrated within the host school for other lessons. Entry to the specialist music unit or school is by competitive audition, which also effectively gives entry to the host school.^[14]

Many public or independent schools contain music departments, some of which achieve high standards. These are sometimes referred to as Music schools. Music Colleges in England are schools that get additional private and governmental money to specialise in music. Entry is to the host school and musical ability is not a criteria.^[15] Schools which perform highly may specialise in an additional area for example sports or technology.

300 children attend the Royal College of Music's Junior Department

Pre-college divisions[link]

Many Conservatoires or other tertiary level institutions have pre-college divisions or junior departments for children of school age.^[16] Typically the curriculum may includes individual lesson(s), orchestra, chamber music, theory, musicianship, composition and music technology. Classes are usually held on a Saturday and children attend normal schools during the week.

Music schools outwith the general education system[link]

Non-governmental^[17] or Private Schools^[18] of Music offers music education outside the general education system for students aged 4 to 20 + years. In general, students attend these schools, weekend or evening. These schools are typically provided by individuals, charitable or commercial organizations.

Tertiary education[link]

Conservatoire[link]

The Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP). Georges Bizet and Claude Debussy studied at the 'Conservatoire de Paris'

Jacobs School of Music, is part of Indiana University and has more than 1,600 students

A conservatoire of music may also be called a conservatory, conservatorium, academy or college. Some schools or conservatories are exclusively focused on music.^[19] Others have a wider focus, for example covering music, drama and dance.^[20] Conservatoires are suitable for students who wish to develop their performance, conducting, or composition to a professional standard. Typically, they offer a high percentage of practical training combined with academic study and professional development for those considering a career in the creative arts. Individual teaching is the strength of most components.

Students have the opportunity to perform, conduct or have their music played on a regular basis, both informally and in public. This may be solo or as part of an orchestra, ensemble or band. Typically, conservatoires focus on Western classical music. However, some schools focus on traditional instruments for example Chinese instruments.^[21] Others may have departments for traditional music which includes both traditional and classical instruments for example bagpipes alongside the fiddle.^[22] Alternatively, students can focus on jazz, world music or pop music.^[23]

The time required to complete music degrees is generally not much different from degrees in other fields, i.e. 3–4 years for a Bachelor of Music degree, 1–2 years for a Master of Music degree, and 3–5 years for a Doctor of Musical Arts or Doctor of Music Degree. A PhD degree can be gained for areas such as musicology, music theory, music composition, or music education. Some schools may offer a non-academic degree that is solely performance based, such as the (United States) A.D. or Artist Diploma; this may be offered at the undergraduate and/or graduate level.

University schools of music[link]

University music departments, originally placed more emphasis on academic study of music, rather than performance. However, today, the division may not be so rigid with many often placing greater emphasis on performance now than they did in the past. The specific balance of vocational training and academic study varyies from one institution to another, and from one country to another Some countries separately define their institutions between university status and vocational university status, whilst other countries do not define such a rigid division. In addition to offering degrees similar to those offered at Conservatoires, some universities offer non-professional music-related degrees such as a Bachelor of Arts in Music or a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education. A number of previously independent Conservatoires have become affiliated to Universities ^[24]

See also[link]

St Mary's Music School, Edinburgh, has 70 instrumentalists and choristors aged 9–18

Country specific pages

• Music schools in India
• Music schools in Germany
• Music schools in Scotland
• Music schools in Serbia
• Music schools in the United States

Lists

• List of colleges and university schools of music
• List of pre-college music schools

National and International Organisations

• Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music
• Conservatoires UK
• European Association of Conservatoires
• (United States) National Association of Schools of Music

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Music schools

1. ^ The origins of music Nils Lennart Wallin, Steven Brown, Björn Merker ISBN 0-262-73143-6 retrieved 9 November 2010
2. ^ Lee Krähenbühl: A Theatre Before the World: Performance History at the Intersection of Hebrew, Greek, and Roman Religious Processional retrieved 9 November 2010
3. ^ Original Catholic Encyclopedia: Sistine Choir retrieved 9 November 2010
4. ^ Wells Cathedral School retrieved 9 November 2010
5. ^ Harvard Dictionary of Music: St Martial school retrieved 9 November 2010
6. ^ Britannica Encyclopedia: Notre-Dame school retrieved 9 November 2010
7. ^ Britannica Encyclopedia Retrieved 16 November 2010
8. ^ ^{a b} The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979)
9. ^ A. Della Corte, G. M. Gatti, Dizionario di musica, Paravia, 1956.
10. ^ Chethams Music School retrieved 14 November 2010
11. ^ Sächsisches Landesgymnasium für Musik "Carl Maria von Weber retrieved 14 November 2010
12. ^ English Aided Pupil Scheme retrieved 14 November 2010
13. ^ Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts retrieved 14 November 2010
14. ^ Sgoil Chiùil na Gàidhealtachd retrieved 14 November 2010
15. ^ Guildford County School retrieved 14 November 2010
16. ^ Manhattan School of Music Pre-college Division retrieved 14 November 2010
17. ^ Musik Fröhlich retrieved 14 November 2010
18. ^ Yamaha Music Schools retrieved 14 November 2010
19. ^ Royal Academy of Music retrieved 9 November 2010
20. ^ Juilliard retrieved 9 November 2010
21. ^ China Conservatory retrieved 14 November 2010
22. ^ Royal Scottish Academy for Music and Drama retrieved 9 November 2010
23. ^ Conservatorium van Amsterdam retrieved 14 November 2010
24. ^ Peabody Institute Retrieved 15 November 2010

Art Blakey
Blakey
Background information
Birth name	Arthur Blakey
Also known as	Abdullah Ibn Buhaina
Born	(1919-10-11)October 11, 1919 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania United States
Died	October 16, 1990(1990-10-16) (aged 71) New York City, New York, U.S.
Genres	Hard bop, bebop
Occupations	Drummer, bandleader
Instruments	Drums, percussion
Years active	1942–1990
Labels	Blue Note
Associated acts	Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Art Blakey Quartet, Art Blakey Quintet, Art Blakey & the Afrocuban Boys
Website	www.artblakey.com

Arthur "Art" Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990),^[1] known later as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina, was an American Grammy Award-winning jazz drummer and bandleader. He was a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

Along with Kenny Clarke and Max Roach, he was one of the inventors of the modern bebop style of drumming. He is known as a powerful musician and a vital groover; his brand of bluesy, funky hard bop was and continues to be profoundly influential on mainstream jazz. For more than 30 years his band, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, included many young musicians who went on to become prominent names in jazz. The band's legacy is thus not only known for the music it produced, but as a proving ground for several generations of jazz musicians;^[2] Blakey's groups are matched only by those of Miles Davis in this regard.^[3]

Blakey was inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame (in 1982), the Grammy Hall of Fame (in 2001), and was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

Before the Messengers[link]

Blakey was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. By the time he was a teenager, he was playing the piano full-time, leading a commercial band. Shortly afterwards, reputedly because he thought he would be unable to compete with the emerging pianist Erroll Garner, he taught himself to play the drums in the aggressive swing style of Chick Webb, Sid Catlett and Ray Bauduc. He joined Mary Lou Williams as a drummer for an engagement in New York in autumn 1942. He then toured with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra (1939–1942). During his years with Billy Eckstine’s big band (1944–7), Blakey became associated with the bebop movement, along with his fellow band members Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, Fats Navarro and others.^[4]

By the late forties and early fifties, Blakey was backing musicians such as Miles Davis, Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk — he is often considered to have been Monk's most empathetic drummer,^[5] and he played on both Monk's first recording session as a leader (for Blue Note Records in 1947) and his final one (in London in 1971), as well as many in between.

Blakey said that he travelled to Africa during 1948 and 1949. He converted to Islam during this period and took the name Abdullah Ibn Buhaina (which led to the nickname "Bu"). In the early 1950s he performed and broadcast with such musicians as Charlie Parker and Miles Davis.

From his earliest recording sessions with Eckstine, and particularly in his historic sessions with Monk in 1947, Blakey exuded power and originality, creating a dark cymbal sound punctuated by frequent loud snare- and bass-drum accents in triplets or cross-rhythms. Although Blakey discouraged comparison of his own music with African drumming, he adopted several African devices, including rapping on the side of the drum and using his elbow on the tom-tom to alter the pitch. His much-imitated trademark, the forceful closing of the hi-hat on every second and fourth beat, was part of his style from 1950 to '51. A loud and domineering drummer, Blakey also listened and responded to his soloists. His contribution to jazz as a discoverer and molder of young talent over three decades was no less significant than his very considerable innovations on his instrument.^[4]

The Jazz Messengers[link]

Art Blakey on a tour billed as part of the "Giants of Jazz" in Hamburg, Germany in 1973

In 1947 Blakey organized the Seventeen Messengers, a rehearsal band, and recorded with an octet called the Jazz Messengers.^[6] The use of the Messengers tag only stuck with the group co-led at first by both Blakey and pianist Horace Silver, though the name was not used on the earliest of their recordings. Blakey and Silver recorded together on several occasions, including live at Birdland with trumpeter Clifford Brown and alto-saxophonist Lou Donaldson in 1954 for Blue Note, having formed in 1953 a regular cooperative group with Hank Mobley and Kenny Dorham.

The "Jazz Messengers" name was first used for this group on a 1954 recording nominally led by Silver, with Blakey, Mobley, Dorham and Doug Watkins — the same quintet would record The Jazz Messengers at the Cafe Bohemia the following year, still functioning as a collective. Donald Byrd replaced Dorham, and the group recorded an album called simply The Jazz Messengers for Columbia Records in 1956. Blakey took over the group name when Silver left after the band's first year (taking Mobley, Byrd and Watkins with him to form a new quintet with a variety of drummers), and the band was known as "Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers" from then onwards with Blakey being the sole leader, and he remained associated with it for the rest of his life. It was the archetypal hard-bop group of the 1950s, playing a driving, aggressive extension of bop with pronounced blues roots. Towards the end of the 1950s, the saxophonists Johnny Griffin and Benny Golson were in turn briefly members of the group. Golson, as music director, wrote several jazz standards which began as part of the band book such as "I Remember Clifford", and "Blues March" was regularly revived by later editions of the group. "Along Came Betty" and "Are You Real" were other Golson compositions for Blakey.

From 1959 to 1961 the group featured Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Jymie Merritt, Lee Morgan, and Bobby Timmons.^[1] The second line-up (1961–1964) was a sextet that added trombonist Curtis Fuller and replaced Morgan and Timmons with Freddie Hubbard and Cedar Walton, respectively.^[1] Shorter was now the musical director of the group, and many of his original compositions such as "Lester Left Town" remained repertoire staples later on. (Other players over the years made permanent marks on Blakey's repertoire — Timmons, composer of "Dat Dere" and "Moanin'", and later, Bobby Watson.) Shorter's more experimental inclinations pushed the band at the time into an engagement with the 1960s "New Thing", as it was called: the influence of Coltrane's contemporary records on Impulse! is evident on Free For All (1964), often cited as the greatest document of the Shorter-era Messengers (and certainly one of the most fearsomely powerful examples of hard bop on record).^{[citation needed]}

Up to the 1960s Blakey also recorded as a sideman with many other musicians: Jimmy Smith, Herbie Nichols, Cannonball Adderley, Grant Green, and Jazz Messengers graduates Lee Morgan and Hank Mobley, amongst many others. However, after the mid-1960s he mostly concentrated on his own work as a leader. Blakey also made a world tour in 1971–2 with the Giants of Jazz (with Dizzy Gillespie, Kai Winding, Sonny Stitt, Thelonious Monk and Al McKibbon).^[4]

Later career[link]

Blakey went on to record dozens of albums with a constantly changing group of Jazz Messengers — he had a policy of encouraging young musicians: as he remarked on-mike during the live session which resulted in the A Night at Birdland albums in 1954: "I'm gonna stay with the youngsters. When these get too old I'll get some younger ones. Keeps the mind active."^[1] After weathering the fusion era in the 1970s with some difficulty (recordings from this period are less plentiful and include attempts to incorporate instruments like electric piano), Blakey's band got revitalized in the early 1980s with the advent of neotraditionalist jazz. Blakey's ferociousness and tenacity while drumming earned him the nickname "Jazz Tiger", or "The Tiger of Jazz". Wynton Marsalis was for a time the band's trumpeter and musical director, and even after Marsalis's departure Blakey's band continued as a proving ground for many "Young Lions" like Johnny O'Neal, Philip Harper, Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrison and Kenny Garrett.

Blakey continued performing and touring with the group into the late 1980s; Ron Wynn notes that Blakey had "played with such force and fury that he eventually lost much of his hearing, and at the end of his life, often played strictly by instinct."^[7] Some reports suggest Blakey had hearing problems as early as 1959. Blakey died in 1990 in New York City, leaving behind a vast legacy and approach to jazz which is still the model for countless hard-bop players.^[1][7]

Jazz Messengers alumni[link]

This section requires expansion.

Piano

Wynton Kelly, Joanne Brackeen, Donald Brown, Walter Davis, Jr., Sam Dockery, Kenny Drew, Benny Green, John Hicks, Keith Jarrett, Geoffrey Keezer, Mulgrew Miller, Johnny O'Neal, Horace Silver, Bobby Timmons, Cedar Walton, James Williams

Reeds

Dale Barlow, Gary Bartz, Kenny Garrett, Lou Donaldson, John Gilmore, Benny Golson, Johnny Griffin, Billy Harper, Donald Harrison, Javon Jackson, Branford Marsalis, Jackie McLean, Hank Mobley, Bill Pierce, David Schnitter, Wayne Shorter, Ira Sullivan, Jean Toussaint, Bobby Watson

Trumpet

Terence Blanchard, Clifford Brown, Donald Byrd, Kenny Dorham, Bill Hardman, Philip Harper, Freddie Hubbard, Brian Lynch, Chuck Mangione, Wynton Marsalis, Lee Morgan, Woody Shaw, Valery Ponomarev, Charles Tolliver

Trombone

Steve Davis, Robin Eubanks, Curtis Fuller, Frank Lacy, Tim Williams

Bass

Spanky DeBrest, Charles Fambrough, Dennis Irwin, Jymie Merritt, Curly Russell, Victor Sproles, Doug Watkins, Wilbur Ware, Reggie Workman, Riccardo Del Fra, Stanley Clarke

Guitar

Bobby Broom, Kevin Eubanks

Drums

Ralph Peterson, Jr.

Awards[link]

• Jazz Mobile Development and Preservation of Jazz (1970)
• Newport Jazz Festival Hall of Fame (1976)
• Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame Reader's Choice Award (1981)
• Smithsonian Performing Arts Certificate of Appreciation (1982)
• Lee Morgan Memorial Award (1982)
• Jazz Hall of Fame Induction (1982)
• Grammy Award Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Group (1984) for the album New York Scene
• Jazznote Award (1986)
• Doctorate of Music (1987; Berklee College of Music)
• Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award (1991)
• Grammy Hall of Fame Induction for the album Moanin' (2001)
• Pittsburgh Jazz Festival Award
• Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (2005; awarded posthumously)

Discography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Art Blakey

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Art Blakey

• Official Art Blakey website

Alan Dawson (July 14, 1929 — February 23, 1996) was a respected jazz drummer and widely influential percussion teacher based in Boston.

Biography[link]

He was born in Marietta, Pennsylvania and raised in Roxbury, MA. Serving in the Army for Korean War duty, Dawson played with the Army Dance Band while stationed at Fort Dix from 1951-1953. During his tenure, Alan explored the post-bop era by performing with pianist Sabby Lewis. After being released from the Army, Alan toured Europe with Lionel Hampton.

Dawson is best remembered as an early teacher of Tony Williams. Other former students include: Terri Lyne Carrington, Vinnie Colaiuta, Steve Smith, Kenwood Dennard, Gerry Hemingway, Jeff Sipe and many others. He began teaching at Berklee College of Music in 1957. Dawson suffered a ruptured disc in 1975 which led to him halting his touring schedule, to leave Berklee and limit his teaching to his home in Lexington, MA.

His teaching style emphasized the music as a whole rather than concentrate on percussion alone. He stressed the importance of learning the melody and structure of the tune to better fulfill the role of accompaniment. For this purpose, he had students play over standards while also singing the melody out loud. He constantly strived for balance between musical ideas and strict technique. He was big on rudiments and wrote extensive exercises intended to be practiced with brushes. He believed using brushes with his "Rudimental Ritual" would reduce stick rebound allowing the sense of "picking up" the sticks. While teaching, Alan also maintained a prolific performing and recording career.

Dawson was the house drummer for Lennie's On The Turnpike in Peabody, MA from 1963 through to 1970. This gig allowed him to perform with a diverse group of jazz artists. Around this time, Dawson was Boston's premier jazz drummer for local acts as well as bigger name touring artists.

Throughout the 1960s Dawson recorded almost exclusively with saxophonist Booker Ervin on Prestige Records. In 1968 Dawson replaced Joe Morello in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and continued until 1975. His performance credits also included stints with Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, Jaki Byard, Booker Ervin, Sonny Stitt, Dexter Gordon, Lee Konitz, Quincy Jones, Charles Mingus, Tal Farlow and many other top jazz artists.

Dawson's teaching methods have been passed on by many of his former students. Books on his approach have been written by John Ramsay and Osami Mizuno, both former students. Alan Dawson died of leukemia on February 23, 1996.^[1]

Discography[link]

As leader[link]

• Waltzin' With Flo (1992)

As a sideman[link]

With Dave Brubeck

• The Last Set at Newport (Atlantic, 1971)

With Jaki Byard

• The Jaki Byard Experience (Prestige, 1968)

With Sonny Criss

• The Beat Goes On! (Prestige, 1968)

With Booker Ervin

• The Freedom Book (Prestige, 1963)
• The Song Book (Prestige, 1964)
• The Blues Book (Prestige, 1964)
• The Space Book (Prestige, 1964)
• Groovin' High (Prestige, 1963–64)
• The Trance (Prestige, 1965)
• Heavy!!! (Prestige, 1966)

With Terry Gibbs

• Bopstacle Course (Xanadu, 1974)

With Sonny Stitt

• Tune-Up! (Muse, 1972)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Alan Dawson - In Memoriam (Drummer Cafe)
• Drummerworld's Alan Dawson page
• Bio from the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame
• Jazz Portraits from the WGBH Archives: Alan Dawson a radio documentary from WGBH Radio Boston

Derek Sivers

Derek Sivers (born September 22, 1969^[1]) is best known for being the founder and former president of CD Baby, an online CD store for independent musicians.

A professional musician (and circus clown) since 1987, Derek started CD Baby by accident in 1998 when he was selling his own CD on his website, and friends asked if he could sell theirs, too. CD Baby went on to become the largest seller of independent music on the web, with over $100M in sales for over 150,000 musician clients.

After he won the 2003 World Technology Award, Esquire magazine's annual "Best and Brightest" cover story said, "Derek Sivers is changing the way music is bought and sold . . . one of the last music-business folk heroes."

In 2008, Derek sold CD Baby to focus on his new ventures to benefit musicians, including his new company, MuckWork, where teams of assistants help musicians do their "uncreative dirty work". His current projects and writings are all at sivers.org.

Derek is married to Sajitha, and they reside in Singapore.^[1]

CD Baby[link]

Derek Sivers bequeathed his company to a charitable trust for music education, and had them sell it to Disk Makers. This agreement allows him to receive the minimum allowed by law for such agreement of 5% per year of the company's sale price (annually $1,100,000 pretax, based on a sale price of $22 million as reported by Sivers^[2]) until death, while upon death the remainder if any will ultimately go into the trust.^[2]

Bibliography[link]

• Anything you want (2011, The Domino Project)^[3]

External links[link]

• Derek Sivers - Sivers' personal website
• MusicThoughts - thoughts on music translated in nine languages
• TED speaker page - Sivers' presentations at the TED Conference
• MuckWork - outsourcing of support tasks for musicians
• Sivers Reading Recommendations - business books that Sivers has read along with his notes on each

Interviews:

• EDay Emerce 2010 with Ronnie Overgoor in Rotterdam
• Mitch Joel - Six Pixels of Separation podcast
• Jay Baer - Convince & Convert
• Mixergy
• Forbes - Michael Ellsberg
• Escape from Cubicle Nation
• Eventual Millionaire
• Brain Pickings - by Maria Popova
• Amber Rae
• IdeaMensch
• Duct Tape Marketing
• Ariel Hyatt
• Marketing Over Coffee
• Fear.Less
• 10 Questions 10 Answers

References[link]

• Small, M (2009). "Berklee Today". Indie Musician Advocate

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