The Superpower of Conducting: Women Rise to the Podium

Anna Rakitina, Assistant Conductor, Boston Symphony Orchestra

Being а female conductor in today’s music world does not feel too uncommon, though, for sure, it was not always like this. The rise of women in the profession is a relatively recent development and, as with many other leadership…

Ghost Session

Pete Mullineaux

In the elbow of the snug, our absent selves make ready – open cases, ease bellows, tune strings – spread the rosin; some chit-chat about weather, the match, a bit of world news thrown in. Flute enters, shrugging off the raingear, bicycle clips; Banjo tries to order drinks, plink-plink of a coin on an empty glass. A few are already warming up fingers, loosening wrists, softening lips; taking off into a gentile O’Carolan set, maybe a jig or two, before letting rip with a few high tempo reels...

Peter Pan is Rock & Roll: Are Aging Musicians Still Relevant?

Paul Robert Mullen

We, by nature, have definite expectations of those a certain age. Cynical, I guess, but realistic. I was only walking down the main drag of my home town this morning – a quaint seaside town in north-west England – surveying…

Letter for Berklee

Steve Vai

Greetings enthusiastic music students, and congratulations. You have chosen the entertainment industry as your profession. I have been in it for the last forty-seven years, and I can tell you it’s truly a fantastic industry. The number of options and…

Where Is Jazz Going?: Reissues, Jazz Industry, and the Future of Jazz

Jiwon Kwon

Many jazz fans would agree that John Coltrane is one of the most experimental and pioneering players in jazz history. At the height of bebop’s popularity, he made his jazz debut by joining Dizzy Gillespie’s band. Not long after, though,…

Sustaining Notes: From Grammy Award Winner Brazilian Singer Luciana Souza To Berklee Students

Luciana Souza

Edited text of Video Being at home has had me thinking. Thinking about how everything was interrupted. Almost violently, in some cases. If you were a student living in the dorms, you had to very quickly pack your things and…

A Beautiful View from the Berklee Bridge, Flowing with Music, Energy, and Glimpses of a Fruitful Future

A Reflection by Dr. Bill Banfield

I have often felt that, with my art, I could strike a blow against mediocrity. Thumb my nose at power, hate, and injustice. Lift a story that inspires joy. Pull from life a creative melody that guarantees a sigh and wonders about beauty. Build a room where everyone could find a friend. Change the mind of a young person to find a better truth for themselves . . . Wow, that would be a goal to work, live, and die for, happily having tried. Well, after being at Berklee for fifteen years, that is what I feel I can see forthcoming. I say that because this is a school that potentially will change the future due to talent, energy, and the power of music ...

Music in Islamic Philosophy

Peter Adamson

Despite his importance as the first Muslim intellectual to make use of ideas from the Greek philosophical tradition, we don’t know much about the life of al-Kindi. We do know roughly when he lived (the ninth century CE), that he…

Musical Setting of Sara Pirkle Hughes’s “What Hurts”

Neil Olmstead

“What Hurts” is based on a poem by Sara Pirkle Hughes. It is the first piece in a song cycle of five art songs for mezzo soprano and piano that I composed within the last year and recorded this past…

The String Revolution: Beux’s Etude pour violin solo & The Responsibility of the Composer/Performer

Sean Brennan

It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences -Audre Lorde, Our Dead Behind Us: Poems Within the confines of the orchestra, the violin’s role as both a solo instrument…