Sounds of Berklee

Adam Renn Olenn | December 10, 2013 Until you’ve seen a Chapman Stick performed live, the music it produces sounds too big to be real. A twelve-string electric instrument, it’s sort of like a guitar and a bass fused together, but played with a pianistic tapping of the fingers to activate the strings, instead of plucking or strumming them. And one of the best Chapman Stick players in the world is T...

Adam Renn Olenn | November 26, 2013 The members of R&B vocal quartet Ahmir were drawn to Boston by their respective colleges, including 2004 alumnus Mark Robertson, also known as Sing Sing, and they still call it home. Home, that is, when they’re not making one of the videos that have garnered over 75 million views and nearly 400,000 subscribers on YouTube. These four young men work hard, and thei...

Rob Hochschild | November 20, 2013 Spanish producer, composer, and performing artist Javier Limón's just-released Promesas de Tierra features music not only inspired by the Middle East; it shines the light on several young artists from the region. Limón, who is artistic director of Berklee's Mediterranean Music Institute, wrote nine songs for the album and invited a group of instrumentalists—many...

Adam Renn Olenn | November 13, 2013 Multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter, dancer, and actress Marga Lane is a true triple threat. As a songwriter and performer, she’s played clubs from one end of the country to the other, including the Roxy and the Sayer’s Club in Los Angeles to the Bitter End and CBGB’s in New York. In addition to her studies at Berklee, her acting prowess carried her to the M...

Rob Hochschild | November 6, 2013 France-born vibraphonist Simon Moullier was in his first semester at Berklee in fall 2012 when he formed a quartet with three other internationally born instrumentalists. Vibes and alto saxophone combine to generate the group's strong melodic character while the bass and drums provide a balance rooted in neo-soul and pop influences. Moullier's list of influences i...

September 23, 2015 | By Curtis Killian Latin Grammy-nominated Cuban tenor saxophonist Carlos Averhoff, Jr is a contemporary Afro-Cuban Jazz composer and educator described by All About Jazz as "a dynamic fresh new voice on the saxophone." Born in Havana, the son of legendary saxophonist Carlos Averhoff was classically trained in some of Cuba's best music schools, and after completing extensive aca...

October 30, 2013 | Adam Renn Olenn Originally from Groningen, Holland, 2010 alumna Femke Weidema met Brandon James in Los Angeles after leaving Berklee. The two quickly discovered that their shared interest in combining Americana and pop music came alive in the haunting, irresistible combination of their blended voices, and Cotton Wine was formed. They wrote their first song on the road and record...

October 10, 2013 | Adam Renn Olenn Berklee College of Music, Heavy Rotation Records (HRR), and Berklee Alumni Affairs present the seventh annual CMJ Music Marathon showcase of alumni and student artists on Thursday, October 17, from 8:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. at Sullivan Hall in New York City. The show features rock, Americana, funk, reggae, and Latin music by the Hello Strangers, Shun Ng, Sylvana Joy...

September 15, 2015 | By Curtis Killian Described by the New york times as “forthright and flexible, eager and full-toned,” jazz clarinetist Felix Peikli is one of several Berklee alumni coming to Beantown Jazz fest Saturday, September 26 in Boston. Born in Norway, Peikli has toured the globe with Ralph Peterson Jr’s renowned jazz quartet, the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, and his mentor and Berkl...

Rob Hochschild | October 8, 2013 These are heady times for Chile-born saxophonist Melissa Aldana. She moved to Manhattan after graduating form Berklee in 2009; began making a name for herself in that competitive and overpopulated scene; and just a few weeks ago, achieved something that no woman instrumentalist has ever done: she won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. It was the fi...

Rob Hochschild | September 25, 2013 Students in the Berklee Global Jazz Insitute are among some of the most innovative and talented young musicians on the planet. "We are not just challenging our students to become stronger, more creative, and imaginative musicians. We want to inspire them to become mature, socially aware people who actually make a difference in our world," says BGJI faculty membe...

Adam Renn Olenn | September 17, 2013 Belgian bassist Sebastian Jasinski moved to Paris after graduating from Berklee in 2003 and gigged for several years before committing himself to producing his own music. Under the moniker Lenox, Jasinski produced, composed, and played all of the instruments on his Lenox debut, Opening Act, and collaborated with a panoply of vocalists to create a record that is...

Rob Hochschild | September 10, 2013 As talented a songwriter as student Molly Tuttle is, music fans who have seen her perform live are immediately impressed as well with her virtuosic skill as a flatpicking guitarist and her ability as a clawhammer and fingerstyle banjo player. But for Tuttle fans, it always comes back to the song and the voice. She's been performing on stage since she was 11, and...

Adam Renn Olenn | September 3, 2013 Before alumnus Lucky Diaz ’97 founded his nationally acclaimed Family Jam Band, he wrote and performed as a singer-songwriter. Emily Herndon of May Stands Still had been covering one of his songs during her live shows, and audience pressure led her to ask Diaz’s blessing to record it. Herndon recorded the song with alumni bassist, producer, and mix engineer Wes...

Rob Hochschild | August 26, 2013 The music of Unlimited Perception is as diverse as the countries its bandmembers hail from, including Turkey, Colombia, and Israel. The musicians met as Berklee students in 2012 and released its debut recording, Awakening, earlier this month. "Unlimited Perception makes fusion music in the best sense of the word—a wide variety of musical ideas and cultures woven in...

Rob Hochschild | August 23, 2013 Moira Lo Bianco '12 is a bona fide triple threat as a composer, arranger, and pianist. Taking an organic approach to transcending genre, Lo Bianco has explored a range of musical traditions, including Indian, Middle Eastern, flamenco, classical, and jazz. Hailing from Italy, Lo Bianco studied at conservatories in her home country before graduating from Berklee last...

Rob Hochschild | August 15, 2013 The three members of We Avalanche met as Berklee students in the past few years and continue to make Boston their base of operations. Guitarist and vocalist Brady Custis and mandolinist Zach Baldwin-Way first encountered each other while on a Berklee study abroad trip in Athens in 2010. Cellist Eric Law rounded out the band, which cites a wide range of influences,...

Adam Renn Olenn | August 5, 2013 After a decade singing opera, Berklee alumna Kim Logan traded the proscenium for the recording studio and the barroom stage. As the fourth generation in family to work in the entertainment industry, Logan is comfortable on both sides of the board and in the board room. Now based in Nashville, this Sarasota native is performing in support of her eponymous LP, writin...

Rob Hochschild | July 31, 2013 Ali Amr was one of Berklee's first Palestinian students when he enrolled at the college in 2008. Amr—who is from Ramallah, West Bank and now lives in New York—is a vocalist who accompanies himself on a 72-string lap harp, the qanun. He leads the Ali Amr Experiment, a five-piece group that fuses jazz, Latin, and Arabic music. Amr's quintent will play the mainstage of...

Rob Hochschild | April 26, 2013 Jazz pianist Caili O'Doherty—a native of Portland, Oregon—has received national awards for jazz piano performance and composition from DownBeat magazine and an ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer award. She will graduate from Berklee in May 2013 with a degree in performance. As a member of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute (BGJI), O'Doherty has worked closely with...

March 6, 2013 Berklee College of Music, the only college to host an official party at the SXSW Music and Media Conference—one of the music industry’s biggest events—presents its SXSW Party on Friday, March 15, 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., at Brush Square Park (East Tent), 409 East 5th Street (Neches and 5th), Austin, Texas. Berklee’s eighth SXSW party is the college’s first at an outdoor all-ages venu...

Rob Hochschild | March 6, 2013 Spanish student guitarist Javier G. F. Escudero came to Berklee a few years ago after studying classical music at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid, but the music he's making in Boston is a far cry from what you'd expect to hear at the average conservatory. Escudero and his band provide the leadoff track on the latest disc—Ripple Effect—from Berklee's student...

Adam Renn Olenn | February 25, 2013 Vocalist Farah Siraj’06 grew up in Amman, Jordan and Spain. At Berklee her studies in world music led her to combine her loves of Middle Eastern modes, flamenco singing, and bossa nova grooves into something new and mesmerizing. Sung in Jordanian Arabic over a samba, and supported by Arabian instruments like the qanun and darbuka, “Min Ghairak” is a song of love...

Rob Hochschild | February 19, 2013 The three members of Bear Language—alumnus vocalist and guitarist Luca Buccellati, student bassist Archi Denis, and student drummer Ian Barnett—met at Berklee, coming together as a small group that packs a wallop with a big sound, memorable songs, and a powerful live set. Describing its music as "explosive Beatles-driven rock" combined with the "funky dancable gr...

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 Ka...