Berklee College of Music: The Facts

Berklee was founded by pianist/arranger and M.I.T.-educated architect Lawrence Berk in 1945. His vision was to offer music education for those seeking to enter the contemporary music professions. By 1966, he had transformed what had begun as a small, private teaching studio into a degree-granting college. Berklee’s contemporary music mission was unique among all other music colleges and attracted students from all over the world. With the support of his wife Alma, who collaborated with him as the college’s chief publicist, Lawrence Berk remained as president until 1979, when he assumed the post of Chancellor. During his life, Chancellor Berk was inducted into the Down Beat Hall of Fame, the Boston Music Awards Hall of Fame, and received the coveted Music For Life award of the National Association of Music Merchants.

Berklee became a nonprofit institution in 1962. It graduated its first fully accredited, baccalaureate degree class in 1966, when it was still known as Berklee School of Music. It formally became Berklee College of Music in June 1970.

4,000 students. Berklee has one of the highest percentages of international undergraduates of any college in the United States – over 22 percent (representing more than 70 countries). More than 27 percent of the student body are women. Domestic minority enrollment: African-American, 8.9 percent; Hispanic, 8.6 percent; Asian-American, 4.3 percent. The five international countries that send the largest percentage of students to Berklee are Japan, Korea, Germany, Switzerland, and Brazil. 30 percent of Berklee students applied to no other college.

Four-year degrees are offered in Performance, Jazz Composition, Music Production & Engineering, Film Scoring, Music Business/Management, Composition, Music Synthesis, Contemporary Writing & Production, Music Education, Songwriting, Music Therapy, and Professional Music. Four-year diplomas, which give students the option to forego general education courses to focus solely on contemporary music studies, are also offered in all majors except Music Business/Management and Music Education. In 1996 the college inaugurated a degree program in Music Therapy.

Located in 24 buildings in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, as well as a dedicated practice/rehearsal building in the city’s Allston-Brighton neighborhood, Berklee’s facilities include 15 professionally equipped recording studios, more than 100 MIDI-equipped workstations, and hundreds of synthesizers in the Learning Center and the Music Synthesis, Professional Writing, Professional Education, and Professional Performance labs. The Film Scoring Department houses six fully equipped film/video scoring and editing labs.

The 1,200-seat Berklee Performance Center (BPC), one of the East Coast’s finest concert halls, is the site of more than 130 student and faculty concerts each year. The BPC is also the site of numerous performances presented by major concert promoters and the college itself. In its other four recital halls, Berklee presents over 600 student concerts a year. Berklee students also have access to 40 ensemble rooms and more than 250 private practice rooms.

The college opened a new, all-ages concert venue and coffee house, Café 939, in the spring of 2008. Open to the general public and booked by Berklee music business students, the state-of-the-art venue showcases emerging student talent, local artists, and national acts seeking an intimate space to connect with their fans.

The 200-plus ensembles that convene each week give Berklee students unprecedented opportunities to perform a wide range of musical styles in a variety of instrumental and vocal groups. Popular ensembles include the music of Thelonious Monk, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, John Scofield, and Bob Marley to name just a few, as well as jazz/rock, vocal, gospel, hip-hop, funk, country, African pop, and world music.

2008-09: $27,500 per year, lower than most other American colleges of music, including Eastman, New England Conservatory, and the University of Miami.

A cooperative effort to promote contemporary music education worldwide, the Network provides opportunities for faculty and student exchanges as well as cooperative educational programs held at the various member schools. The current 15 members are L’Aula de Musica Moderna Jazz in Barcelona, Spain; the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in Tel Aviv, Israel; Philippos Nakas Conservatory in Athens, Greece; the American School of Modern Music in Paris, France; the Pop/Jazz Conservatory in Helsinki, Finland; Koyo Conservatory in Kobe, Japan; PAN School of Music in Tokyo, Japan; Jazz & Rock Schule in Freiburg, Germany; International College of Music in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Seoul Jazz Academy in Seoul, Korea; Conservatorio Musical Souza Lima in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Academia de Musica Fermatta in Mexico City; Newpark Music Centre in Dublin, Ireland; Instituto de Musica Contemporanea Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Quito, Ecuador; and Music Academy International in Nancy, France.

Since 1991 Berklee City Music has provided underserved, urban Boston metro area high school students with a music education at no charge to them or their families. In 2008 the program has expanded to include City Music Network programs in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Seattle, Springfield, Massachusetts, and Memphis. Full-tuition scholarships enable City Music Network students, mostly high school juniors and seniors, to attend the Berklee Summer Performance Program in Boston. Recipients receive music theory classes and private instrument lessons and perform in rock and jazz ensembles. At the end of the program several students are awarded four-year scholarships for full-time study at the college.

Berklee’s online extension school. The category-leading online school offers more than 60 instructor-led courses in such subjects as songwriting, music production, theory, guitar, ear training, and music business. For the last four years, berkleemusic.com has won the award for the best online course from the University Continuing Education Association, in competition with such colleges as Duke, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, and Indiana University.

Faculty members JoAnne Brackeen, pianist; Richard Evans, arranger/producer; Dave Samuels, vibraphonist; Mili Bermejo-Greenspan, vocalist; Livingston Taylor, singer/songwriter; Bill Pierce, Joe Lovano, and Walter Beasley, saxophonists; Jamey Haddad and Ralph Peterson, percussionists; Danilo Perez, pianist; and Phil Wilson, trombonist/composer.

The college hosts dozens of guest clinicians each semester. These have included drummer Max Roach; saxophonist/composer Branford Marsalis; cellist Yo-Yo Ma; pop producer/arranger Nile Rodgers; bassist Christian McBride; singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffet; film and theater composer Alan Menken; singer/songwriter Janis Ian; pop performers Billy Joel, Smokey Robinson, and John Mayer; trumpeter Arturo Sandoval; funk godfather George Clinton; guitarist/composer Pat Metheny; pianist/composer Michel Camilo; bassist Ray Brown; trumpeter/composer Terrence Blanchard; vocal group Manhattan Transfer; funk/jazz bassist Meshell Ndegeocello; and pianist/composer Alan Broadbent.

Alumni include producer/arranger Quincy Jones; Living Colour drummer Will Calhoun; singer/guitarists Melissa Etheridge and Bruce Cockburn; jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton; big band composer/pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi; film composer Alan Silvestri; singer/pianist Diana Krall; blues singer Susan Tedeschi; singer/songwriter Aimee Mann; jazz saxophonist/composer Branford Marsalis; guitarist/“Tonight Show” bandleader Kevin Eubanks; country artist Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks; and pop singer/songwriter John Mayer.

Roger H. Brown assumed the presidency of Berklee on June 1, 2004. An entrepreneur, humanitarian activist, and longtime drummer, Brown joined Berklee from Bright Horizons Family Solutions, an early childhood development firm he founded in 1986 with his wife and partner Linda Mason. Bright Horizons has more than 400 locations around the world, in major corporations and institutions, including The World Bank, MIT, and Microsoft. Now a $500 million company, Bright Horizons has also been named one of America’s best places to work by both Working Mother and Fortune.

While he does not consider himself a professional musician, Brown has a deep, lifelong passion for music and its transformative power. He worked briefly as a jingle drummer in New York City, and had a minor hit with his fusion band Cathexis on college radio in the early 1980’s. While at Bright Horizons, he produced six CDs of children’s music, used throughout the Bright Horizons network, with all proceeds going to charity. Today he still plays gigs with his longtime cover band, which includes friends with whom he has made music for decades. Brown is a graduate of Davidson College and the Yale University School of Management.

Lee Eliot Berk, the college’s president from 1979 to 2004, retired from leadership of the college in May, 2004, after 38 years at the college and 25 years as its president. Berk led Berklee throughout the tremendous growth of that 25-year period. He particularly championed the college’s expansion in the areas of music technology, music business, community affairs, and internationalization. Berklee was named after President Berk by his father, college founder Lawrence Berk.

Joining President Berk in the Office of the President was Gary Burton, formerly Executive Vice President of the college. Burton retired from the college in August 2004 after more than 30 years of service. Burton continues to enjoy a long career as one of the virtuosos and innovators in jazz – he is a five-time Grammy winner -- and an equally long association with Berklee as an alumnus (‘62), faculty member (since 1971), Dean of Curriculum (since 1985), and Executive Vice President of the college (1996-2004).

500 faculty members. 230 acoustic pianos. More than 1,100 guitar principals. Average class size of 11. The holdings of the college’s Stan Getz Media Center and Library include more than 32,000 recordings, 26,000 books, 22,000 musical scores, 6,000 lead sheets, five streamed audio databases representing more than 444,000 individual tracks, and 5,000 videos.

Berklee’s operating budget for the fiscal year that began June 1, 2007 is approximately $143 million. The college’s endowment is valued at approximately $212 million.