International Initiative
Since the 1950s, Berklee has been proactive in reaching out to musicians around the world. Fully 25 percent of our degree-seeking students are international, representing 80 countries. After Berklee faculty members conducted 8,000 auditions and interviews worldwide last year, they confirmed that Africa is teeming with talented musicians vying for a spot to study at the college.
African visiting artist Joseph Mgcina (left) works with members of Professor George Russell Jr.’s R&B Gospel Jazz ensemble during his time at Berklee.
Ben Meyers
Margot and George Greig of Chicago, parents of a former Berklee student, recognized that African students returning home to teach music are vital to improving music education on the African continent. To augment Berklee’s efforts to enroll talented musicians at the college, the Greigs made a generous gift to underwrite the cost of bringing established African educators to Berklee.
Throughout the spring semester, Michael Sibanda, Godfrey Mgcina, Nduduzo Makhathini, and Victor Masondo - all of whom are accomplished performers, writers, and educators came to campus - as visiting artists for weeklong residencies. During this time, each artist had a full schedule of classes, performances, and ensembles tailored to his specialty. All enjoyed exchanging ideas with Berklee faculty members and students.
The program benefits music students in Boston and in Africa. As the Greigs hoped, the African visitors absorbed Berklee’s methods, techniques, style, and use of technology to incorporate into their curriculum at home. As well, their presentations and performances imparted insight and conveyed the richness and texture of their music to Berklee audiences.
Collectively, these visiting scholars educate hundreds of young musicians, and they brought home new skills and information that they can immediately incorporate into their curriculum. As important, they gained an expanded network of music innovators from the Berklee community with whom they can collaborate in the future.
Cecil Adderley, the chair of Berklee’s Music Education Department, recruited the artists and coordinated their visits. “The informa- tion they gathered from the Music Business and Music Therapy courses and select performance classes has enabled them to view arts instruction from a different perspective,” Adderley notes. “This will be valuable in their own communities among those seek- ing arts instruction and performance opportunities.”
Motivated by the success of the program in its inaugural year, Berklee is poised to invite visiting artists from a larger number of African countries in coming years. The Greigs helped launch this initiative with a generous gift that they hope others will match to enable the program to reach its full potential.
To learn how to support this effort, contact Marjorie O’Malley via e-mail, at momalley@berklee.edu.
A Firm Foundation
Joshua Gruss ’97 of New York is a musician and an entrepreneur. He is the grandson of Joseph and Caroline Gruss, who founded the Beracha Foundation in 1971 to improve the well-being of the citizens of Israel.
Today, Gruss is a partner at Gruss Asset Management and the CEO of Round Hill Music, a high-end independent music publisher. He joined the Beracha Foundation’s board of directors two years ago. Over the course of four decades, the Beracha Foundation has donated to projects that promote academic research in Israeli universities; purchased hospital equipment; and established day-care centers, schools, community centers, and medical institutions.
At one of the foundation’s board meetings, Gruss raised the topic of jazz studies in Israel. The discussion turned to how the foundation’s involvement with Berklee could enrich jazz education for Israeli musicians.
Representatives from the foundation contacted Berklee and the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music (located near Tel Aviv) and formulated a plan to help young Israeli students obtain support to study at Berklee after their initial studies in Israel.
In cooperation with Berklee’s Office of Institutional Advancement and the Rimon School, the foundation established the Beracha Scholarship for Outstanding Jazz Students at Rimon. They designated a sum of $100,000 to be distributed annually among 10 students to cover tuition costs and to lay the groundwork for a fruitful artistic dialogue between the musicians and teachers of the two schools.
“We believe that this is a wonderful venture,” says Tali Yariv-Mashal, the director of the Beracha Foundation. “We are honored to be part of this project and look forward to hearing about the results.”
Those wishing to establish a scholarship for young, international musicians can contact Mirek Vana at mvana@berklee.edu.
Marjorie O’Malley is Berklee’s assistant vice president for institutional advancement and Mirek Vana is
a major gifts officer in Berklee’s Development Office.