Visual & Performing Arts

Program Description

Berklee College of Music

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Berklee attracts the most creative music students in the world, those who know that no other music college or institution offers such a rich diversity of people, music, and programs. They come to Berklee to discover their true music calling, pushing themselves past their own expectations and into the forefront of every aspect of the global music community.

Founded in 1945, Berklee is the world’s largest accredited music college and the premier institution for the study of contemporary music. The College’s nearly 4,000 students, from seventy-eight countries, and more than 400 faculty members interact in an environment designed to provide the most complete learning experience possible, including all of the opportunities and challenges presented by a career in the contemporary music industry. Using Berklee’s extensive facilities, students develop musical competencies in such areas as composition, performance, and recording/production and also learn to make the informed business decisions necessary to career success.

Berklee was founded on two revolutionary ideas: that musicianship could be taught through the music of the time and that students need practical, professional skills for successful, sustainable music careers. While Berklee’s bedrock philosophy has not changed, the music around has and requires that the College evolve with it. For more than half a century, Berklee has demonstrated its commitment to this approach by wholeheartedly embracing change.

Berklee continually updates its curriculum and technology to make them more relevant, and it attracts diverse students who reflect the multiplicity of influences in today’s music. The College prepares students for a lifetime of professional and personal growth through the study of the arts, sciences, and humanities. Berklee is also developing new initiatives to reach and influence an ever-widening audience.

More than a college, Berklee has become the world’s singular learning lab for the music of today—and tomorrow. Berklee is a microcosm of the music world, reflecting the interplay between music and culture, and an environment where aspiring music professionals learn how to integrate new ideas, adapt to changing musical genres, and showcase their distinctive skills in an evolving community. The College is at the center of a widening network of industry professionals who use their openness, virtuosity, and versatility to take music in surprising new directions.

Berklee students focus on their musicianship, on the technologies that help shape this art form, on the intricacies and realities of the business and promotion of music, or on the leading thinking in music education and music therapy.

Students at Berklee start bands of their own, participate in regularly scheduled ensembles, go on tour, and take advantage of internships throughout the industry. They record student projects, score films, write, practice, and perform.

What separates Berklee College of Music from everywhere else is the people who make it up. It is the faculty and staff members, the students, and the alumni who compose the extraordinary community. Every year, a common passion and a common spirit of innovation draw remarkable people from all over the world to Boston and Berklee.

Berklee offers a Bachelor of Music (B.M.) degree program and a four-year program leading to the professional diploma. Students may choose to major in composition, contemporary writing and production, film scoring, jazz composition, music business/management, music education, music production and engineering, music synthesis, music therapy, performance, professional music, and songwriting. The College also offers a five-year, dual-major option in which students graduate with an even more marketable education that expands their career options in the music industry.

Berklee students have the chance to work in the College’s state-of-the-art music technology facilities, using some of the most sophisticated recording and synthesis equipment currently available, in addition to facilities specifically designed for the areas of composition, arranging, and film scoring. The facilities at Berklee are furnished with the instruments and equipment that are being used in the world beyond the classroom. Berklee’s performance facilities include the Berklee Performance Center, a 1,200-seat concert hall hosting more than 300 concerts by students, faculty members, and others each year; four recital halls equipped with a variety of sound reinforcement systems; more than forty ensemble rooms; seventy-five private instruction studios; 300 private practice rooms; and an outdoor concert pavilion.

The personal attention students receive from teachers at Berklee guides them beyond the theoretical so that they can apply what they have learned in their next ensemble rehearsal, evening jam session, or gig. Berklee faculty members teach all instruction. The teachers are talented artists who demonstrate their commitment to music education in the classroom—and beyond. Most faculty members also write and arrange music, perform in concert halls and clubs, make recordings, or perform on television and radio—some do it all. All faculty members bring to the classroom a knowledge of music and the wisdom that comes from professional music experience.

Berklee awards $12.5 million in scholarships each year to students from all over the world who demonstrate the potential to succeed in today’s music industry.

Prospective students who are ready to live, breathe, and play music on a different scale should go to http://www.berklee.edu for admissions information.

Application Procedures

Deadline--freshmen and transfers: February 1. Notification date--freshmen and transfers: March 31. Required: essay, high school transcript, college transcript(s) for transfer students, minimum 2.0 high school GPA, 2 letters of recommendation, interview, audition, English reference letter for international applicants, audition for scholarship consideration. Recommended: minimum 3.0 high school GPA, SAT I or ACT test scores, TOEFL score for international applicants. Auditions held 45 times on campus and off campus in domestic and international sites; recorded music is permissible as a substitute for live auditions at discretion of Board of Admissions and videotaped performances are permissible as a substitute for live auditions at discretion of Board of Admissions.

Undergraduate Contact

Damien Bracken, Director of Admissions, Berklee College of Music, 1140 Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02215-3693; 617-747-2222, fax: 617-747-2047.