John Hollenbeck and Miguel Zenón Named the 2024–2025 Ken Pullig Visiting Scholars in Jazz Studies

Grammy Award–winning saxophonist and composer Miguel Zenón BM ’98 and six-time Grammy-nominated composer, drummer, and percussionist John Hollenbeck will join Berklee's Harmony and Jazz Composition Department as the Ken Pullig Visiting Scholars in Jazz Studies during the 2024–2025 academic year. The program was established in honor of Pullig, a former chair of jazz composition, who retired in 2012 after leading the department for more than 30 years.

“I am thrilled that Miguel Zenón and John Hollenbeck have joined us for the 2024–2025 academic year as visiting scholars,” says George W. Russell Jr., chair of the Harmony and Jazz Composition Department. “I have the utmost confidence that they will impart loads of inspiration and information, along with integral building blocks for our jazz composition majors and the Berklee community at large.” 

“I’m so excited to continue my residency,” says Zenón, whose latest release, Golden City, recently scored a Grammy nomination for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. “I had such an amazing time last year and look forward to connecting further with the students and the whole Berklee community.” 

Hollenbeck is a composer whose music resists easy categorization. A conceptualist who transforms the traditions of jazz and new music into a fresh, eclectic, and forward-looking language of his own invention, his work is intellectually rewarding while remaining accessible and engaging. He has been acclaimed for his distinctive approach to big band music, most notably through the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, whose three releases, All Can Work (2018), Eternal Interlude (2008), and A Blessing (2005), have each received Grammy nominations. 

As visiting scholars, Zenón and Hollenback will be in residence for several days each month throughout the academic year, teaching advanced jazz composition students and offering their perspective on their work, collaborating with faculty, and hosting master classes open to the entire Berklee community.

Hollenbeck says he looks forward to engaging with students “and fostering an environment where creativity, experimentation, and strong foundational principles can flourish and inspire new generations of jazz musicians.”

About Miguel Zenón

Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Zenón represents a select group of musicians who have balanced and blended the often contradictory poles of innovation and tradition. Widely considered one of the most groundbreaking and influential saxophonists and composers of his generation, he has also developed a unique voice as a conceptualist, concentrating his efforts on perfecting a fine mix between jazz and his many musical influences. As a composer, he has been commissioned by SFJAZZ, the New York State Council for the Arts, Chamber Music America, the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, the Hewlett Foundation, and many of his peers. He has given hundreds of lectures and master classes at institutions all over the world and is currently a faculty member in MIT's Music and Theater Arts Department.

A Guggenheim and MacArthur fellow, Zenón has topped both the Jazz Artist of the Year and Alto Saxophonist categories on the 2014 Jazz Times Critics' Poll, and was selected as the alto saxophonist of the year by the Jazz Journalist Association in 2015, 2018, 2019, and 2020 (when he was also recognized as arranger of the year). In 2023, he was recognized by the same organization as composer of the year.

About John Hollenbeck

Hollenbeck received degrees in percussion and jazz composition from the Eastman School of Music before moving to New York City in the early 1990s. He was profoundly shaped by the mentorship of two artists: trombonist, arranger, and composer Bob Brookmeyer and composer and choreographer Meredith Monk. His relationship with Brookmeyer began at age 14, when he attended a SUNY Binghamton summer jazz workshop. It continued through his studies at Eastman and later on the bandstand with Brookmeyer’s New Art Orchestra. Hollenbeck’s work with Monk included composing and performing the percussion scores for five of her works: “Magic Frequencies,” “Mercy,” “The Impermanence Project,” “Songs of Ascension,” and “On Behalf of Nature.” 

In addition to being a six-time Grammy nominee, Hollenbeck received a 2023 Doris Duke Artists Award 10th anniversary grant, a 2012 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a 2010 ASCAP Jazz Vanguard Award, and a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship. From 2005 to 2016, he served as a professor of jazz drums and improvisation at the Jazz Institute Berlin. In 2015, he joined the faculty of McGill University’s Schulich School of Music.