Courses

In this class, students will gain strength and knowledge of their bodies through barre movements and ballet positions, as well as yoga postures and Pilates movements, all set to contemporary music. Vocal warmups, proper ballet postures, and breath technique will be incorporated into each session. Core strength training and proper alignment and movement will help the singer achieve a supported, relaxed sound and performance. Students will be expected to perform barre method techniques while singing by the end the semester. They will create their own series individually and teach their series at the barre to fellow classmates.

A recording orchestra of 37 musicians, the Film Scoring Studio Orchestra will integrate and improve orchestral performance skills in an actual Hollywood-style scoring stage setting. A collaboration between the Ensemble, Music Production and Engineering, and Film Scoring departments, the orchestra will meet in Studio 1 of the 160 Massachusetts Avenue building. Each week the ensemble will play music composed by professional film composers or Berklee Film Scoring students, and be recorded by Berklee students in related MP&E classes. Through participation in film scoring sessions in a state-of-the-art scoring stage venue, students will improve their overall efficiency of sight-reading, technique, rhythm (including click track competency), intonation, articulation, style orientation, and ensemble-centered production (listening/response sensitivity).   

This ensemble focuses on exploring open improvisation and the arrangement of Italian music. The source material will range from traditional folk music to classical arias, to popular songs, and through jazz interpretation. Students will be required to arrange one piece of music, approved by the teacher, specifically for the ensemble, to be performed at the end of semester recital.

Please note: this course is for performance majors who are accepted in the Berklee Global Jazz Institute only. The global jazz ensemble is designed for high level student performers who are focused on their development as jazz instrumentalists. This ensemble will perform a wide range of jazz styles including, swing, bebop, free, avant-garde, and contemporary. Students will gain ensemble experience through weekly performances that focus on group interaction, swinging, dynamics, phrasing, as well as individual and group improvisation. Emphasis will be given to hearing and expressing your musical ideas with stylistic integrity, as well as melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic accuracy. 

This course will focus on the recordings and improvisations of Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock, and Chick Corea. Students will analyze and learn compositions and improvised solos of each pianist, and will perform one transcription of each pianist's solo or trio improvisations. Through in-depth discussion around the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic devices employed by those pianists, students will also learn to utilize those devices in their own improvisations, and how those concepts apply to the music of today.

This course focuses on the production and performance of new musicals for young audiences. During the semester, students who have auditioned and been cast in the course will learn how to create and develop a character in the context of a new young audience's musical. Vocalists and instrumentalists in the course will also learn how a young audiences’s musical differs from other styles of performances and will use improvisational techniques and traditional acting methods. Students will include vocalists and five instrumentalists in the ensemble (drums, piano, bass, keyboard, reeds). Vocalists are required to learn the songs and scenes from the new young audience script and learn blocking and choreography. The instrumentalists and vocalists will work together to create an appropriate sound for the performance. The course requires outside work with fellow actors and outside practice learning the score for both instrumentalists and vocalists. Each week there will be a weekend lab that allows vocalists to practice their scene work. Vocalists and instrumentalists are evaluated through weekly song performances, scene work, a graded midterm (an off-book Act 1 performance), and a graded final (an off-book final performance), and showing up to tech week, dress, and final performances. Vocalists will also explore character analysis throughout the semester, while instrumentalists will work closely with the process of creating and workshopping a new score for a musical. Students will gain a more thorough understanding of how theater for young audiences is created and bring dramatic and musical elements to life as well as how actors are an integral part of the development of new works for young people.

Brass pedagogy has been codified primarily in the European Classical genre of music. Various solo and étude books have been the go to resources for brass players wishing to create a solid pedagogical foundation for whatever music they decide to play. This course examines standard trumpet literature from various études, orchestral excerpts and solo repertoire that have become the foundation for pedagogical study in brass.

Latin music is a diverse and exciting genre encompassing a wide range of styles from Central to South America, from the passionate rhythms of salsa and merengue to the energetic phrases of Latin jazz and timba. Brass instruments play a vital role in many Latin music styles, adding their unique brilliance and power to the ensemble. This course will teach brass players how to play a variety of Latin music styles, including salsa, merengue, cha-cha-chá, Latin jazz, and timba. Students will learn the essential rhythms and techniques of each style, how to navigate session work, and the improvisational nuances of the style. This course will provide brass players with the skills and knowledge they need to play a variety of Latin music styles. Students will learn how to add their unique brilliance and power to Latin music ensembles and will have the opportunity to develop their improvisational skills.

This course focuses on developing the necessary skills to work as a freelance brass player in today's music world. A brass player can get called to play an Easter gig on a Sunday morning, a salsa gig that same afternoon, and a big band gig the same evening. It is important to know how to approach each genre and musical setting in a professional and informed manner. In this course students will learn how to correctly read and play articulations, play in tune, and listen to their fellow section mates as well as section leaders. The courses covers a variety fo genres, including jazz, big band, classical, pop, funk, and Broadway musicals. Students will be given music a week in advance and expected to prepare the music before each class. Class time will be spent analyzing recordings and finetuning the prepared pieces.

This course will explore the fundamentals on how to build a successful commercial brass section. Primary emphasis will be placed on the big band stylistic phrasing of Duke Ellington, to the modern day funk and R&B horn lines of Stevie Wonder; Tower of Power; Earth, Wind, & Fire; Al Jarreau; and more. Concentrated study of specific duties within the brass section will also apply to this course, i.e. lead playing, section playing, soloistic styles pertaining to specific genre, as well as proper usage of mute techniques. Emphasis of learning how to listen across the brass section via concentrated study of past and present recordings will also enable students to perceive and interpret section playing at an advanced to professional level.