Valerie Orth

Valerie Orth is a music producer and songwriter. Self-possessed and fierce, Orth’s path is multifaceted and spans across many genres. Finding home on stage at age 5, she performed consistently for 15 years in musical theater. While attending Tufts University, she hung around the radio station, improvising over DJ’s beats. Wanting to accompany herself, she picked up guitar. She moved to San Francisco, became a righteous singer-songwriter, independently released four albums, and toured with her rock band. Orth found home again when she moved to NYC and rooted herself in the female beatmaking scene, where she learned, performed, and eventually started teaching electronic music production. She also wrote and produced for Warner Chappell Music Publishing and other music houses.

Orth is an assistant professor in the Songwriting Department at Berklee College of Music, teaching music technology and production. She is the recipient of the Berklee Faculty Fellowship 2022–2023.

Previous educator roles include co-leading the NYC chapter of Beats by Girlz, teaching Ableton Live to often economically disadvantaged girls, trans, gender-expansive and non-binary youth. Orth also developed and ran beatmaking intensives at various high schools, was a songwriting mentor for the Stuttering Association for Youth in NYC, and cofounded Song Camp, a music production and songwriting virtual camp that focuses on building cowriting, collaboration, and communication skills.