Faculty Experts

Berklee's world-renowned faculty are also sources for analysis and commentary on today's music industry news.
December 6, 2010

Berklee's world-renowned faculty are also sources for analysis and commentary on today's music industry news. Their experience as professionals and teachers gives them an in-depth and current insight into the latest news trends in music business, technology, education, pop culture, music therapy, and other topics. Reach a faculty news source directly through the contact information listed with their bios. For help locating sources for additional topics, call 617 747-2568 or send us an email.

Berklee Media Relations
Allen Bush, director, 617 747-2658, email
Margot Edwards, publicist, 617 747-2004, email
Nick Balkin, publicist, 617 747-2247, email
Liz Burg, publicist, 617 747-6022, email


Featured Experts for Current News Trends

Looking for insight on what makes a song a Grammy Record of the Year? Jimmy Kachulis, Songwriting professor at Berklee, offers his insight on the most sought after Grammy Award: 

"A Song of the Year should be one that captures the thoughts and feelings of its time, but a Record of the Year has to be that and more - a great performance, arrangement, and production - a 'classic' capturing the zeitgeist while evoking and emotion that transcends its own time and place becoming universal. Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" is a likely contender for the award. It's the most traditional nomination per its genre, and it can be covered by many artists over the years; it has great staying power."

Kachulis adds, "my nomination for both Song and Record of the Year would've been "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz. It has all the characteristics of a great pop song and a top-level performance and production. When they play this song as an 'oldie' ten years from now, the audience will still be jumping out of their seats."  

If you'd like to reach out to Kachulis for more information on the year in touring, call Berklee publicist Liz Burg at 617 747-6022 or email her at eburg@berklee.edu

More Music in the News 

The lineup for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival was announced on January 19. For festival commentary, contact Jeff Dorenfeld (bioemail). 


Faculty Experts

Prince Charles Alexander
Expertise: Hip-Hop; Music Production
Alexander, Music Production and Engineering Department associate professor, was an early innovator of wind synthesis and was part of the "punk-funk" generation that helped propel rap music to the forefront of the American music scene. His recording and mixing credits include Mary J. Blige, Destiny's Child, the Notorious B.I.G., and many others. Alexander is a Grammy winner and seven-time Grammy nominee, and he has garnered more than 40 platinum and gold certifications from the RIAA. (more)

Media appearances: Boston Globe, Boston Phoenix

email | 617 747-2568

Peter Alhadeff
Expertise: Latin Music; Music Industry Economics, Finance
Alhadeff is a cofounder of Berklee's Music Business/Management Department. An Oxford-trained economist, he grew up in Argentina and has taught at numerous institutions, including the Institute of Latin American Studies, King's College at the University of London, and the University of Buenos Aires. He has written numerous articles on the music business and teaches courses in music business economics, statistics, and e-commerce. (
more)

Media appearances: Artists House Music

email | 617 747-8102

William (Bill) Banfield
Expertise: African American Music, Culture; American Pop Culture
Banfield, professor of Africana studies/music and society, previously served as an endowed chair at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota and as a W.E.B. Dubois Fellow at Harvard, and was invited by Toni Morrison to serve as a visiting Princeton Atelier artist. This year, Banfield was commissioned by Quincy Jones to help create a new curriculum on American popular music to be adopted in schools nationally. He currently serves as the chair of Black Music Culture for the American Culture Association and Popular Culture Association conferences. (more)

Media appearances: Washington Post, Bay State Banner

email | 617 747-2665

Dan Carlin
Expertise: Film Scores; Film, TV, and Music Industry Trends
Berklee's Film Scoring Department chair, Carlin is an Emmy-winning music editor and Emmy-nominated music director, and has worked on such films as An Officer and a Gentleman, Days of Heaven, The Black Stallion, Sister Act, and The Bodyguard, among others. He served two terms as chair of the Recording Academy's Board of Trustees (the Grammys) and over 20 years as a member of the Motion Picture Academy's Music Branch Executive Committee. (more)

Media appearances: NPR, Artists House Music

email | 617 747-2440

Jeff Dorenfeld
Expertise: Music Business; Concert Touring, Promotion
Dorenfeld, professor of music business/management, managed the multi-platinum band Boston and was tour accountant for Sammy Hagar and Ozzy Osbourne. He coauthored the Berkleemusic course Concert Touring, which the UCEA awarded Best Online Course in 2008. As faculty advisor for Berklee's student-run record label, Heavy Rotation Records, he negotiated a recording contract with Epic/Sony—the first college label and major label collaboration. (
more)

Media appearances: Artists House Music, New York Times

email | 617 747-2568

Don Gorder
Expertise: Music Business; Copyright; Music Law
Chair and founder of the Music Business/Management Department, Gorder is an attorney, educator, and musician. He holds advanced degrees in law and music, has authored numerous articles on the music industry, and has spoken at national and international music industry events. As an attorney, he has represented clients in matters of copyright and contracts. Gorder currently sits on the board of trustees for Massachusetts Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. (more)

Media appearances: Artists House Music, New York Times

email | 617 747-2568

Suzanne Hanser
Expertise: Music Therapy
Hanser is the founding chair of Berklee's Music Therapy Department and is a music therapist at the Leonard P. Zakim Center for Integrated Therapies and a research associate at the Phyllis F. Cantor Center for Research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She is past president of the World Federation of Music Therapy and the National Association for Music Therapy. Hanser received a National Research Service Award from the National Institute on Aging and was a senior postdoctoral fellow in psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine. She wrote
The New Music Therapist's Handbook and has been published in numerous journals. In 2006 she was named by the Boston Globe as one of eleven Bostonians changing the world. (more)

Media appearances: Boston Globe, WCVB-5

email | 617 747-2568

Jimmy Kachulis 
Expertise: Songwriting
Kachulis, a Songwriting professor, has served as a composer, arranger, and conductor for an array of prominent artists including Eric Gale, Stuff, George Coleman, Jon Hendricks, Frank Foster, Martha Reeves, John Lewis, Empire Brass Quintet, and String Fever. His works have been featured on Emmy Award winning television shows The Sopranos, JAG, The Young and the Restless, Touched by an Angel, and One Life to Live. To complement his Songwriting classes, Kachulis wrote The Songwriter's Workshop Series through Berklee Press, and he wrote the coursework for Berkleemusic's Songwriter's Workshop classes. 
(more)

Media appearances: Boston GlobeWCVB-5

email | 617 747-2568

Andrea Johnson
Expertise: Music Licensing; Copyright; Intellectual Property; Social Media
Johnson, assistant professor of music business/management, managed the production and licensing of 30 albums for such artists as Elton John, Parliament-Funkadelic, and Fleetwood Mac, working in A&R at Island Records and Palm Pictures. As Gloria Estefan's accounting magager, she processed her publishing royalties and restructured the accounting and communication systems for her 20 companies. Johnson is an in-demand national lecturer in the areas of viral marketing and social media. (
more)

Media appearances: Cambridge Day

Twitter: @recdmavn

email | 617 960-6191

John Kellogg
Expertise: Music Business; Music Law 
Kellogg is Berklee's assistant chair of music business/management, and an entertainment attorney. He represented the O'Jays for nearly 25 years, as well as Gerald Levert, L.S.G., and other artists. In 2009, he was elected president of the Music and Entertainment Educators Association (MEIEA). His book Take Care of Your Music Business: The Legal and Business Aspects You Need to Know to Grow in the Music Industry has been highly recommended for law students and lawyers who are new to entertainment law. (more

Media appearances: Forbes, Denver Post 

email | 617 747-2568

Mike King
Expertise: Future of Music; Music Marketing; Direct to Fan; Social Media
Director of marketing for Berkleemusic, King is the author/instructor of three online music business courses. His book,
Music Marketing: Press, Promotion, Distribution, and Retail, came out on Berklee Press in 2009. Prior to Berklee, he was the marketing/product manager at Rykodisc, where he oversaw all marketing efforts for Mickey Hart, Morphine, Bill Hicks, the Slip, Pork Tornado (Phish), and Frank Zappa's estate. (more)

Media appearances: Wired, Hypebot, Boston Phoenix

Blog: Music Business and Trend-Mongering | Twitter: @atomzooey

email | 617 747-2503

Dave Kusek
Expertise: Future of Music; Online Education; Music Business, Technology, Publishing
Kusek, vice president for Berklee Media, is responsible for managing the online music school, Berkleemusic, which has won the UCEA Best Online College Course award four years in a row. He was a codeveloper of the revolutionary Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), coinventor of the first electronic drums at Synare, and founder of Passport Designs, the first music software company. In 2005, he coauthored the book
The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution. He also runs the consulting business Digital Cowboys, providing services to Nokia, Pepsi, AOL, EMI, and others. (more)

Media appearances: Artists House Music, Wired, Music Think Tank

Blog: Future of Music | Twitter: @davekusek

email | 617 747-8446

Susan Rogers
Expertise: Acoustics; Audio Psychology; Music Cognition
Rogers, associate professor of music production and engineering, has a doctorate in experimental psychology and is a fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music, Media, and Technology at McGill's Schulich School of Music. She is a member of the Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory and studies under renowned psychoacoustician Stephen McAdams and cognitive psychologist and best-selling author Daniel J. Levitin. Her research interests include auditory short-term memory and cognitive differences between musicians and nonmusicians. Rogers has produced, engineered, and mixed albums for Prince, David Byrne, Barenaked Ladies, Geggy Tah, Edie Brickell, and others. (more

Media appearances: McGill Reporter

email | 617 747-2721

Charlene Ryan
Expertise: Music Teacher Training; Early Childhood Music Education; Performance Anxiety
Ryan, associate professor of music education, is the former chair of music education at McGill University and past president of the Quebec Music Educators' Association. She has taught at all school levels but specializes in elementary and early childhood music education. Ryan's Building Strong Music Programs: A Handbook for Preservice and Novice Music Teachers was selected by Choice Magazine as a 2010 Outstanding Academic Title. Her research studies on music performance anxiety won her a major federal grant from the Canadian government to continue her work in this area. (more)

Media appearances: Teaching Music

email | 617 747-2568

Michael Sweet
Expertise: Video Game Music; Audio Production
Sweet, associate professor of film scoring, leads Berklee's video game scoring curriculum. An accomplished game audio composer who has worked on more than 100 games, he composed the Xbox 360 startup sound and audio logo and won the Best Audio Award at the Independent Games Festival (IGF) and the BDA Promax Award for Best Sound Design for a Network Package (HBO Zone). He is the cofounder of Audiobrain, a company dedicated to innovation with interactive sound design and music. (more)

Media appearances: Boston Globe, NPR, WNYC

email | 617 747-2568

J. Curtis Warner Jr.
Expertise: Urban Music Education; After School Music Education; Community Partnerships
Warner, associate vice president for education outreach, is the architect of Berklee City Music, which has spent over 9 million dollars since 1992 to provide music instruction to underserved 4th to 12th graders at no cost to them or their families. A recent survey of City Music alumni showed 100 percent of those who applied to college were accepted. In 2008, Warner was invited to the White House to accept the prestigious Coming Up Taller Award, which recognizes outstanding arts and humanities youth programs. Prior to Berklee, Warner enjoyed a 17-year tenure in urban public school music education as both a teacher and administrator. (more)

Media appearances: Boston Globe, Commercial Appeal

email | 617 747-2654