Berklee Announces 2022 Fall Signature Series Lineup
The Berklee Jazz and Gender Justice Group
Image by Kelly Davidson
Kenny Barron
Image by Philippe Lévy-Stab
Andrés Cepeda
Image courtesy of the artist
Tigran Hamasyan
Image courtesy of the artist
The Pletenitsa Balkan Choir
Image by Matthew Muise
Sting (center) and the Police
Image courtesy of Getty Images
Berklee has announced its fall 2022 Signature Series lineup, a diverse slate of performances featuring students, faculty, alumni, and other special guest artists, including Kenny Barron, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Tigran Hamasyan, and Andrés Cepeda. Running from October 6 through December 8, the concerts will showcase an extensive range of talent from the Berklee community, including artists from the popular Two Track video series who will take part in the college’s first ever headphones-based concert experience, and a genre-spanning tribute to honorary degree recipient Sting and the Police featuring a global cast of students.
Berklee Jazz and Gender Justice Group
Red Room at Cafe 939
Tuesday, October 6, 7:00 p.m
Students from the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice will perform music from the institute’s book, New Standards: 101 Lead Sheets by Women Composers, as well as original compositions, in a performance directed by faculty saxophonist Edmar Colón. Founded in 2018 by multiple Grammy-winning artist Terri Lyne Carrington, the institute recruits, teaches, mentors, and advocates for musicians seeking to study jazz with gender justice and racial justice as guiding principles. The initiative was recently featured on PBS NewsHour in a piece that demonstrated not only the immense talent of the institute’s first graduating artists, but the program’s commitment to making an important and long-lasting cultural shift in jazz and other music communities.
Kenny Barron with Strings
Berklee Performance Center
Thursday, October 27, 8:00 p.m.
Renowned jazz composer, arranger, and bandleader Kenny Barron will perform a career-spanning set featuring original arrangements of his music by Professor Eric Gould and a Berklee string orchestra directed by Professor Eugene Friesen. Barron was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2010 and was awarded an honorary degree from Berklee that same year. The multiple Grammy nominee has released more than 40 albums as a leader, and has performed with a slew of legends including Dizzy Gillespie, Chet Baker, Ron Carter, Stan Getz, and Joe Henderson, among others. A longtime advocate for up-and-coming musicians and arts education, Barron was a music professor at Rutgers University from 1973 to 2000.
Dee Dee Bridgewater Ensemble
Red Room at Cafe 939
Thursday, November 3, 7:00 p.m.
Grammy- and Tony-winning jazz vocal legend Dee Dee Bridgewater joins Berklee's Dee Dee Bridgewater Ensemble, directed by faculty member Shirazette "She Beats" Tinnin, to perform a concert titled Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver. The student ensemble will be chosen and rehearsed by Tinnin, who is a member of Bridgewater’s professional band. Berklee presented an honorary doctorate to Bridgewater in 2015 in recognition of her immeasurable contributions to music and entertainment.
Andrés Cepeda Meets Berklee
Berklee Performance Center
Thursday, November 10, 8:00 p.m.
Latin Grammy winner Andrés Cepeda will explore various styles from his career, such as Latin rock-pop, bolero, and baladain, in this concert directed by Oscar Stagnaro, Matthew Nicholl, and Lee Abe. Backed by a large group of student musicians, Cepeda will celebrate the music of his home country of Colombia through performances of original arrangements by student writers. Cepeda gained notoriety as an inspirational and powerful vocalist with the Latin pop-rock band Poligamia before transitioning to a solo artist. He went on to record 10 albums that have garnered a total of eight Latin Grammys, including the award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album in 2013 for Lo Mejor Que Hay en Mi Vida.
14th Annual Berklee Middle Eastern Festival: Tigran Hamasyan Trio Meets Pletenitsa
Berklee Performance Center
Tuesday, November 15, 8:00 p.m.
The 14th annual Berklee Middle Eastern Festival: Tigran Hamasyan Trio meets Pletenitsa will feature music from Hamasyan’s latest record, StandArt, which features standards from the 1920s through the ’50s by Richard Rodgers, Charlie Parker, and others. The concert will also spotlight Hamasyan’s collaboration with the Pletenitsa Balkan Choir in a performance that will premiere material arranged by Hamasyan specifically for this repertoire.
Founded by Christiane Karam in 2011, the Pletenitsa Balkan Choir traverses the choral traditions and folk music adaptations of the Balkans, the Middle East, the Caucasus, as well as parts of the Mediterranean. Berklee's Middle Eastern Festival, also founded by Karam, brings together artists and students from all corners of the world to celebrate the musical traditions of these regions, serving as a platform for cultural exchange and an opportunity to connect through the spirit of music.
One Night, One Mic: A Two Track Experience
Berklee Performance Center
Thursday, December 1, 8:00 p.m.
With over 50 episodes and 400,000 views to date, the Two Track video series stands out as one of Berklee’s most unique and intimate performance experiences. One Night, One Mic: A Two Track Experience will offer audience members the chance to connect on an even deeper level with select artists in what will be the college’s first headphones-based concert. More than a dozen Berklee acts will perform original material and covers from the popular YouTube series as performers take the stage for one night only. The concert will feature the stripped-down, one-microphone, continuous-take recording style approach that is the hallmark of Two Track sessions, and the live audience will be able to explore preproduced videos based on themes of origins, connection, love, and change. All featured Two Track performers can be heard on Berklee’s YouTube channel.
Singers Showcase: Synchronicity–The Music of Sting and the Police
Berklee Performance Center
Thursday, December 8, 8:00 p.m.
A global cast of Berklee students will celebrate the exceptional musical life of singer-songwriter, bassist, activist, actor, and philanthropist Sting, from his work as the principal songwriter and lead singer of the Police to his career as solo artist. Produced by Maureen McMullan ’09, this genre-spanning concert features a powerful collective of singers, instrumentalists, arrangers, track producers, dancers, visual artists, and special guests, who will perform inventive arrangements of “Message in a Bottle,” “Roxanne,” “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” “Every Breath You Take,” “Don’t Stand So Close to Me,” “Fields of Gold,” “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free,” and “Shape of My Heart.”
In a career that has spanned 45 years, Sting has earned 17 Grammy Awards and sold over 100 million records worldwide as a solo artist and member of the Police, all while consistently reinventing his personal musical style, bridging distinct elements of jazz, reggae, rock, pop, punk, new wave, classical, worldbeat, and Celtic music. A Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, Sting is also a recipient of a Billboard Century Award, Kennedy Center Honor, Golden Globe, Emmy Award, four Oscar nominations for Best Original Song, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Police. In 2019, “Every Breath You Take”—a signature song for both the Police and Sting—received a BMI Award for becoming the most-played song in radio history. Sting received an honorary doctorate from Berklee in 1994.