Marc Rossi

Position
Professor
Affiliated Departments
Telephone
617-747-8339

For media inquiries, please contact Media Relations

Career Highlights
  • Music performed by the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, in Boston Symphony Hall and Prague Dvorak Hall; the Silesian Philharmonic Orchestra; the Arden String Quartet; the Berklee Faculty Jazz Orchestra; the New York Composers Big Band; concert pianist Jeffrey Jacob; Lewis Porter; and others
  • Performances and recordings with George Russell’s Living Time Orchestra (including the Grammy-nominated African Game album), the Jimmy Giuffre 4, Bo Diddley, the Marc Rossi Group, the Robert Moore Quartet, the Row and Rossi Project, Stan Strickland and Ascension, Living Geometry, Lalgudi Krishnan, R. Prasanna, and others
  • Private lessons with Frank Bennett, Donald Martino, and William Thomas McKinley, composition and orchestration; Jaki Byard and Jimmy Giuffre, jazz; Charlie Banacos, jazz piano; Peter Row, North Indian music; and George Russell, Lydian Chromatic Concept
  • Adjunct, Jazz Composition Department
In Their Own Words

"My teaching is holistically based, but I also focus on the specifics because that's part of being holistic and creating a balance. Every student comes with a body of experience. It always amazes me what they know and what they don't know. You'll find many of them have heard a lot of music and are aware of many things that they're not even conscious of, but they don't know how to put them into practice. The range is so vast—from advanced professional level to rank beginners. One has to be flexible in dealing with them."

"Learning how to learn is very important: learning how to practice, how to be creative, how to organize ideas, how to finish things, how to get from point A to point B, how to take responsibility, and how to be aware of what you're doing. I also want to disabuse them of the notion that it's just about winning or losing. It's about doing something well and the pursuit of excellence."

"I invite students to come to my concerts and gigs, both at the school and outside the school. I love sharing what I do with my students, and I think that having them see lessons put into practice is very important. This is not something abstract: this is real. I've devoted my life to creative music, and I want to show students how fulfilling it is. It's a very tough business, so they should do it well if they're going to do it as a profession."