Developing Youth Through the Arts

Berklee City Music enables youth from underserved communities to develop musically, academically, socially, and emotionally, primarily through the study of contemporary music and the performing arts.

Founded 30 years ago by Berklee College of Music, the organization reaches more than 60,000 students annually through a variety of programs and initiatives including the Berklee City Music Network, Berklee City Music Boston, and the innovative online Berklee PULSE Music Method. By using culturally relevant music as a vehicle for holistic youth development, City Music helps young people flourish as students, musicians, performing artists, and—perhaps most importantly—confident and well-rounded individuals ready to shape the world.

Three high school-aged horn players stand on the Berklee Performance Stage - from left to right, a young man holds a tenor saxophone, another young man holds a trumpet, and a young woman holds a trombone.

City Music Boston

An out-of-school, student-centered organization serving Boston-based students in grades four–12 through programming and scholarships

Two young women - one brunette and one blonde, face each other with microphones in their hands on the Berklee Performance Center stage. A guitarist with long dark hair stands in the middle of them.

City Music Network

A consortium of community organizations committed to the City Music mission throughout the United States, Canada, and Latin America

Berklee PULSE is an online music education portal that provides resources for teachers and students to study, jam, and practice with interactive modules.

The Berklee-designed curriculum helps students learn instrumental technique, music theory, ensemble playing, historical context, and more through video lessons with world-renowned musicians and professionally trained instructors. City Music Boston's High School and Preparatory academies are moving to the PULSE platform soon. 

Join Berklee PULSE

WATCH

Teaching Popular Music in the Classroom

Introducing City Music's massive open online course (MOOC), Teaching Popular Music in the Classroom. Built with Berklee Online, this course features an all-star ensemble of our City Music students and explores approaches to teaching popular music from culturally rich communities in the U.S.

  • 60K students engage in City Music Network programming each year
  • 2,300 students in City Music Boston's academic-year program
  • $24M in scholarships awarded to students since 1995

Supporting Berklee City Music

Your support allows Berklee City Music students to pursue their dreams.

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National Endowment for the Arts logo

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.