Events Calendar

The Kings of Salsa, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Tito Nieve,s and Jose Alberto "El Canario" together in the Lat Pak Tour. Tickets on sale May 3 at 10:00 a.m.

Jaheim is the forerunner of today's soul-originated r&b and a vocalist in the tradition of such greats as Teddy Pendergrass and Luther Vandross. Jaheim has released three albums over the past five years, platinum status Ghetto Love, Still Ghetto, and Ghetto Classics. Now he returns with his chart-topping hit The Makings of a Man on Atlantic Records. Tickets on sale 5/03/08 at 10:00am

The Boston stage of our recital, Summer Concert '08, with Japanese Berklee students and alumni, is scheduled for June 6 at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The first act will be originals from the student performers in various genres including jazz, pop, Brazilian, fusion, and progressive rock. Our second stage will be arrangements of very popular Japanese contemporary and traditional melodies.

The Brakes are a genuine rock and roll band at first glance, but given a closer look, elements of folk, jazz and even post-rock reveal themselves, making their sound a distinct intertwining of American music held together by insightful lyrics and memorable songs. Carney is a 4-piece Los Angeles musical phenomenon, who despite their young age (all 4 members are in their early 20's), have years of musical experience behind them. George Stanford's EP shows a songwriter following in the tradition of such greats as Paul Simon to Chris Martin. It also displays his immense range of talent--Stanford plays all instruments except drums on the EP. Purchase tickets at: http://www.ticketmaster.com/venue/9002

Fast-rising bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding—a Berklee faculty member and alumna—appears on the David Letterman show tonight. Visit www.cbs.com for more details.

The price is right, and so is the music, as Chloe and the Pappas performs r&b and neo-soul. [details]

Pianist Kazuhiro Uchida plays solo piano works from the classical and jazz idioms for his senior recital. Music of Beethoven, Ravel, ragtime, standard jazz tunes, and original arrangements will be performed.

Jamie McLean is most widely known as the guitarist for the New Orleans jazz, funk institution The Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Over the past year and a half Jamie's songwriting, filled with catchy hooks, beautiful lyrics and scorching guitar work has mingled with the soulful gumbo of the deep south and while The Jamie McLean Band is based in New York City, the influences of southern rock, blues, R&B and funk is unmistakable. Jenn Bostic, lead singer of DiggerDawg has pened for the likes of Alan Jackson, Tracy Byrd, Julie Roberts, Josh Turner, Jo Dee Messina, Montgomery Gentry, Kellie Pickler, Sugarland, Trace Adkins, Gary Allan, Reba McEntire and Gretchen Wilson. With the continuation of DiggerDawg, Jenn is branching off as a solo artist with The Jenn Bostic Band. The Matt Zeiner Band is an all-original 5-piece band featuring Mike Bradley, Craig Garfinkel, Billy Megofna, and Geoff Brown.

Berklee Latin Jazz All-Stars perform in the Higginson Room following a main stage performance by Arturo Sandoval with the Boston Pops Orchestra. Tickets for the Pops show are required for entry. [details]

Berklee Latin Jazz All-Stars perform in the Higginson Room following a main stage performance by Arturo Sandoval with the Boston Pops Orchestra. Tickets to the Pops show are required for entry. [details]

Carmen Spada, from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, started playing piano at 7 but didn’t discover jazz until he started singing with a vocal jazz ensemble in high school. After studying at the Humber College Community Music School in Toronto, Spada was accepted at Berklee, where he studied with Danilo Perez, Hal Crook, Joe Lovano, Greg Hopkins, and Scott Free. He was a recipient of the 2007 Herb Pomeroy Award in Jazz Composition; his music was performed in the Best of Jazz Composition 1 concert and the Jazz Co-Operative Big Band concert. In 2007, Spada was chosen to have his music critiqued in a master class by visiting composer Maria Schneider. Spada’s tune “Lullaby” appears on the new Jazz Revelation Records CD Common Ground.

Welcome to our mid-life crisis. With John Swartz, lead systems engineer, MITRE Corporation; Scott Gilmour, senior vice president, Fidelity Investments; Walter Ogier, former president and CEO, Arbios Systems, Inc.; Wendell Wickerham, president and principal, W/E/Wickerham Associates LLC; and Bruce Lauterwasser, senior manager, Raytheon Company. Read more . . .

An amalgamation of talent, the Zach Hillyard Band has been playing throughout New England, with stints in New York City and southern California, for audiences of all ages and musical interests. With elements of pop, funk, and soul, this group offers a little something for everyone. It was recently named the Best College Band in New England in OurStage.com's College Clash competition.

The legendary pianist, who celebrated his 87th birthday last December, came to national attention in the 1950s with his adventurous use of uncommon time signatures and his incorporation of classical approaches in jazz. Observers wonder why he continues to perform at such a brisk pace, when he could be taking in the view from his studio window in Connecticut. His son, Darius Brubeck, explains, "In jazz, if you don't have a working group, you can't improvise. So that's a stark choice for him. Not going on the road means you don't play jazz, and he doesn't want to give that up." Brubeck continues to opt for a smaller venue in Boston, instead of the larger ones he could play, because he enjoys the intimacy, and he thinks his audience does, too. Reedman Bobby Militello, bassist Michael Moore, and drummer Randy Jones round out the group. [details]

The New Frontiers have a quiet sense of majesty but still manage to pack a colossal emotional footprint. They combine alternative country, Brit rock, and indie pop (among other influences), and are sure to win over sets of ears for years to come. Denison Witmer applies confessional sensitivity to his newest album as he ponders dreams and hopes. His gentle guitar and soothing voice are deceptively powerful, enough to put even the most jaded indie rockers in touch with their inner James Taylor.

For the first time on stage live, popular singers from Pakistan and India perform three hours of nonstop entertainment, backed by an eight-piece orchestra from Bollywood.

Refunds available at point of purchase.

Matt Wertz is a handsome Missouri-born soulful rocker who has been splitting his past six years between his home in Nashville and hundreds of stages around the world. His latest offering, Everything In Between, displays a patina that prompts an even deeper appreciation of his music than initially deemed possible. This event is standing room only.

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Every year, the Music Academy International (MAI), of Nancy, France, sends a group of their top students to spend a week at Berklee. MAI is a member of the Berklee International Network, an educational organization dedicated to contemporary music around the world. During this week in Boston, the MAI syudents visit classes, participate in ensembles, and give a performance. The visit is an opportunity for them to experience Berklee firsthand and share their cross cultural perspective. [details]

On of r&b's most beloved and consistently popular vocal groups, the Whispers, began their legendary and timeless career in 1963. Twin brothers Walter and Wallace Scott, Nicholas Caldwel,l and Leaveil Degree formed the group on the streets of Watts. Their hits include "Rock Steady," "And the Beat Goes On," and "Lady."

A night of country music written by Chip Rives, CEO of TRP Marketing. Featuring Mike Elkins with Berklee students Jen Bostic, Adam Tressler, Merrily Scruggs-James, and Ryan Shergold. Opening act: Tom Glynn

The Berklee Latin Jazz All-Stars, six top scholarship students at the college, came from Puerto Rico, Israel, and the United States, and coalesced around their love for the polyrhythms and joyful precision of the Latin jazz form. The group was named this year's Best College Jazz Band in Down Beat under the name La Timbistica, and recently performed as part of the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Next Generation Festival in Monterey. The All-Stars are led by conguero Paulo Stagnaro and include timbalero Marcos Lopez, bassist Juan Maldonado, pianist Abraham Olivo, trumpeter Niv Toar, and flutist Enrique Trinidad. They will headline the Tito Puente Latin Music Series in Boston this summer and perform at the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival in Washington, D.C.

With special guests Clare and the Reasons. [details]

The sheer joy and pain in Danielia Cotton's songs instantly draw the listener in. Like male counterparts Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone or crossover icon Tina Turner, Cotton has not only embraced the notion of black rock—she has redefined it. Madi Diaz's powerful voice, both uniquely engaging and steeped in tradition, has made her a presence on the roots-rock scene. Ani DiFranco called Liz Lonley’s music "gorgeous,” adding “I love it!” Internet listeners agreed: Lonley was voted the No. 1 all-time female vocalist in garageband.com’s acoustic category in May 2006. [details]

Make Music Cambridge is a new live, free musical celebration across the city each year on the first day of summer, June 21, starting in 2008. Passers-by and music enthusiasts alike will be engaged to stop, listen, and maybe sing along or take a few dancing steps. Look for Berklee student performers at many sites throughout Cambridge.

Blessed with an unsettlingly pure voice and an incredible agility at composition, this Israeli singer with her jet-black hair fumbled a long time before succeeding with her first album, a collection of ballads that meander through folk and pop, with an elegiac frugality and multi-colored fantasy. A soulful and expressive singer/songwriter whose music fuses folk, acoustic blues, and West African textures, Piers Faccini was born in England to Anglo-Italian parents, and moved with his family to France when he was five years old. A graduate of the prestigious King's College of Our Lade of Eton, in 1997 Faccini began making a name for himself on the London music scene with the group Charley Marlowe, which featured Faccini, spoken word artist Francesca Beard, guitarist Lucas Suarez, and percussionist Frank Byng. [details]

Luminescent Orechestrii plays Romanian gypsy melodies, punk frenzy, salty tangos, hard-rocking klezmer, haunting Balkan harmony, hip-hop beats, and Appalachian fiddle, all devoured and spit out by two violins, resophonic guitar, bullhorn harmonica, and bass. The band has toured the United States East Coast, England, Scotland, and Germany, and has traveled to Romania, Macedonia, Turkey, and Serbia for inspiration. The band most recently returned from Serbia's Dragacevo Trumpet Festival, a 47-year-old event in the small town of Guca, where hordes of competing gypsy brass bands take to the streets and restaurants. Since 2002, HUMANWINE has been using the imagery of bones, dirt, blood, and rust to share their allegorical tales. Holly Brewer and M@ McNiss organize a new band for every HUMANWINE performance, pulling from the wealth of musicians in any particular area they find themselves in, gathering a completely different group of people/instruments. This results in each song taking on a different light and so they "shine differently." A native of Georgia, Berklee student Julia Easterlin is already making waves in Boston’s music scene. Her charming sound of alternative jazz/acoustic songs have captured the attention of many. [details]

The Jazz Revelation All-Stars will perform in the Cabot-Cahners Room following the mainstage performance by the Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars with the Boston Pops Orchestra. Ticket to Pops show required for entry. [details]

The Jazz Revelation Records All-Stars—Edouard Brenneisen on guitar, Pat Carroll on alto sax, Jeff Fajardo on drums, Bulut Gren on trombone, Yuki Ito on acoustic bass, and Manami Morita on piano—are six of the best jazz musicians at Berklee. Bringing together sounds and ideas from Japan, France, Turkey, and the United States, these musicians were featured this spring at the Regattabar and the Berklee Performance Center for the party for the latest Jazz Revelation Records release, Common Ground.

Cas Haley competed as one of the top 20 finalists on season two of America's Got Talent. A stay-at-home dad from Arlington, Texas, he also plays the acoustic guitar.

The Marimba Nacional de Concierto Guatemala is a musical nonprofit organization created to study, investigate, develop, and promote everything that involves the Guatemalan marimba and its musical legacy, with the purpose to dignify both the instrument as a handcrafted instrument and the marimba players. The concept was created by Maestro Lester H. Godínez to bring the music around the world. The repertoire includes music of Mayan roots, popular music, academic, symphonic, and contemporary works. This concert is their first appearance in Boston and is a commemoration of the introduction to the U.S. of the chromatic marimba by the Hurtado Brothers’ Marimba Royal from Guatemala one hundred years ago.

Pianist Young Jae Lee will play 4 songs on piano, and on the last song she will play guitar and sing.

Vocalist Whitney C. Jones presents "Grooves for the Soul."

Rockhoppers, with Giles McNamee, managing director, McNamee Lawrence & Co. http://www.rockhoppers.org/

Zili Misik—led by Kera Washington and featuring Joanna Maria; Berklee student Hinako Sato; and alumnae Rajdulari, Krystal Johnson, Joy Roster, Lexi Havlin, and Jobeth Umali—creates music that bridges cultures, generations, and continents. With captivating sounds that evoke the African continent, Zili retraces routes of forced exile and cultural resistance through rhythm and song. Powerful Haitian, Brazilian, and West African rhythms infuse Zili's original and traditional folk songs. Reconnecting Haitian mizik rasin, jazz, roots reggae, samba, Cuban son, and neo-soul, Zili honors its influences while creating a sound that is uniquely its own. Zili's songs are sensual, political, self-reflective, and positive, with lyrics that glide seamlessly from English to Creole to Portuguese to Spanish.

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Brooke Fraser is a New Zealand born and bred singer/songwriter now setting up home in Los Angeles as she prepares for the North American release of her album Albertine and a summer of touring. Singer/songwriter William Fitzsimmons is perhaps best known for his song "Passion Play," which aired during a pivotal scene in Grey's Anatomy. He has released two full-length albums.

Lizz Wright's first two Verve releases, Salt and Dreaming Wide Awake, established her as one of the jazz world's most celebrated rising stars, both an accomplished songwriter and a versatile, deeply expressive singer. On her third and most recent album, The Orchard, the Georgia-bred, New York-based artist takes a substantial leap forward, transcending genre distinctions to deliver a vibrant, intensely creative milestone. Wright is an effortlessly magnetic performer, delivering subtly persuasive vocal performances in jazz/r&b settings. This event is standing room only. [details]

Composer Sandro Morales will be presenting and performing some of his arrangements of traditional Venezuelan songs and his own compositions in the same style. He will perform with an eclectic band, which will include a standard rhythm section with some traditional instruments from South America, blended with electronic music.

Faculty pianist Suzanna Sifter presents a set of contemporary acoustic jazz originals with her quartet, featuring faculty members Dino Govoni on tenor sax, Dave Clark on bass, and Yoron Israel on drumset.

Singer and multi-intrumentalist from Germany is performing with her friend, Jodi Copku, on guitar and other Berklee musicians. You will hear originals and songs by her favorite artists.This will be Nicola's final recital at Berklee, so put on your rockin' shoes and come to hear her stories.