 |
C. Pat Pattison, Professor
DEPARTMENT : Liberal Arts Department"Our curriculum takes what I call the Nautilus approach to songwriting. You isolate the muscle and work on it. Everything about the major, at least at the beginning, is about isolation. The first step is to separate the lyric component from the music component. Which isn't to say that we talk about melody without talking about lyric, or lyric without melody, because often you can't separate them. . . . Of course, we try not to lose the focus that this is about creativity. We try to emphasize as strongly as possible that all these technical tools we teach are simply in the service of the ideas and emotions that you're trying to convey."
Read More |
Peter Payack, Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT : Liberal Arts Department"In my writing courses, I tell my students that the book we use is the book of their lives. I make them delve into themselves and write about personal experiences they felt changed them. I want my students to learn something about themselves that will help them make decisions in their lives. I want them to remember why they're at Berklee, and to remember that being creative is a gift to be thankful for and nurture. It's like a little fire that you have to take responsibility not to let go out."
Read More |
"I developed the course The History of America's Image in the World because so many of our students travel abroad to play, and work extensively with musicians from other countries. They take pride in American musical traditions, but sometimes have a complicated relationship with American political and social history, and they need to be better-prepared to work in a world in which people have strong negative and strong positive ideas about the nation's history and role. In other words, they need to stop playing gigs abroad and telling people they're from Canada."
Read More |
"There's a real interest in musical theater at Berklee. I don't think there's any other college that has nearly 1,000 vocal majors. Under the initiative of Camille Colatosti, support to provide students with more opportunities to perform in a theatrical setting became a priority. We have established a musical theater minor in the Liberal Arts Department. The student-run Musical Theater Club boasts more than 400 members, and the Liberal Arts Department supports more than six productions a year.
Read MoreBeth Platow, Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT : Liberal Arts Department"I was on the staff here for 11 years in the Counseling and Advising Center, and I was running a first-year advising program until I left that position to teach. I particularly love working with entering students. They're starting out on this journey that for so many has been a dream since they were children. I'm really fueled by their excitement and their energy. Thinking back to when I was a freshman, I'm really fortunate that I connected with an upper semester student, my roommate, and several faculty members the first few weeks. Coming into an urban setting where there are a lot of like-minded people, but also a lot of competition, and looking for connections, I think it's really a challenge, so I'm trying more than anything to provide connections in our class. I want them to connect to their creativity and their passion, and I want them to connect with each other, and certainly with me. You can come to me and it doesn't have to be about the first draft of your essay!"
Read More |
"I'm a founding editor (with writer, Rachel Yoder) of draft: the journal of process. The concept is that we have a published short story by two established writers, and we ask the authors for the first drafts to appear alongside the final pieces. Then we do an interview with the author about the process of creating that early draft and making it into the final story. We have Dave Eggers and Amy Bloom in the next one. The magazine reveals to students that people don't just speak into the printing press. There are about 10 drafts between initial inspiration and what the final published, polished product looks like. That gives students some confidence, because they see that mistakes were made, and the writers worked on it."
Read More |
Emmett Price, Professor
DEPARTMENT : Liberal Arts Department"As an eternal optimist, I believe music will be the thing that heals the world. The more music we can create, and the more we teach each other how to listen and receive music, the more some of the ‘-isms,’ phobias, and other human-created things will dissipate so we can look at each other through a lens of respect, admiration, and inspiration."
Read More |
Stephanie Reich, Professor
DEPARTMENT : Liberal Arts Department"If you've hit the wall on a music project and you feel tapped out, that's a perfect time to pick up your pen and write some prose, even a stream of consciousness, to free you up. When words start to flow, so does the music."
Read More |
Eric Reuter, Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT : Liberal Arts Department"Outside of Berklee, I'm a live engineer and acoustician, and I integrate these experiences into my classes. The reality is that there aren't enough jobs in recording studios. It's a really difficult world. So I try to introduce other possibilities. There are a lot of jobs in audio that aren't 'recording engineer' or 'producer.' And the things that you need to know, or that are useful to know, are very similar for a lot of these various careers—live sound or location recording, or even acoustics to some extent. These other jobs are viable and respectable. I think it's our responsibility to present those as options."
Read More |
Julie Rold, Associate Professor
DEPARTMENT : Liberal Arts Department"I think writing and music actually have a lot in common: both are auditory arts. I try to get students to see that great prose and poetry is fundamentally about creating great sound. It's through language, but it's still sound. I want my students to be attuned to the musicality of the language, even when they're writing something seemingly straightforward."
Read More