Faculty
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Clare McLeod, Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT : Voice Department“I want my students to have a strong sense of the lyrics and what it is they are saying. Great singers have a connection not only with their instrument, but with their material and their audience. Once they have a vision and the training to produce a range of sounds freely and efficiently, they can express themselves with greater precision and emotion. Knowing the options they have removes some of the fear and guesswork from the process of singing. The answer to fear is knowledge. I live by that.”
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Jamie Lynn Hart, Instructor
DEPARTMENT : Voice Department“My formal training and education is in opera and classical music, but professionally, I have been performing as a pop/rock singer-songwriter. When I started to develop hoarseness from singing pop so often, I realized how strange that was for someone with a master’s degree in vocal performance. Singers are born with a gift, but not one necessarily made for performing five hours a night. Vocal health is of utmost importance. I had to figure that out for myself the hard way, and it forced me to learn new techniques. I’m passionate about nurturing that in these young singers.”
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Jason Yeager, Instructor
DEPARTMENT : Piano Department |
John Patitucci, Artist in Residence
DEPARTMENT : Bass Department- Three-time Grammy Award winner
- Fourteen Grammy nominations
- Played on many Grammy Award-winning recordings
- Thirteen solo recordings
- Latest CD, Remembrance, features saxophonist Joe Lovano and drummer Brian Blade
- Performed and/or recorded with jazz giants such as Dizzy Gillespie, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Stan Getz, Freddie Hubbard, Roy Haynes, Wynton Marsalis, Michael Brecker, Kenny Garrett, Victor Feldman, Nancy Wilson, and countless others
- Latest instructional book, Melodic Arpeggios and Triad Combining, published by David Gage
- Formerly the artistic director of the Bass Collective, a specialized school in New York
- Professor of Music at the City College of New York, 2002-2012
- Performed bass concerto A Prayer Out of Stillness by British composer Mark Anthony Turnage with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the Estonian National Symphony, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (featured on a live broadcast by the BBC), the Trondheim Symphony of Norway, the St. Louis Symphony, and the London Symphony Orchestra
- Launched interactive online bass school through ArtistWorks.com in 2013
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Steve Langone, Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT : Percussion Department"I studied with Alan Dawson and use many of his approaches in my teaching. Even with technical exercises, Alan would have his students sing a song and play an exercise at the same time. It’s relevant, when playing a groove, to have a melody going on. Singing helps you internalize the physical motions; what your hands and feet are doing becomes subconscious. I’ve applied Alan’s methods to Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, jazz, funk, and other kinds of world music. Alan Dawson was and still is a great source of inspiration."
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"Before I came to Berklee, I had two great mentors, both of them really good musicians and teachers. One brought an awareness of how the instrument should be played; he stressed control, relaxation, keeping solid time, getting a great sound. The other helped me nurture my musical intuition and the creative spark by turning me on to the great improvisers of our time. Both mentors stressed musicality as the only viable starting point. This is what I strive to impart to my students. There has to be a musical idea first and foremost! There are times when I will stress the importance of the mechanics (technique), but only as a means to make better music. As Joe Hunt, one of my teachers at Berklee, used to say, ‘Technique is a vehicle which makes it possible for your musical idea to come across.’"
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"With more than 24 years of music industry experience in London, Los Angeles, and Boston as a recording engineer, mixer, and producer, and more than 7 years of teaching audio, I bring a depth of technical knowledge in both the analog and digital realms and a wide breadth of professional music industry experience to the instruction of music production and engineering."
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Vessela Stoyanova, Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT : Harmony Department"I look at theory as a tool to enrich creativity. It is a language to communicate with other musicians, using the most common terms. When I teach, I try to give students all the proper grammar and correct spelling. But they must use these tools to express themselves in their own way. If they don’t have anything interesting to say, the class is useless."
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Colin Sapp, Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT : Guitar Department"Students sometimes forget to nurture their artistry while they’re in school. It’s easy to get caught up in becoming proficient at specific skills like ear training, playing at quick tempi, improvising over difficult changes, etc. I think it’s critical to use learned music concepts to inform one’s individuality. The learning process is a creative process, so students should compose and/or improvise new ideas as soon as they are struck with that inspiration."
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George S. Clinton, Chair
DEPARTMENT : Film Scoring"The most significant thing a film composer brings to the table is the ability to emotionally connect with a film and express that through music. If you’re not able to do that, you’re not going to be very good, no matter how much training you’ve had. This is why it’s so important for composers to trust their instincts. That’s one of the main things I’ve learned—I do best when I don’t get in my own way and over-analyze things. There is a magical thing that happens that is almost like alchemy when music and image link up in a way neither you nor the director could have predicted. Those are the moments I live for."
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