Two Summers, Two Continents: How One Teen Found His Sound at Berklee
![Miles Sam](https://www.berklee.edu/sites/default/files/2025-01/Miles_Sam.jpg?fv=V1tDZs23)
Miles Sam
Image courtesy of Capture Thee Moments Photography, LLC
Each summer, thousands of young artists take part in more than 30 Berklee summer programs designed to hone their talents in music performance, theater, dance, music production, songwriting, and music business. The faculty for Berklee Summer Programs (BSP) includes Grammy, Oscar, and Tony winners as well as acclaimed visiting artists who educate students in clinics and workshops. These comprehensive programs for students 12 and over range from beginner to advanced and from two days to 12 weeks in Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, and Berklee’s campus in Valencia, Spain.
Recently, Miles Sam, a senior at Duke Ellington High School of the Arts in Washington, DC, had the rare opportunity to immerse himself in not one but two of Berklee’s unique summer programs during consecutive summers—first in the Valencia program and then in the Aspire Five-Week Performance Intensive in Boston.
For Sam, both the Valencia and Aspire programs further fueled his musical ambitions and helped him to evolve in innumerable ways.
“These experiences made me more open-minded as a musician,” he says. “It was amazing to meet a whole bunch of young musicians with a range of talents, tools, and resources. It really gave me a new perspective on the artist’s mindset.”
Sam grew up in a musical family in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with his parents’ colorful New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival posters adorning the walls of his home. He’s even nicknamed after a beloved jazz legend. (His full name is Albert Devon Sam III.)
Though he started playing acoustic guitar at the age of 7, it wasn’t until age 12 that he discovered his true passion: the electric guitar. During the pandemic shutdown in 2020, Sam moved with his family to the DC area, where they hunkered down along with the rest of the world. One night, Sam watched the 1984 film Purple Rain, starring Prince, and “realized that music was my calling,” he recalls. “Having that time of reflection to focus on music really brought it all out in me.”
While Prince continues to reign as his musical icon, Sam also counts Roy Hargrove '89, Miles Davis, and Carlos Santana among his enduring influences. Sam now plays many musical styles, gravitating toward jazz, R&B, and funk in school ensembles as well as solo.
Recognizing his burgeoning talents, Sam’s parents encouraged his interests and researched additional musical training programs—ultimately narrowing the search to Berklee.
A Summer of Discovery in Spain
During the summer before his junior year, in 2023, Sam’s first musical adventure with BSP brought him overseas to the city of Valencia, Spain, a thriving cultural center where Berklee has a state-of-the-art campus. Students in the program engage in musicianship and theory courses, instrument seminars, and recording music ensembles that enhance their skills and improve their overall artistry.
[Valencia] was a beautiful learning experience; the whole time I was there, I never stopped learning.
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Upon arrival, Sam became immediately immersed in the culture, music, and collegial atmosphere of this diverse community.
“In Valencia, it was exciting to meet students from all over the world and see how music shapes us all,” he says.
Over the course of the two-week program, Sam enjoyed the intimate small-group guitar technique classes, the diligent instructors, the strong ensembles, frequent jam sessions on stage, and forming bonds with other students while sharing the international language of music.
“We had lots of opportunities for self-expression,” he adds. “It was a beautiful learning experience; the whole time I was there, I never stopped learning.”
As an added bonus to his time in Spain, Sam discovered salsa music. “For me, it was a whole new art form and I found out I loved it—the horns and the tight rhythm sections. It’s punchy and in-your-face and beautiful.”
A Summer of Opportunity in Boston
After his illuminating experience in Valencia, Sam looked forward to spending another summer of music-making with Berklee, this time as part of the Aspire Five-Week Performance Intensive program at the college’s Boston campus. This precollege program offers students the option to earn college credit while they study with the world’s leading music educators in Berklee’s top-of-the-line facilities. The core curriculum includes private instruction, instrumental labs, ensembles, musicianship, theory in performance, and more, as well as electives in production, composition and arranging, music business, music therapy, scoring, songwriting, and creative entrepreneurship.
Compared to the intimacy of the Valencia program, the Aspire community was much larger and even more multicultural, drawing students from 70-plus countries.
“I knew most of the students in Valencia and got to know people really well, but in the Aspire program I met someone new every day and got to hear new players all the time.”
And the Aspire program truly lived up to its name. “It was intense in the best possible way,” Sam observes. “It was productive. I was growing musically every minute.”
In addition to the rigorous instruction, he appreciated the 24/7 open practice rooms, which gave him the space and freedom to integrate his lessons and explore his personal creativity.
Also during his time on the Boston campus, Sam benefitted from the opportunity to prepare for and complete his performance audition for his undergraduate application to Berklee College of Music.
“Being able to do my audition while I was there was a huge sigh of relief,” he explains. “Having the chance to meet and work with Berklee faculty as I prepared for my audition really built up my confidence and made me more comfortable during the audition process.”
Berklee and Beyond
As Sam approaches his high school graduation, he maintains a 3.8 grade point average and is a member of the National Honor Society. He also continues to make his mark on local and national stages. At the beginning of his junior year, he initiated and now hosts Monday Before Dark, a monthly gig featuring high school and college musicians at the Artemis in Washington, DC. And last spring, he shared the stage with Water Seed at the 2024 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, where he performed a guitar solo in front of thousands of attendees.
From both of his BSP experiences, Sam has gained confidence, valuable knowledge, and life-changing insights along with invaluable connections with his peers and Berklee faculty. The performances on both the Valencia and Boston stages stand out as pivotal moments in Sam’s musical development.
Similarly enriched and invigorated by their Berklee summer opportunities, more than 30 percent of BSP participants apply and are accepted to an undergraduate degree program at Berklee College of Music. Many alumni have gone on to celebrated careers in music, including Meghan Trainor, Charlie Puth, Jon Batiste, Betty Who, James Valentine, Daniel J. Platzman (Imagine Dragons), Lisa Loeb, Robert Glasper, Bradley Gibson, and Ebony Williams. Successful alumni now have careers as music producers, sound engineers, film score composers, Radio City Rockette dancers, Broadway and film ensemble actors, touring musicians and dancers for international acts, film music engineers, and more.
Sam, too, has plans to pursue an undergraduate degree at Berklee as he looks toward a career as a performer—both of his own compositions and backing up other accomplished musicians—and a future in education, to spread his love for music around the world.