Berklee Visits Mexico City for Workshops and Auditions
Students perform during a Berklee program at Rec Música in 2017.
Image by Edú Burgos
Erin Barra, associate professor in the Songwriting Department
Image provided by the artist
Berklee College of Music will visit Rec Música Centro de Estudios Musicales (Rec Música) in Mexico City, Mexico, for workshops and audition and interview (A&I) events for admission to Berklee February 22–24. Rec Música is a Berklee Global Partner, a collective of institutions around the world whose academic members have credit-transfer agreements allowing artists to start their path to Berklee closer to home. Rec Música was founded by Mijal Grinberg Konigsberg, Fernando Chávez B.M. '01, and Sebastián Otero Garza B.M. '02.
The workshops, which are free and open to the public, will be presented by Russ Hoffmann, professor in the Piano Department, and Erin Barra, associate professor in the Songwriting Department, on Friday, February 22, from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Topics include music technology, songwriting, and comping techniques. Barra will also demonstrate the creative use of an electronic digital instrument (EDI) for songwriters. Recognizing the central role that computers play in all types of music-making, Berklee will allow students to select an EDI—a computing device equipped with music software and performance controllers—as their principal instrument starting in the fall of 2019. Watch a video of Barra performing on an EDI here.
In addition to the workshops, admissions representatives from Berklee will be on site at Rec Música as part of the Berklee World Tour, holding A&I events for musicians interested in studying at the college. They will conduct live A&I sessions with applicants on Saturday, February 23, and Sunday, February 24. All applicants will be considered for a host of scholarships that Berklee awards annually. For more information, or to apply, visit apply.berklee.edu.
Musicians come to Berklee from every corner of the earth, making the college uniquely international. Twenty nine percent of the college’s students come from outside the United States, representing more than 100 countries, and Berklee has strong ties to Latin America with Global Partners in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Puerto Rico, in addition to Mexico. The A&I event in Mexico City is part of a larger effort to increase the number of students from underrepresented areas of the world and foster a significant cultural exchange.
Berklee’s unique audition and interview process is designed to uncover the applicant’s musical strengths and academic goals while helping assess their aptitude and ability to succeed in the college's dynamic environment. Each year, Berklee’s World Tour visits more than 50 cities in search of talented instrumentalists and vocalists, an effort that is supported with over $40 million in scholarship funds available to prospective and continuing students.
