PODCAST: Inside Berklee—President Roger H. Brown

In his 12 years as president of Berklee, Roger H. Brown has presided over some of the college's biggest milestones, such as the opening of an international campus in Valencia, Spain, the expansion of Berklee Online, and the merger that created Boston Conservatory at Berklee this year, adding theater and dance to the college's traditional repertoire of music.

"I think the number one job of the leader is to try to collectively formulate a vision for what the future should look like," Brown says to the BIRN's Zak Kuhn in this special edition of Inside Berklee. "You don't want to do it in an autocratic way...but you don't want to wait for the whole institution to come to consensus because it never will. There will be strong opinions on both sides of every issue," Brown says. "The same is true in a band. Somebody's got to have a vision—it may be the collective or it may be a leader—that says 'Here are the goals we need to set for ourselves.'"

In their wide-ranging chat, Kuhn and Brown cover everything from Brown’s early days doing humanitarian work in Cambodia to more recent issues, such as how Berklee is trying to tackle college affordability and how the recent merger will benefit students. Also, Kuhn asks Brown about the first album he ever bought, and about what’s on his playlist today.

Engineers: Andres González Cardona and Erick Jaimes