Podcasts Showcase BIN Student Talent Around the World

Earlier this year, Berklee debuted the Berklee International Network's (BIN) Facebook page with a video contest, “What Makes My BIN School a Unique Music School?” Through this contest, students submitted videos that featured original arrangements and introduced their school to the rest of the BIN community.

The Facebook page facilitated an exchange and a sense of community between all of the BIN partner schools. The 19 BIN partner schools around the world act as Berklee’s ambassadors in the world, recruiting talented students; connecting young musicians with other diverse and evolving music traditions; and spreading Berklee's influence in the music industry at a global level.

The prizes for the Facebook video contest included a Berklee Online scholarship, as well as the opportunity to be featured in a podcast. Sophya Ramirez, a voice student at Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) in Ecuador, was the winner of the contest. Best of show went to Ross Hunter from JMC Academy in Australia; other participants included Nefeli Ampatzi from Philippos Nakas Conservatory in Greece; Steven Baqueros Vargas from EMMAT in Colombia; Mikki Reguer from the Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in Israel; and Sammy Vasquez from USFQ in Ecuador. The following are the resulting podcasts.

Sophya Ramirez (Winner)

Berklee Online Scholarship Recipient

Colombian singer Sophya Ramirez, is studying at the Universidad de San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. In her video, which won the BIN Facebook video contest, she introduced her university and her music.

Her style fuses her Latin roots with jazz, and she is inspired by the nature that surrounds South America: the mountains, rivers, colors, and people. The song “Mientras Tanto,” was inspired by relationships. According to Ramirez, the song's message is: “You should enjoy things as they come, because at the end of the day everything will pass. Continue smiling because life goes on; dance everytime no matter what. At the end, everything happens for a reason.”

Ramirez is accompanied by a Latin Ensemble featuring from the Universidad de San Francisco de Quito: William Camilo Bueno on guitar; Javier Rojas on bass; Andres Enrique on clarinet; Santiago Damian on the saxophone; Danny Millan and Mateo Jaramillo on percussion; and by backup singers Anahi Chicaiza and Romina Calleri. The song was mixed by engineer Pablo Quintero.

Ross Hunter

Best of Show

Guitarist, singer, and songwriter, Ross Hunter is a recent graduate from JMC Academy in Australia. He believes in being “an artist who is diverse, one who looks outside the box.” Basing his life on this motto, Hunter is working on various projects; he is part of the rock band Shapes of Silence, and he is working on an electronic music project called Minutes in Rehab, as well as his own solo project featuring the song “Easy on the Fears"—the song Ross chose to accompany his video contest entry. The song was recorded for the JMC Academy integration program, which encourages students to collaborate on different projects, and combines Hunter's guitar composition roots with his singer-songwriter style. Hunter took a one-man band approach to the song, playing drums, bass lines, and guitar, as well as singing.

Mikki Reguer

Israeli student Mikki Reguer, a voice student at the Rimon School of Music in Israel, describes her sound as rock, hip-hop, and minimalism. She creates her sound from layering different instruments. Her song, “What About Us?”  encompasses her approach to songwriting. “I write songs that are minimalistic with well-arranged layers of sound. I want the power of the songs to come out through the spaces between the lyrics and the spaces between the music itself—to let the music breath,” she says.

Nefeli Ampatzi

Singer-songwriter Nefeli Ampatzi is a voice student at the Philippos Nakas Conservatory. She is fascinated by the process of discovering her voice, of “unlocking the secrets and the unbelievable abilities that lie within one's own body.”

She describes her music as “atmospheric a capella jazz.” She uses modal harmonies and nonsense syllables in her composition, incorporating scat singing as a major part of her style. Her original composition, “Modal Love” is a collaboration with band member Jason Mistsis.  “I wanted to create a certain feeling, both groovy and mellow at the same time," says Ampatzi. "We achieved this by the chord progression and the melodic phrases we used as well as the beat boxing.”

Podcasts produced by Apiwe Bubu and voiced by Danielle Angeloni