Lawrence Berk, Former President (1945-1979)

Berklee College of Music is the realization of the dream of Lawrence Berk, whose innovative educational ideas and entrepreneurial spirit built the foundation for what is now the world’s leading institution of contemporary music education.

Born in Boston in 1908, Lawrence Charles Henry Berkowitz was the first-born son of Jewish immigrants who left Russia in the late 19th century seeking freedom and opportunity in America. He was a musical prodigy, a pianist who began working with professional dance bands in Boston at the age of 13. He learned music arranging skills on the job, placing him in demand with various groups. He earned his diploma at Boston English High School in 1927 while moonlighting in Boston’s night clubs and theaters. He went on to MIT and earned a degree in architectural engineering. His continued musical work took him to New York City in 1934, where he entered the music industry. He began writing arrangements for a number of bands and became a staff arranger for NBC’s studio orchestras. Around this time, he truncated his surname to “Berk.” In New York, he studied with Russian music theorist and composer Joseph Schillinger, whose student roster included noted musicians George Gershwin, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and others. Upon completing his studies, Berk became one of only 12 students Schillinger authorized to teach his methods.

Berk was dating Alma Schlager, an insurance company stenographer in Boston, before moving to New York. The couple continued a long-distance relationship before marrying in Boston in August 1937. After living and working in New York for a few years, they decided to move back to Boston in 1941. America was engaged in World War II at the time, and drawing on his engineering background, Berk took a position with the Massachusetts-based defense contractor Raytheon. In February 1942, he and Alma welcomed a son, Lee Eliot Berk, to the family.

Continuing his involvement in music, Berk opened a part-time teaching studio offering instruction in Schillinger’s musical system. He started with just three students but, due to the popularity of Schillinger’s method among aspiring musicians, demand at Lawrence’s tiny studio outgrew the facility. With Alma’s full support, Berk took a calculated risk and quit his Raytheon job. He purchased a three-story brownstone building on Boston’s Newbury Street and became a full-time educator in 1945. He named his school Schillinger House and hired some of his top students as teachers. With the war recently ended, military band musicians returning home flocked to the new school, using their GI Bill benefits to pay their tuition.

Berk drew top graduates from his school to join his faculty and began offering a curriculum that went beyond the Schillinger method to include instruction in improvisation, jazz and big-band arranging, composition, and courses in writing and performing popular music styles of the day. His objective was to provide his students with practical music training to prepare them for professional music careers. His unique jazz-based curriculum stood in stark contrast to those at conservatories and music colleges across the nation. His focus on non-classical music was disparaged in academia but embraced by non-classical musicians hungry for practical music knowledge. Berk’s core belief that anyone seeking music education should be welcomed led him to accept students playing instruments and musical styles not taught elsewhere.

By 1954, Schillinger had passed away, and his musical influence was waning. Berk’s school was developing a distinctive curriculum and a burgeoning reputation as an alternative music school. He decided to rename the school and took the suggestion of faculty trumpeter Fred Berman to reverse Berk’s son’s first and last names for the new moniker, Berklee School of Music—a move that helped clearly define its identity.

Serving as the school’s first president, Berk was assisted by a gifted administration and faculty in expanding the size and scope of the school. In the early 1960s, Berklee became the first higher education institution to offer rock music courses. Another first was accepting students who played electric guitar and other instruments not recognized as principal instruments at other schools. Berklee also embraced emerging music technologies and began developing courses in recording engineering, electronic music, and film scoring. Berk reached another milestone by obtaining a charter to grant Bachelor of Music degrees in 1966, making Berklee the first institution to offer a degree based on an American music curriculum.

Alma Berk joined her husband’s staff in 1959 and established a robust public relations campaign that spread word of Berklee’s success across America and abroad, which led to increased domestic and international student enrollment. She had much to work with as a growing number of Berklee alumni became prominent figures in the music industry.

After his graduation from law school in 1966, Lee Berk joined the administration and played a key role in multiple initiatives, including changing the institution’s name to Berklee College of Music in 1969. After becoming Berklee’s vice president in 1972, Lee facilitated his father’s real estate expansion plans by arranging the financing and development of an entire city block on Massachusetts Avenue. The property helped accommodate the increasing influx of students by adding additional classrooms and dorm space, recording studios, and other facilities, including the Berklee Performance Center.

After 33 years at the helm, Lawrence stepped down as president in December 1978 and became Berklee’s chancellor. The Board of Trustees elected Lee Berk as president in 1979. As a first-generation Bostonian born to Russian immigrants, Lawrence Berk achieved a spectacular American dream by transforming a small teaching studio into an accredited and world-renowned music college, enrolling 2,500 students by the time he retired.

Lawrence Berk died on December 22, 1995, just three weeks after his wife Alma’s passing. Lee Berk served as president for 25 years, building on the foundation his father created.