A Brief History

	Roger H. Brown and Ornette Coleman
	Herbie Hancock and Paul Simon

Berklee College of Music's founder and first president Lawrence Berk never expected to start a music school. When he opened his one-room teaching studio 60 years ago in Boston's Back Bay, he had no idea that it would one day become the world's largest independent music college and the ideal for contemporary music schools around the world. Berk, a successful arranger and pianist in New York and Boston, had struggled to learn the craft of the professional musician, and after failing to find a practical curriculum for contemporary music, he resolved to design one of his own. His embrace of jazz and popular music styles, instruments not recognized at conservatories, and emerging technology placed Berklee ahead of the curve, right from the beginning.

A series of educational "firsts" began when Lawrence Berk offered the first college-level jazz performance, composition, and arranging curriculum. In the 1960s, as the Beatles fueled an explosion of interest in the instrument, Berklee became the first music school to accept electric guitar as a principal instrument. After offering its first film scoring course in 1959, Berklee later established the nation's first film scoring degree program in 1972. Courses in jingle writing initiated in 1969 paved the way for the implementation, in 1987, of the songwriting major, the first of its type in the country. Berk's interest in recording technology and music synthesis led to pioneering programs in these areas at Berklee as well.

By the early 1960s, Lawrence Berk saw that Berklee was ready to take its place among more established institutions of higher learning. Within the decade, he and his leadership team transformed the school into a nonprofit institution, earned full higher-education accreditation, graduated the first fully accredited

baccalaureate class, and had formally renamed the newly minted college Berklee College of Music. Upon Berk's retirement in 1979, Berklee's enrollment had swelled to more than 2,500 students, representing 66 nations. Lawrence Berk's son, Lee Eliot Berk, was named the new president by the board of trustees. Lee had served at the college in various capacities, including a stint as the vice president, since 1966.

During his dynamic, 25-year term as Berklee's second president, President Berk continued to enhance the original vision of his father by expanding Berklee's urban campus, widening the curricular offerings in music technology, and establishing new majors in music business/management and music therapy. He also reorganized Berklee into four academic divisions to reflect a traditional college structure. The younger Berk broadened his father's efforts to attract the best musicians from overseas by establishing the Berklee International Network, comprising 13 music schools in a dozen countries.

In 1990, Lee Eliot Berk focused the college's resources on outreach to Boston's talented inner-city teens through a new kind of mentoring and scholarship program, Berklee City Music. Since the program's inception, talented urban teens have been selected and funds have been raised to provide scholarships for them to attend Berklee's summer programs. Students demonstrating the most promise and commitment have been awarded full-tuition scholarships enabling them to enter the college as full-time students, creating truly life-changing opportunities.

After Lee Berk announced his retirement in 2004, an extensive search for Berklee's third president brought Roger H. Brown to the college. Possessing an outstanding reputation for innovation and entrepreneurship in the business world, Brown brings plenty of fresh ideas to the job, while noting that there is still much to explore in the initiatives launched by Lawrence and Lee Berk. Brown's current endeavors include creating more scholarships, expanding the City Music program, establishing study abroad programs, acquiring real estate for additional Berklee facilities, making Berklee more diverse, and developing Berkleemusic.com into the world's premier online music school.

Berklee is a pioneering idea that took root in a single room. In the last 60 years, through the vision and stewardship of three remarkable men, and the dedication of its world-class faculty, the college has grown to be something that no one had ever seen before and that no one expected. All indications are that the next 60 years hold just as much opportunity—and just as many wonderful surprises.

Lee Eliot Berk (right), with Lawrence Berk, student Johari Salleh, and Charlie Mariano.   Duke Ellington sits in during a rehearsal by Herb Pomeroy's student ensemble.