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Alumni News
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Voice Coach Ilana Martin '89 Profiled in Forbes
Many young musicians hope to someday attain Diddy-level stardom, but Martin’s example shows it’s possible to have a fulfilling and lucrative career as a coach to high-profile entertainers. Accepted to the prestigious Berklee School of Music at age 16, she started teaching private lessons the first week she arrived on campus. Within two years, she was touring with Barry White and Patti LaBelle as a backup singer.
Martin soon found her calling not as a pop diva, but as a voice teacher, founding the Vocal Workout Singing school in 2001. She emphasizes a holistic approach that includes influences ranging from ancient Yoruba breathing methods to a more modern focus on working with the body’s built-in reflexes. With one location in Manhattan, she’s planning to open another in Brooklyn this year.
Submitted by Adam Olenn on May 10, 2012 | | | | | LOS ANGELES
LA TIMES: Karmin drops covers, finds success with album 'Hello'
Nearly a year ago, pop duo Karmin found itself the music industry’s most exciting upstart after becoming a viral YouTube sensation.
Their spit-polished, homespun covers of ubiquitous hits such as Chris Brown’s “Look At Me Now,” LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” and Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” garnered more than 100 million views and turned the heads of virtually every record label executive -- the pair even met with Kanye West.
The duo -- whose name is a hybrid of the word “carmen,” which in Latin means “song,” and “Karma” -- consists of Berklee grads and real-life couple Amy Heidemann and Nick Noonan. With Heidemann’s chameleon-like ability to switch from pop diva to spunky femcee and Noonan’s deft musicianship (he’s probably the only crooner in today's Top 40 that can sling a trombone) they scored a high-profile deal with Sony Music Entertainment, the first signing under Antonio "L.A." Reid’s restructured Epic.
Submitted by Adam Olenn on May 10, 2012 | | | | | NEW YORK
Micheal Castaldo '86 Places 3rd in Europe Tourism Board Contest
Classical-crossover vocalist Micheal Castaldo '86 placed 3rd in a competition sponsored by The Europe Tourism Board for “Europe’s Best Crossover Performer.” A native of Calabria, Italy, Micheal received over 55,000 votes from fans worldwide.
Submitted by Adam Olenn on May 09, 2012 | | | | | BOSTON
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Photo by PETER DEAN RICKARDS |
BOSTON GLOBE: Rubblebucket brings sound, spectacle to the party
On paper, Rubblebucket could seem like a hot mess. But the idiosyncratic eight-piece band — born at the University of Vermont, nurtured around Boston, and subsequently transplanted, perhaps inevitably, to Brooklyn — has fused its own fashion of heady dance-pop that somehow just works.
On the strength of a style melding propulsive polyrhythms, syncopated horns, new wave-era art-school rock, and gleaming pop, all within a slyly psychedelic aesthetic, Rubblebucket may be on the verge of a breakthrough. But despite the band’s growing success, it’s a work in progress.
“We’re not a band that has come out of the gates setting out to make this sculpted, perfect conceptual thing. It was totally raw and evolving at all times. We’re just kind of learning and discovering what we want to do as we go,” says trumpeter and bandleader Alex Toth, on the phone from San Diego during a recent tour.
Rubblebucket plays the Paradise Friday, May 4. 8pm. Boston.
Submitted by Adam Olenn on May 04, 2012 | | | | | BOSTON
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Photo by CHRIS OQUIST |
BOSTON GLOBE: RIBS’ DIY sound backed by some Berklee promotional know-how
Chris Oquist and Keith Freund, the guitar/vocals and drums half of local four-piece RIBS, are coming from somewhere a bit more researched than the average new band.
On a recent night out over drinks in Allston, Freund thinks back on an industry conference panelist’s idea of top-down bands versus bottom-up bands.
“A top-down example was like Destiny’s Child,” says Freund. “They were picked out by a label and forced down to the masses through a huge infrastructure of radio and money. Whereas there was this rapper named Bone Crusher who came up out of Atlanta selling mix tapes out of the back of his car, building it for himself.”
Hear RIBS at T.T. the Bear's Place, 10 Brookline St, Cambridge MA 617-492-2327.
May 25, 8 p.m. $10
Submitted by Adam Olenn on May 04, 2012 | | | | | NEW YORK
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Photo by Wikipedia |
Karmin manager Nils Gums profiled in Forbes
Berklee alumnus Nils Gums, manager of superstar alumni duo Karmin, has been profiled in Forbes magazine. Click the headline to read more.
Submitted by Adam Olenn on May 04, 2012 | | | | | BOSTON
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Photo by CONOR DOHERTY |
Mia Verdoorn '11 Named One of 'Boston's Sexiest' by Stuff Magazine
"With Cate Blanchett’s complexion and Angelina Jolie’s lips, Verdoorn is va-va-voom. She’s also an experienced artist. As a teen, the South African–born vocalist was already recording alongside some of her country’s most prominent musicians; then she graduated summa cum laude from Berklee. Now she’s winning accolades and audiences with a smooth amalgamation of jazz, blues, country, and pop. " –STUFF magazine
Submitted by Adam Olenn on April 30, 2012 | | | | | |
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