Berklee Today

Berklee's Helping Hands

 
  From the left: Gail Zunz, the late Sylvia Zunz, Lyonel Zunz, and Sharyn Zunz

Sylvia Zunz Fund Established
Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Sarah Vaughan: each of these artists is instantly connected with a distinctive style or song from the Great American Songbook. Popular music and jazz performers continue to interpret material from the Songbook, and its entries represent a cornerstone of the jazz education offered at Berklee today. Throughout her life, Sylvia M. Zunz of Fort Lee, New Jersey, enjoyed singing these classic Songbook tunes. After she passed away on January 7, 2004, Lyonel Zunz, Sylvia's husband, and her daughters Sharyn and Gail created the Sylvia M. Zunz Endowed Scholarship Fund at Berklee to celebrate her love of this music and perpetuate her memory.

Recently, the Zunz family compiled recordings of Sylvia's renditions of tunes such as "Ain't Misbehavin'," "East of the Sun," "Just One of Those Things," and others for a CD titled The Best of Sylvia. The disc will be presented to Berklee students who receive scholarship support from this endowed fund. Berklee is grateful to Lyonel Zunz and his family for their vision and generosity.

BCMP Reaches Out Nationwide
Since its launch in 1991, the Berklee City Music Program (BCMP) has become the premier venue for providing music education to disadvantaged youth in the greater Boston area. In January, the college announced that, with help from local and nationally based organizations, BCMP will begin its outreach in other U.S. cities. To build long-term financial stability for the program, the Johnson Scholarship Foundation of West Palm Beach, Florida, challenged Berklee to raise $2.9 million over the next five years. When this goal is met, the Johnson Foundation will award the college $2.2 million for 11 full-tuition Berklee scholarships a year for disadvantaged youth.

We are pleased to welcome the Charles A. Frueauff Foundation of Little Rock, Arkansas, as a partner in meeting the challenge with its first gift of $20,000. A longtime BCMP supporter, the Schrafft Charitable Trust has also made a gift of $15,000. We salute our donors for their help in reaching this goal.

With its proud history of supporting disadvantaged young people in the Greater Boston area, State Street Foundation has made a gift of $40,000 for BCMP faculty to offer private and group instruction in the Boston Public Schools. Bank of America made a $15,000 gift to fund disadvantaged teens' attendance at Berklee's Five-Week Summer Performance Program. We thank the State Street Foundation and Bank of America for their support of music education for underserved students.

 
Professor Stephen Webber (left) performs with Jason Dawson '05 on Numark turntables at a recent concert by the Berklee Turntablist Crew.  

Numark Provides Turntable Lab Gear
Berklee is the only music college in the country to house a prototype turntable lab where students can learn hip-hop DJ methods, remixing, and turntablism in a hands-on environment. Berklee's prototype turntable lab recently received a major shot in the arm through Numark Industries' generous gift of high-tech analog, CD and hard drive turntables, a laptop/turntable interface/software system, and Numark DXMPro Digital DJ mixers, CC-1 cartridges, and PHX headphones.

In addition to DJ gear, Numark also provided a dozen Akai Professional MPC2500 sampling drum machine/sequencers.

"Numark takes great pleasure in our collaboration with Berklee College of Music," says Jack O'Donnell, Numark's president and CEO. "Supporting the music students of today is not just satisfying; it's also an investment in our future. The innovative professors and bright students at Berklee guide us all in the music industry."

"All of this excellent gear will ensure that our students have cutting-edge, professional equipment at their disposal," says Professor Stephen Webber, who designed the popular turntable technique class and leads Berklee's Turntablist Crew ensemble.