Berklee City Music Components

The Berklee PULSE Method

Developed by Berklee College of Music faculty, PULSE (Pre-University Learning System Experience) is a proven methodology that reaches out to youths through the music they love—providing instrumental and vocal training, ensemble performance experience, and musicianship development through the music of today. With caring, professionally trained mentor-instructors and state-of-the-art online support materials, students enjoy a unique opportunity to develop their talent. By participating in an online community that provides interactive music experiences and social networking between peers, these students feel less disenfranchised and more connected, helping to build their self-esteem and sense of accomplishment. They become better musicians and more productive members of society.

Summer Youth Scholarship for Talent and Excellence in Music (SYSTEM 5)

Berklee City Music offers the SYSTEM 5 Scholarship, which covers full tuition for high school students to attend the Five-Week Summer Performance Program. Through a competitive audition and selection process, the scholarship is awarded to youths participating in City Music Boston as well as those involved in City Music Network programs. Once enrolled in the Five-Week Summer Performance Program, students will receive a fun, yet rigorous, course of study that includes performance, theory and musicianship. Additionally, SYSTEM 5 scholarship recipients are showcased to the community, when the program concludes, at the world-renowned Berklee Performance Center.

The Berklee City Music All-Star Ensemble

The Berklee City Music All-Star Ensemble is composed of the best and brightest of these rising stars, all of whom have attended Berklee’s Five-Week Summer Performance Program on full-tuition scholarships. The ensemble performs multiple genres of contemporary music, including jazz, pop, hip-hop, and rhythm and blues. Some ensemble members further their Berklee education with the help of the four-year, full-tuition City Music Continuing Scholarship.

Continuing College Scholarships

Each summer, a number of SYSTEM 5 scholarship students who successfully complete the Berklee Summer Performance Program receive scholarships for full-time study at the college. Often, these students have been associated with the college for several years through participation in the Music Mentoring Program, Saturday Upper and Preparatory schools, and SYSTEM 5. They are, therefore, well prepared for the challenges of full-time study at the college. They also serve as role models for Berklee's outreach efforts in Boston schools.

A number of area foundations have provided grant support for Berklee City Music, among them:

• The Theodore R. and Vivian M. Johnson Scholarship Foundation
• Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation
• BMI Foundation
• Christos and Eva Pappas Foundation
• Clowes Fund, Inc.
• 484 Phi Alpha Foundation
• I Love Music Foundation
• Lawrence J. and Anne Rubenstein Charitable Foundation
• New Balance Foundation
• The Philanthropic Initiative, Inc.
• Schrafft Charitable Foundation
• Thomas and Anthony Pappas Foundation
• The Walter J. Noonan Trust-The Deborah Munroe Noonan Memorial Fund, Bank of America Trustee
• The Lehman Brothers Foundation

This program continues to be an avenue for high school students to attend Berklee College of Music and to pursue their dreams of becoming musicians, teachers, arrangers, composers—anyplace their talent can take them.

Berklee City Music Continuing Scholarship recipients with President Roger H. Brown at the annual City Music Blowout concert (2004) Photo by Phil Farnsworth

Since its establishment in 1990, President's Office of Education Outreach has awarded over $4.5 million in student scholarships to deserving young musicians. It is proud to have played a role in the lives of this select group of talented youth and will continue helping them fulfill their dreams. This entails not only providing them with an education in their passion, but also demonstrating how this passion can fuel a career. With each new year, the office is able to help growing numbers of young and talented musicians attain successful careers in the music industry. And once scholarship recipients take the first step—a college education—they can take off and soar.