Berklee Summer in the City,
Presented by Natixis Global Asset Management

Berklee faculty member Livingston Taylor shares the stage with three talented student and alumni acts to celebrate spring.

Set times:

12:30 p.m.—Dylan McDonald & Co.
1:15 p.m.—Alicia Lemke
2:00 p.m.—Tubby Love and Eric Robertson
3:00 p.m.—Livingston Taylor

Berklee faculty member Livingston Taylor picked up his first guitar at the age of 13, beginning a 40-year career that has encompassed performance, songwriting, and teaching. Born in Boston and raised in North Carolina, Livingston is the fourth child in a very musical family that includes Alex, James, Kate, and Hugh. Taylor recorded his first record at 18 and has continued to create well-crafted, introspective and original songs that have earned him listeners worldwide.

From top-40 hits "I Will Be in Love with You" and "I'll Come Running," to "I Can Dream of You" and "Boatman" both recorded by his brother James, Taylor's creative output has continued unabated. His musical knowledge has inspired a varied repertoire, and he is equally at home with a range of musical genres—folk, pop, gospel, jazz—and from upbeat storytelling to touching ballads.

Taylor has never stopped performing since those early coffeehouse days, touring with major artists such as Linda Ronstadt, Jimmy Buffet and Jethro Tull, and he maintains a busy concert schedule of over 80 shows a year. He is a natural performer, peppering his shows with personal stories, anecdotes, and ineffable warmth that connect him to his fans. His relaxed on-stage presence belies the depth of his musical knowledge, and fans might just as often be treated to a classic Gershwin number or something from the best of Broadway.

As a full professor at Berklee College of Music since 1989, Taylor shares his experiences and knowledge of professional touring with young artists just beginning to hone their skills. His course, Stage Performance (I and II), is one of the most popular at the college, and it gives him the ideal forum in which to impart the lessons learned through his own career to a new generation of musicians. His book, Stage Performance, is drawn from those classes.

Tubby Love and Eric Robertson come from very different musical roots grown in the same soul. The idea of a collaboration stemmed from their mutual appreciation for good songs without regard to style or genre. The duo is currently working on their debut album Animals to Angels, a soulful expression of man's coming of consciousness, and is hitting the road hard.

A native of Madison, Wisconsin, Alicia Lemke is a young singer-songwriter currently performing across the Northeast. A scholarship recipient at Berklee, Lemke bases her project out of Boston and New York, though recent shows have taken her as far as Los Angeles, Miami, and London. Both an accomplished singer and self-taught guitarist, she began writing her own brand of pop/folk music a little over a year ago and released her first EP, titled Shades of Motion, in April 2010.

Guitarist Dylan McDonald is pursuing career paths as both a performer and an educator. He has gained recognition as a technically adept blues guitarist who pours his soul into everything that comes out of his instrument. To date, he has performed with the award-winning virtuosic blues pianist David Maxwell; Per Hanson, an original member of Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters; Vernon Reid of Living Colour; and Nona Hendryx of Labelle. McDonald is backed by some of the hottest young musicians around in a mix of blues, gospel/R&B, and funk. This band is high-energy all the time, and you'll only want more.

Reared in a hidden valley outside of Sacramento, California, now residing in the barren, frozen lands of Boston, Megan Lui resonates a soulful electric folk sound. With her most recent EP, Wandering Bones, tightly bound to her belt, she is making her way around the East Coast with a collective from Monkey Rock, a local music community of songwriters, artists, and friends. Download the six-song EP for free.

Hailing from the small town of Monroe, New York, pop/rock solo artist Brian Dunne is currently based in Boston. A music lover from the tender age of 2, Dunne has always had an ear and talent for music, playing the guitar and writing songs since the age of 6. His influences span from a wide range of artists including Sam Cooke, Tom Waits, and Bruce Springsteen.

Dunne has been playing consistently in the Boston music scene for the past four years and release his debut EP last fall. When asked about his personal goals pertaining to music, he simply states that he would like to continue sharing his music with as many people as possible. This simplicity and devotion to his craft are what makes Dunne's music so authentic and addicting. He says, "I can't recall a day in my life that doesn't revolve around music. I can't begin to think what I'd be if I wasn't a musician." His love for music is easily heard through his songs and seen in his heartfelt performances; one listen to him and his passion comes through loud and clear.

San Francisco Bay Area native Mario Jose has been singing and performing since he was just a little guy. Jose is 21 years old and recently graduated from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. There is no doubt about it—this boy was born to entertain.

After graduating high school in 2006, Jose headed to Southern California to attend Fullerton College, where he attained a solid base of classical and jazz vocal techniques while studying under Brandon Brack, Jamie Shew, and John Tebay, and performing in venues ranging from the Orange County Performing Arts Center to Knotts Berry Farm.

At Berklee, Jose performed all over Boston. He was in Pitch Slapped, a student-run a cappella group that won the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella contest this spring. He also performed in numerous big-stage shows at the college including Berklee's Pop/Rock Showcase; Shining Stars: The Music of Earth, Wind and Fire with special guest Philip Bailey; The Great American Songbook: The Music of Motown; Encore Gala; Berklee Meets Don Was featuring Don Was; and Singers Showcase.

Jose plans to move to Los Angeles to pursue his career. He would like to thank his family, friends, and fans for their undying love and support.

Nick Goldston is a singer-songwriter from Oyster Bay, Long Island. His sound is an acoustic blend of pop and rock with a specialty in fresh melodies. Guitar, vocals, and a cajón give exactly the type of sound you would want from songs like his: full but not overstated.

Mike Squllante has completed work for his debut full length LP for release this fall with bassist Owen Danoff and drummer Miles Nasta. In addition to being the sole writer for all 14 tracks, Squillante produced and engineered the entire album.  

He has conceptualized, directed, and appeared in two professional music videos for his songs, "Valentine's Day" and "Three Flights Down." Both are viewable on this profile. Check it out at myspace.com/mikesquillante or youtube.com/mikesquill.

Sharin Maribel Toribio was born in the 1980s in Tampa, Florida. By the age of six, she began to sing solos in church and play the piano. By nine years old, she had created her own compositions and begun playing other instruments by ear. As a teen, she earned countless awards and accolades and performed for hundreds of attendees at various youth conferences, festivals and concerts.

At the end of her freshman year of college, the yearning to dedicate her life to music full time brought her back home. She began working on her demo and even became a 2005 Miss Florida delegate. Unfortunately, all of her hard work and momentum was put on hold when she was diagnosed with stage 4 Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a cancer that affects the lymphatic system, and was given a 20 percent chance of life.

She fought the cancer for a harsh seven months with intensive chemotherapy and clinical trials. Today, she is cancer-free and determined more than ever to honor the miracle of her life by accomplishing her dreams. She believes it was the strong prayers and support of her church, family, friends, and music that brought her through such a trying time.

Toribio continues to compose and perform her music at Berklee. She is proud to have worked with artists and producers such as Eddie Perez (Paulina Rubio, JoJo, Hector "El Father," Wisin y Yandel), Jean Rodriguez, Toby Love, and Obie Bermudez. Her strong musical influences lie in the beautiful raw messages of pop country music, Spanish pop ballads, and R&B, and her greatest vocal icons are Gary LeVox, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Lauryn Hill, Luis Miguel, Juan Luis Guerra, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, and many more.

Toribio hopes to touch people of every ethnicity through the spiritual language of music and be a symbol of truth, positivity, and survival.

From the moment her parents gave her Rubber Soul by the Beatles in fourth grade, Casey Sullivan has been in awe of the affect music has. She picked up her dad's old guitar at 15 years old and learned every tune that she could choreograph her little hands to play, and then wrote her own songs. Now, at 19 years old, she has not stopped and could not if she tried. Her mellow folk/rock style has attracted listeners of every age. She is currently attending Berklee as a contemporary writing and production major. 

Nick Susi is a multi-instrumentalist raised by music teacher parents in Connecticut. He blends classical and jazz music with traditional songwriting. Through his studies at Berklee, he has had the good fortune to collaborate and share the stage with brilliant musicians and writers from all around the world. He is fond of rich soundscapes and visceral lyrics that inspire goosebumps. For him, nothing is more important than art for the sake of art.

A native of Madison, Wisconsin, Alicia Lemke is a young singer-songwriter currently performing across the Northeast. Most recently a scholarship recipient at Berklee, Lemke bases her project out of Boston and New York, though recent shows have taken her as far as L.A., Miami, and London. Both an accomplished singer and self-taught guitarist, she began writing her own brand of pop/folk music a little over a year ago and released her first EP, titled Shades of Motion, in April of 2010.

Musically speaking, Lemke is an amalgam of poetic lyrics, lilting melody, finger style guitar, and a graceful, strong voice. A consistent and honest writer, her songs range from heartbreaking to playful, but always speak to self-awareness and universality. Performing now with a five-piece band, Lemke has found a full and refreshing sound as she moves forward with her music. Though her first forays into music came from performing in musical theater as early as middle school, her real passion emerged from 10 years of playing saxophone. Her leadership in high school propelled her into college jazz ensemble, where she doubled as baritone saxophonist and vocalist. Her discovery of vocal jazz inspired Lemke to take a semester off from school and work under the tutelage of jazz piano legend Garry Dial (Manhattan School of Music). It was during that spring in NYC that she picked up acoustic guitar, and upon encouragement from Dial, auditioned for Berklee.

A true Midwestern girl, Lemke grew up in Wisconsin with a healthy exposure to nature, camping, and travel. Her love for the environment carried over into her course of study at Swarthmore College, where she graduated with an undergraduate degree in Theater and Biology. During her time at Swarthmore, she spent a summer conducting field research in Northeast Queensland, Australia, where she fell in love with conservational sciences and environmental studies. Lemke hopes to use her recognition gained through music to raise awareness surrounding environmental issues.

Current Berklee College of Music student Jonah Francese started Thinkin' Big for the purpose of bringing jazz writers and arrangers together. The group solely plays student charts. It is place where the students can, without fear, bring in their work and get it played by a band that will only give support. 

The group meets once a week and gets new charts just as often. This spring was the first full semester the band was together and it has already performed twice: at the Turtle Lane Playhouse and at the Lily Pad. The group looks forward to many more opportunities and charts to come.

Endangered Speeches, the creative brainchild of Greek MC/composer Mariletta Konstrantara, aims to restore a meaningful message and forward direction to hip-hop music. Founded in 2008, Endangered Speeches’s eclectic members hail from around the world, bringing with them their uniquely vast musical experiences. Now, with the release of the debut album, The City is Rough, the band moves determinedly forward, poised to bring the music to the corners of the globe they call "home."

Tubby Love and Eric Robertson come from very different musical roots grown in the same soul.  The idea of a collaboration stemmed from their mutual appreciation for good songs without regard to style or genre. The young duo will be teaming up to create a fresh breed of earthy acoustic sounds and touring hard to promote the new project.

il abanico is a native Colombian duo, formed in 2010 by Juliana Ronderos (vocals) and Nicolás Losada (guitar). With extremely different tastes in music and similar personalities, they started writing songs and experimenting with new sounds and compositions.

The band includes members from places as diverse as Peru, Japan, and Argentina. In December 2010 they recorded their EP, Crossing Colors, at Studio G in Brooklyn. They now perform around the Boston area and have played in venues such as the Paradise and the House of Blues. Rapidly growing on a greater audience, il abanico brings a fresh proposal of music influenced by alternative, experimental, and pop music. Their music has been described as "a weaving tapestry of textures and sounds" by the Hurdy Gurdy. 

Everybody's mother is somebody's daughter, brother. Dig? Sons of Daughters features Berklee alumni Devin Drobka and Aaron Darrell as well as New School for Jazz alumnus and John Coltrane Foundation scholarship winner Patrick Breiner.

The members of this trio have performed with Jerry Bergonzi, Joe Lovano, Tony Malaby, Greg Osby, Ches Smith, Becca Stevens, and Dave Stryker, among others. They tour the East Coast and Midwest regularly and collectively have graced the stages of Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Yoshi's, Smalls Jazz Club, the JVC Jazz Festival, and many other stages in the United States and Europe.

Sons of Daughters was born through an unlikely union. Having heard for months of young guns Darrell and Drobka, Breiner traveled from his home in Madison, Wisconsin to Milwaukee in May of 2010 for a one-nighter at the Jazz Estate. He showed up a half-hour late and the band was already knee-deep in an epic performance of "Autumn Leaves." Breiner stepped on stage to take a solo before the rest of the band even realized he had shown up. He didn't meet the bass player and drummer until the set break.

Soon after, Darrell moved to Boston to complete a degree at Berklee and Drobka moved to New York to pursue his dream of becoming a failed actor turned singing waiter on rollerskates in midtown (done aaaaand. . . done). Breiner stayed put in Madison where he continued to undermine the lounge jazz scene one gig at a time.

This trio of brilliant young improvisers plays incendiary originals and reaches deep into the pantheon of jazz classics in order to deliver telepathy-laced shang-a-lang that transcends its geographical limitations.

Raised in Texas on a musical diet of Antonio Carlos Jobim, James Taylor, and '60s radio, Emily Elbert fell in love with guitar when she was 15. Three years later, she released her first album of original music. Now at 22, Elbert has played over 350 shows internationally, from Alaska to Memphis, Austin to New York, as well as Italy, Scotland, Puerto Rico, Saint-Barthélemy, and Peru. Glamour magazine recently named her one of the Top Ten College Women of 2010, and her second album, Proof, was released in September. It features Elbert at her best, with strong melodies, straight-to-the-heart vocals, and intricate guitar work.

In the past few years, Elbert has opened for artists as diverse as Richie Havens, G-Love and Special Sauce, Raul Midon, Jorge Drexler, Janis Ian, Kaki King, Patty Larkin, and Kate Voegele. Fans from around the globe have watched her YouTube videos in droves, including over 300,000 views of her version of Michael Jackson's "Thriller." The Boston Folk Festival notes: "Emily is among the most glowing of the upcoming generation of American singer-songwriters, if 'upcoming' even applies to this phenom any longer."

William F. Wells was born and raised in Sicklerville, New Jersey, just across the water from Philadelphia. He discovered his passion for songwriting and composition early in his high school years, and that same passion was set on fire when he came to the Berklee Five-Week Summer Program in 2005. After graduating high school, Wells entered Berklee for full-time study in the fall of 2007. He has since emerged as a songwriter, composer, arranger, engineer, and musician and has had the opportunity to work with such renowned artists as John Mayer, Wyclef Jean, Bobby McFerrin, and Patrice Rushen.

Some young, unsigned singers might find the prospect of doing a Canada Day gig in front of 30,000 Londoners intimidating. However, most young singers have not lived Kiesza's life. To say she's already had quite a journey is a bit of an understatement. Where do you start? Recently, the Calgary native performed on July 1 in London, along with such high-profile Canuck luminaries as Sarah Harmer, Hawksley Workman, and the Canadian Tenors at the Canada Day celebrations taking place in London's Trafalgar Square. Or if that doesn't grab you, there's her latest quest, to break through in the hyper-competitive New York music scene from her East Coast base as a scholarship student at Berklee. Or, if all that strikes you as too American Idol for words, how about her stint, a half-decade back, as a 17-year-old girl who followed her big brother into the Canadian navy? Let's start there.

"I'm very adventurous," Kiesza says from a studio in Boston, where she's taking a break from recording. "I was that kid who just wanted to try everything . . . and one day, my brother, who didn't know what he wanted to do . . . signed up for the navy. My mom encouraged him. And I was just like, 'I want to sign up for the navy, too!'" Kiesza's mom thought that boot camp would be good for her. It turned out that she also possessed certain talents that caught the eyes of the military brass. "I went to boot camp and ended up winning the top shot," she says. "I became a marksman," she adds. "Some people from the regular (armed) forces—I think some people from the Highlanders in Calgary—offered to link me up with the guy who trained the Canadian who shot the longest shot in history for sniper trainer. But I was like, I don't think killing people appeals to me at all," she says. Rather than pursuing a military career as a sniper, she opted for navy code-breaking, because she had an affinity for Morse code. Is this young woman the next G.I. Jane or the next Lady Gaga? (And we haven't even got room to write about the time she entered the Miss Universe-Canada competition, or met the Queen. . . . )

Suffice to say, Kiesza's days as a young assassin-in-training petered out once she picked up a guitar. And that same day, as an 18-year-old, that she picked up the instrument, she also wrote her first song. Two weeks later, it was played on the radio. A month later, she had a demo tape. All of which sounds pretty breathtaking, but since moving east to study in Boston, Kiesza has discovered that there's a lot of grind behind every overnight success.

All of this comes at a time when she is in the middle of dramatically redefining her sound. She started out as a folk singer, but being exposed to the Berklee music community and the New York scene has driven her toward a more uptempo sound. "It's funny," she adds, "the bigger the crowd, the more at home I am on stage. There's something about the energy of a crowd that I just really feed off ." And besides, if the whole music thing doesn't work out, there's always work for a good sniper.

Julia Easterlin is a vocalist, songwriter, and performer from Augusta, Georgia. As a secondary student, Easterlin attended Davidson Fine Arts School where she received training in dance, classical piano, acting, and visual arts, until commiting to studies as a vocalist and performing musician in 2005.

Since then, Easterlin's talents as a performer and songwriter have been recognized by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, the Gibson/Baldwin Grammy Jazz Ensembles, DownBeat, the John Lennon Foundation, and the New York Songwriters Circle.

In 2007, Easterlin was awarded a full-tuition merit scholarship to attend Berklee, where she has been a featured performer on the student-run Heavy Rotation Records record label for two consecutive years and served as the vocalist for the InterArts Ensemble's pioneer project in Havana, Cuba in 2010. This is Easterlin's second year representing Berklee in the Summer Concert Series.

When it comes to saxophonist, vocalist, composer, lyricist, and arranger Grace Kelly, people seem to be divided into two groups: those who marvel at her proficiency, creativity, and ever-accelerating growth, and those who have yet to encounter the 18-year-old wunderkind. The ranks of the former are growing by the day. Trumpeter and Jazz at Lincoln Center artistic director Wynton Marsalis was so impressed with Kelly's three-night stand as guest of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in November that he invited her to join the ensemble at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater in Washington, D.C. for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day/Inauguration Eve concert. Harry Connick Jr. heard Kelly in a master class on a December afternoon and brought her on stage to sit in with his band that night. This capped an already exceptional end of 2008 in which Kelly's appearance on NPR's Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland was syndicated nationally, the Boston Music Awards declared her the city's Outstanding Jazz Act, and local ABC affiliate WCVB-TV named her one of five Bostonians to Watch in 2009. The 2009 Downbeat Critics Poll added to her list, naming her one of the Alto Saxophone Rising Stars, the youngest ever to be named so. She has numerous other awards to her credit.

To this astonishing list of kudos and credits, Kelly now adds Mood Changes, the fifth release on her PAZZ label. The album mixes six standards with four Kelly originals and features her working quintet (Jason Palmer, trumpet; Doug Johnson, piano; John Lockwood, basses; Jordan Perlson or Terri Lyne Carrington, drums), with guest appearances by guitarist Adam Rogers on two tracks and trombonist Hal Crook on one.

Adventure has been the watchword for the teenaged phenom, who was born Grace Chung on May 15, 1992. (She became Grace Kelly after her mother divorced and remarried and her stepfather, Bob Kelly, legally adopted Grace and her sister Christina.) The strong classical music background of her mother's family led her to begin piano lessons at age six, and she still does much of her composing at the piano as she sings wordlessly. Singing, dancing, writing songs, and theater were also early passions, soon joined by a fascination with the recordings of Stan Getz and other jazz saxophonists that her parents played during Sunday brunches. She began to study the clarinet at her elementary school in the fourth grade, and began private saxophone lessons a few months later. Further inspiration was provided by Ann Hampton Callaway, who detected "the boundless spirit and imagination of a natural artist" when she met Kelly in 2002. Another early champion, middle school music teacher Ken Berman, was so inspired by the pre-teen's playing and writing that he insisted, "you have to record." What followed was her first disc, Dreaming. "The CD release took place on March 17, 2004, when I was 12," she recalls, "and as soon as I walked on stage, I realized that performing was my favorite thing to do."

A growing list of triumphs and testimonials to Kelly's brilliance followed. Times Too (2005), a two-disc set, found her expanding her musical pallet while interpreting such classics as "Isfahan" and "'Round Midnight" with the gravitas of a veteran. The title track of her next disc, Every Road I Walked (2006), garnered the first of her ASCAP Foundation awards and an invitation to perform with the Boston Pops. When conductor Keith Lockhart asked her to play the composition at the concert with just a rhythm section, Kelly countered by suggesting that she write an arrangement for the full orchestra.

Kelly continued to garner accolades from artists she revered, sitting in with the likes of Dave Brubeck, Frank Morgan, and Phil Woods. ("I gave her my hat, that's how good she sounded," Woods enthused. "She's the first alto player to get one.") Perhaps her most intensive connection has been with Lee Konitz, who Kelly has studied with for the past three years. "The biggest lesson that Lee taught me has been spontaneity, from day one," she emphasizes, while Konitz has referred to Kelly as "all ears and all heart." Kelly asked Konitz to guest on two tracks for her fourth album, an invitation that led to the joint composition "GRACEfulLEE" and an entire disc of the same name. GRACEfulLEE, with the all-star support of guitarist Russell Malone, bassist Rufus Reid, and drummer Matt Wilson, garnered a rare four-and-a-half-star review in Down Beat, and has been widely acclaimed as one of the best jazz recordings of 2008.

Kelly received a full scholarship to Berklee and started college at the age of 16. Since age 12 Grace has performed over 500 concerts as a leader all around the world.

A native of Byrdstown, Tennessee, Sierra Hull became well known in bluegrass circles for her skill on guitar and mandolin at age 8, performing on the Grand Ole Opry with Alison Krauss when she was just 11. As a teenager, she joined the Great High Mountain tour with Krauss, Ralph Stanley, and others. At 16 she released her debut album, Secrets, coproduced by Ron Block of Alison Krauss and Union Station. Her follow up, Daybreak, was coproduced by Barry Bales. She's a recipient of Berklee's presidential scholarship and has performed in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the National Prayer Breakfast.

Mark Whitfield Jr. was born in Brooklyn. The son of two musicians, his early years were filled with music and he began playing the drums at an unusually early age. At the age of 2, Whitfield made his first concert appearance at the Varsity Theater at Louisiana State University as a guest drummer with his father, guitarist Mark Whitfield and legendary clarinetist Alvin Batiste. The story of his prodigious talent began to spread as his musical abilities continued to develop and at age 4 he appeared with his father's quartet on the Good Morning America 1994 Thanksgiving Day broadcast. The performance was so successful that it led to several subsequent TV appearances, including a CNN lifestyle piece, a full feature with Dr. Billy Taylor for his CBS Sunday Morning jazz segment, and a follow-up appearance on the Good Morning America 1995 Thanksgiving Day broadcast with his dad's group.

In 2001, Mark Jr. and his younger brother Davis returned to the New York area to live with their father and attend school in Jersey City. Whitfield continued to perform with his father's group, including a performance at the Iridium in New York as part of the JVC Jazz Festival and occasional appearances at Smoke, another popular jazz club in New York, and performed regularly with three other talented teenagers as part of the Stephen Chaplin Quartet. Since the summer of 2004, they have performed at the prestigious Newport Festival in Rhode Island and appeared as the opening act for Peter Cincotti, Chris Botti, and many others. Their debut CD, Just among Brothers, is a favorite among local jazz fans.

As a junior in high school, just a couple weeks after his 16th birthday, Whitfield was the first participant in the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program under 18 years old. For his performance at Jazz Ahead the following June Whitfield was invited to participate in Ravinia at the Steans Institute for the Arts, under the instruction of Nathan Davis, David Baker, Rufus Reid, and James Moody.

That same summer, Whitfield attended the Berklee Five-Week Summer Performance Program, where he was rewarded a full-tuition scholarship. Since coming to Berklee, he has worked with jazz greats such as Joe Lovano, Terri Lyne Carrington, Hal Crook, Ralph Peterson, Darren Barrett, and Dave Santoro. He is also a member of the Roy Guzman Quintet, which played at the Newport, Duke Ellington, and Monterey jazz festivals representing Berklee. Since then, Whitfield has gone on to be a member of the inaugural class of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute and perform at other jazz festivals around the world, such as the Vitoria Jazz Festival and Summertime Jazz Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Chasing Blue came together in the fall of '08 through a bluegrass ensemble at Berklee. Band members hail from across the United States and Canada, and now reside in Boston, and gig heavily in the New England festival circuit. Chasing Blue plays a mix of original and traditional bluegrass material with unique arrangements and hard-driving style. Original material holds true to the bluegrass tradition but strong lyrical ideas and progressive musical ideas make the Chasing Blue sound.

The band has played at the following notable venues: Joe Val Bluegrass Festival (Massachusetts), Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival (New York), Podunk Bluegrass Festival (Connecticut), Laurie Blue Bluegrass Festival (Prince Edward Island, Canada), FOX News Austin (Texas), KUT Folkways Radio (Texas), Berklee's International Folk Festival (Massachusetts), The Music Barn (New Brunswick, Canada) and a Sponsored Showcase at the International Bluegrass Music Awards (Tennessee).

Julia Easterlin is a vocalist, songwriter, and performer from Augusta, Georgia. As a secondary student, Easterlin attended Davidson Fine Arts School where she received training in dance, classical piano, acting, and visual arts, until commiting to studies as a vocalist and performing musician in 2005.

Since then, Easterlin's talents as a performer and songwriter have been recognized by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, the Gibson/Baldwin Grammy Jazz Ensembles, DownBeat, the John Lennon Foundation, and the New York Songwriters Circle.

In 2007, Easterlin was awarded a full-tuition merit scholarship to attend Berklee, where she has been a featured performer on the student-run Heavy Rotation Records record label for two consecutive years and served as the vocalist for the InterArts Ensemble's pioneer project in Havana, Cuba in 2010. This is Easterlin's second year representing Berklee in the Summer Concert Series.

This Boston rock band is just entering its sophomore year on the scene and already making a splash with a live DVD and new record. Think equal parts Radiohead, Incubus, and Mute Math, and you're halfway there. These are songs about overcoming and succumbing to boundaries; songs that will make you hum and say "hmm."

And if you've been club hopping in the New England area anytime in the past year, you know the second part of the Foxtrot story: they're a dangerously entertaining live band that has a penchant for startling live effects and a unforgettable light show. The members have previously played the Warped Tour, Carnegie Hall, CBGBs, Port City Music Hall, Berklee Performance Center, and the Ruins at the Colosseum.

Boston-based Green Line Inbound creates the freshest of beats brought to you on the regular. With swagger-like p-funk and a glam only found in the movie Spice World, Green Line Inbound delivers to you a booty-shaking dance-gasm you’ll never forget.

Born and Raised in London, Ontario, Ken Yates holds true to his roots as a Canadian singer-songwriter by following the influence of such folk stars as Neil Young. Self described first and foremost as a guitar player, Yates reaches out to his fans by crafting rhythmic guitar arrangements blended seamlessly with melodies that transport his listeners into the world of his lyrics. A recent graduate of Berklee, his debut CD, The Backseat EP has been grabbing the attention of listeners worldwide, most notably from John Mayer, who recently blogged about the up-and-coming singer-songwriter's song "I Don't Wanna Fall In Love."

San Francisco Bay Area native Mario Jose has been singing and performing since he was just a little guy. Jose is 21 years old and recently graduated from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. There is no doubt about it—this boy was born to entertain.

After graduating high school in 2006, Jose headed to Southern California to attend Fullerton College, where he attained a solid base of classical and jazz vocal techniques while studying under Brandon Brack, Jamie Shew, and John Tebay, and performing in venues ranging from the Orange County Performing Arts Center to Knotts Berry Farm.

At Berklee, Jose performed all over Boston. He was in Pitch Slapped, a student-run a cappella group that won the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella contest this spring. He also performed in numerous big-stage shows at the college including Berklee's Pop/Rock Showcase; Shining Stars: The Music of Earth, Wind and Fire with special guest Philip Bailey; The Great American Songbook: The Music of Motown; Encore Gala; Berklee Meets Don Was featuring Don Was; and Singers Showcase.

Jose plans to move to Los Angeles to pursue his career. He would like to thank his family, friends, and fans for their undying love and support.

She started taking piano lessons at the age of 11 and voice lessons at the age 14. While attending St. Mary's Diocesan School for Girls in Pretoria for High School, Mia passed the Grade 8 Associated Board of the Royal School of Music (ABRSM) Voice exam with distinction and the same board's Grade 7 piano exam with Merit.

In 2006 she was approached to record an Afrikaans album consisting mainly of covers of classic Afrikaans tunes in a more contemporary and Brazilian style. This was a very exciting venture and it was extremely interesting for her to work with some prominent South African musicians and producers such as Randall Abrahams, Wessel Van Rensburg, Johan Botha, Juan Oosthuizen and Dave Thompson. Upon being accepted into Berklee, she decided to put the album on hold to further her studies and get a degree before the completion and release of the album.

In the same year, she was privileged enough to travel to America on a choir tour organized by her school's choirmaster, Michael Barrett. They visited several towns and cities on the east coast, including Boston, New Canaan, Bethel and New York City. They stayed with generous host families who had high school kids they same age as the touring group, and who were also involved in their school choirs and A cappella groups. They performed typical South African songs and dances, and sang in as many of the country's 11 national languages as the repertoire would allow.

In 2008 she was asked to be one of five adjudicators for the University of Johannesburg's Vocal serenade competition held over three nights at the San Lam Auditorium at the Kingsway Campus of the University of Johannesburg. The competition consisted of 12 male and female dormitories competing against each other for the coveted trophy and title of "Best Vocal Res on Campus".

Before coming to Berklee, Mia focused much of her time in the Pop/Rock genre, as well as Classical set repertoire for the ABRSM exams, but started venturing more into Jazz, Blues and Latin music since attending Berklee. During the Spring semester of 2009, she represented South Africa in the International Folk Festival held in the Berklee Performance Center together with other students also from South Africa, as well as other African countries.

Mia was awarded her first Berklee Achievement based scholarship of $6000 lasting for one academic year at the end of the Spring semester in 2009. Her scholarship was then renewed and increased in March 2010.

In the Fall semester of 2009, she participated in the International Study abroad program organized by Berklee's Office of International Programs held at the Philippos Nakas Conservatory in Athens, Greece. This study abroad program was for the entire duration of the Fall semester (16 weeks) and gave her a wonderful opportunity to broaden her horizons and perspectives through music. She was able to travel throughout Greece, not only with the Greek civilization class, but also by her own accord. In conjunction with Berklee credited courses such as Counterpoint 1, Conducting 1 and Private Lessons, she was able to take the Modern Greek Language and Crossroads of Greek Rhythms and Sound as Liberal Arts electives, which proved to be very beneficial and enriching.

In the summer semester of 2010, Mia went back to South Africa to Intern for Sony Music SA as well as Warner Music Gallo Africa during the FIFA 2010 Soccer World Cup period. Here, she got to meet the legendary trumpet player, Hugh Masekela, and was asked to have a radio interview on one of South Africa's most popular radio stations, Jozi FM. During this period, she also had two very successful sold out performances in which she launched her first EP "What's Happening".

Mia has been involved in several upper semester students' projects in terms of recordings and performances and is currently a contributing member of Berklee's Music Business Journal. She has been on the Berklee College of Music Dean's List for five semesters in a row. 

NOTE: This event has been canceled due to weather warnings.

At the age of 5, instead of getting a clarinet—they were sold-out at the local music store—Sasho Zver got his first guitar and has had it in hand ever since, performing his first gig at the age of 9. His career spans over 20 years and includes performances in his native land of Slovenia as well as internationally in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Hungary, to name a few.

In 2007, Zver performed at the famous Chet Atkins Appreciation Society convention in Nashville, where he became friends with some of the best pickers in the world. Soon after, he moved to the States to pursue his career as a guitar player and singer-songwriter.

Zver is a recent graduate from Berklee College of Music with a major in guitar and mandolin performance. Under the guidance of guitar greats such as Larry Baione, Guy Van Duser, Mick Goodrick, and Joe Rogers, Zver achieved new heights in his acoustic guitar fingerstyle playing. "Very inventive" was the term used most by his teacher and friend John McGann.

He has released two albums of acoustic guitar instrumentals so far, with a third one in the making that will feature Zver's original songs with a full band. He continues to perform around the New England area and is involved with the Raising the Blues charitable organization as a performer, music instructor, and public speaker.

The best way to experience Zver's music is to catch him live. Every show he plays is filled with the energy of rock 'n' roll and the tenderness of a soul ballad. An array of emotions!

NOTE: This event has been canceled due to weather warnings.

Emerging artist Katrina Bello is a Nigerian-American soul/R&B vocalist and songwriter from the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Bello performed from a young age in school choirs, and her talents were recognized by her community after she won several local talent shows, including the 2000 Flowers High School talent show, and received the 2005 Washington Post Music and Dance Scholarship Award. At the age of 16, Bello started to participate in the writing process while in the studio, and it took off from there.

After high school, Bello went on to study nursing at the University of Pittsburgh while pursuing music on the side. In 2007, SlicethePie.com awarded Bello a prize to create her debut album.

In 2008, Bello attended a Berklee summer workshop entitled It's All in the Song: Writing, Production, and the Business of Music. Here she penned a song with Kevin Lavitt that unexpectedly led to her receiving a scholarship from Berklee. This was just the push she needed to focus on music full-time.

Entering her senior year at Berklee, Bello is preparing to make her mark. Songwriting sparked an interest in music publishing, which led to her focus on music business/management as a major at Berklee. Ultimately, Bello says she would like to write for artists in almost every genre. Her main goal is to be versatile while protecting the art of songwriting. She equates songwriting to storytelling. She recently digitally released her first EP  entitled The Boiling Point and is continuing to hone her craft and artistry. 

NOTE: This event has been canceled due to weather warnings. Troy Cartwright is a singer-songwriter out of Dallas, Texas who has a passion for writing songs and using his talents to captivate any audience. At age 21, he has already played for crowds of more than 15,000 and doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon.

Italo Cunha is a jazz guitarist/composer/arranger/student/teacher. Born and raised in Brazil, this Berklee student started playing piano at age 4 and guitar at 9. By 12, Cunha was performing professionally with local musicians. Check out Cunh'a MySpace page. 

Saxophonist Jesse Scheinin is looking for something new. Music that sounds and feels like 2010, but that has the energy and spontaneity of '60s jazz—Sigur Ros meets Coltrane—is the goal. His songs are about dreams, adventures, and growing up. Inspired by the magical realism of authors Gabriel García Márquez, Haruki Murakami, and Jorge Luis Borges, they try to bring listeners into a state of fantasy. Having been mentored by Joshua Redman, Danilo Perez, and Billy Harper, Scheinin is completing his studies at Berklee.

At 21, he has performed with many top artists, including Jack DeJohnette, Matt Wilson, and Louie Bellson, and has already led his band at venues like the San Francisco Jazz Festival, Yoshi's Jazz Club, Chris's Jazz Café, the San Jose Jazz Festival, Club Passim, and the Kuumbwa Jazz Center. A Jesse Scheinin Band show is an event: big energy, big melodies, and total spontaneity. It's serene and raw and filled with theatricality; it's electric.

The Jazz Tellers comprises Berklee seventh-semester students Clay Lyons (alto sax), Lee Dynes (guitar), and Nate Wong (drums). Lyons and Dynes hold full-tuition scholarships and Wong is a World Scholarship Tour recipient.

During their young careers, the individual members of this group have already played many professional gigs and received awards and scholarship including awards from the IAJE, NASCAP, IMEA, and Berklee. Over the summer of 2010 the Jazz Tellers brought their energy-packed, spontaneous improvisations, and intricate originals to audiences around the world in a tour that spanned Ohio, Wisconsin, California, Hong Kong, and China. On this tour they performed more than 30 engagements in two months, including many club and concert hall dates, live radio performances, and live TV performances, and were written about in major newspapers at every stop of the tour.

The Zac Zinger Group is a quartet made up of four progressive jazz musicians with a passion for exploring new music in ways that challenge both the musicians and the listener. Formed in 2007, signed to Jazz Revelation Records in 2009 and 2011, and a featured band at the 2010 Falmouth Jazz Festival, the Group is influenced by elements of jazz, soul, funk, gospel, fusion, and R&B, but does not quite fit into one specific genre.

Composer/saxophonist/EWI player Zac Zinger is a 2011 graduate the Berklee College of Music. Born and raised just outside of Pittsburgh, he picked up the saxophone at age 9 and has since received a number of awards, including the Herb Pomeroy Award two times, the Pittsburgh Jazz Society Award for Musical Excellence, the Irene S. and Harry Louik Theatre Arts Award, and the Melville Alexander Eberhardt Award. He has performed in 10 countries and written and had performed works for ensembles ranging in size from jazz quartets to a 90-piece orchestra. Zinger currently writes music for movies and video games, as well as all of the music in the ZZG repertoire.

Zinger is joined by virtuoso Puerto Rican pianist Abraham Olivo, a veteran of the Monterey Jazz Festival who has played with the likes of Floetry, Chaka Kahn, and Hugh Masekela; bassist Kellan Thomas, a full scholarship recipient and graduate of the Berklee College of Music; and drummer Alex Melcher, a 2010 recipient of the Steve Gadd Award. Together ZZG boasts a fresh contemporary sound that has been compared to artists as prominent as the Yellowjackets, Michael Brecker, and David Sanborn.

Christian Li is a jazz pianist from Horseheads, New York. He has won several Down Beat Student Music Awards and has attended highly selective programs, including the Skidmore Jazz Institute, the Brubeck Institute Summer Jazz Colony, and the Vail Jazz Workshop. Li was the New York State All-State Instrumental Jazz Band pianist for 2006 and 2007 and the New York State Band Directors Association Honors Jazz Band pianist in 2006.

In 2008, he received a full-tuition scholarship to attend Berklee. There he studies privately with JoAnne Brackeen and Ed Bedner and has had the opportunity of working with Jack DeJohnette, Danilo Perez, and Terri Lyne Carrington, among others. Li has also worked with the Cornell University and Ithaca College big bands and played solo piano at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

Concetta Donato appeared as jazz musician and composer in the TV shows Jazz Life (RED TV, Rome, 2008), Jazz Life 2 (Rome, 2009), and Smart Time (Sicily, 2009). Her first CD as a band leader is entitled Pristine and contains her own compositions and arrangements. She received many positive reviews from JazzIt, Musica Jazz, Jazz Magazine, All About Jazz, JazzItalia, Sentire Ascoltare, SoundContest, A Proposito di Jazz, and L'Isola Che Non C'Era.

Donato taught musical education and classical and jazz piano in public and private schools in Italy before earning a scholarship to Berklee. She graduates in May.

Originally from the Dominican Republic, Angel Wagner began his career playing with a cheese grater and fork. At age 11, he went on professional tour with a merengue band, later performing in Miami and at Madison Square Garden in New York. Warner has performed with such groups as Aramis Camilo, Orquestra Cafe, Luis Ovalles, and Manguito. Wagner formed Grupo Fantasia in 1993, with musicians from all around the world. Over the years, Fantasia has performed at the Calle Ocho festival in Miami, as well as touring extensively throughout the Northeast. Wagner's performances include a multitude of schools, universities, colleges, fundraisers, private functions, and musical galas, affording him to team up with the most exclusive event coordinators and party planners in New England.

Wagner provides traditional island entertainment for all people and much of the music is performed on original, handmade indigenous  instruments. The extensive repertoire includes original and cover songs from the Caribbean and Latin America. Also represented are various Cuban, Dominican merengue, Puerto Rican vomba and plena, Colombian cumbia, Mexican mariachi, calypso, reggae and salsa music.

Some of Wagner's performances include, the Lowell Folk Life Center, Museum of Fine Arts, the Concord Museum, the Museum of Science, the De Cordova Museum, Castle Hill, and the Boston Children's Museum. In July of 1996 he performed on the State House steps for the passing of the Olympic Torch in Providence, Rhode Island. Wagner was honored on two occasions in 1998 by performing for President Clinton and Mrs. Clinton. In 2008 Grupo Fantasia was honored by performing the 76th birthday party for Senator Ted Kennedy at his Hyannisport compound.

Fantasia has won many awards in Latin categories, including Boston's prestigious 1993 Expose Award for Best Spanish Band (1993), runner-up in the Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce Award for Education (1999) and the 2003 Boston Music Award Nominee for Best World Class Act. Grupo Fantasia was the 2009 winner of the New England Urban Music Award for Best Latin Band. 
Wagner has filmed television programs including:  for WUNI 27, PBS programs and Mosaic for WLVI TV 56 in Boston. Film credits include The Blue Diner (2001) and My Best Friend's Girl, (2008) starring Kate Hudson and Dane Cook.

The Grupo Fantasia concert is hosted by the Hyde Square Task Force.

Grammy winner Henry Jimenez was born in Puerto Rico to Dominican parents and was introduced to music at an early age. After growing up with music, he had the motivation and opportunity to attend Berklee College of Music. After graduating, he became a member of the Grammy Awards New York Chapter Latin Advisory Committee and has produced many chart-topping merengue hits and jingles. Some of the hit records he has produced have been for Milly Quezada, Olga Tañon, Toño R., Hector Acosta, Elvis Crespo, and Johnny Ventura.

Some awards he has won with his talent are:

• 1998, Arranger of the Year, Premios Estrella
• 2000, Grammy for Olga Tañon's Olga Viva, Viva Olga
  
• 2006, two Latin Grammys for Milly Quezada's MQ

The Henry Jimenez y Los Homeboys concert is hosted by Sociedad Latina and Boston Centers for Youth and Families.

Ray González is a musician dedicated mind, body, and soul to the creation of salsa and Latin jazz. González has over 35 years of experience in the performing arts as a professional musician, arranger, composer, and conductor.

A renowned musician and Latin music pioneer in Connecticut, he was born in Gurabo, Puerto Rico. He attended the Conservatory of Music and the University of Puerto Rico. The Caribbean, South America, and the United States have all been his laboratory of experience. González has played and recorded with international musicians such as Tito Puente, Charlie Palmieri, Kako, Giovanni Hidalgo, Charlie Sepúlveda, Ismael Rivera, Ray de La Paz, the Puerto Rican Power Orchestra, and many others. In November 2006, González presented his latest salsa CD production, Yo Tengo Lo Que Te Gusta. The production was warmly received by the public and the music critics and was pre-nominated for a Latin Grammy.

Over the years González has held the position of music director at numerous institutions, including the University of Turabo, the Hartford Arts Festival, and the International Latin American Voice and Song Festival. González is music director of Guakia, Inc. and founder of Guakibomjazz, a Latin jazz youth orchestra.

González has been commissioned to compose music for the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed in collaboration with the symphonies for many projects, such as Music of the Americas, Serenata Latina, Fiesta Latina, and others. He has received special honors, awards, and recognitions from many political institutions and community entities, including Connecticut's former Governor William O'Neill, Southern Connecticut State University, the Hispanic Health Council, the University of Connecticut, the Hispanic Professional Network, and Mi Casa, among others. Hartford mayor Eddie Pérez and the Court of Common Council proclaimed May 2, 2004 as Ray González Day in the City of Hartford. The Connecticut State Senate and the House of Representatives also issued an official citation in recognition of González for his contribution to Latin Music and his dedication to youth education.

In 2007, Guakía, Inc. created the Ray González Latin Jazz and Salsa Festival, an annual event to honor the pioneering work of Ray González in Connecticut. Hartford mayor Eddie Pérez officiated the ribbon-cutting ceremony. The festival's mission is to heal with music the soul of the community and nourish its yearning for music of excellence. The festival features some of the most talented international artists in Latin jazz and salsa, such as Luis Marín, Paoli Mejías, Jerry Medina, Charlie Sepúlveda, Miguel "Meñique" Barcasnegras, and Edwin Clemente. It is a call to jazz and salsa lovers of all nationalities.

The Ray Gonzalez concert is hosted by Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA).

Cinco Son, led by Berklee alumnus Pablo Bencid, is a musical project that joins the talents of some of the finest musicians in the New England Latin music scene. The music of Cinco Son ranges from Latin jazz to fiery old-school salsa classics, from funk-infused timba to reggae renditions of salsa classics.

Dominican percussionist and singer Vicente Lebrón (congas and vocals) is an institution in the region's musical scene, with a career spanning more than two decades. He has performed with some of the finest Latin music luminaries, including La Lupe and Celia Cruz and the best salsa bands in New England. For over a decade Lebrón has been performing all over the world with the acclaimed Either Orchestra.

Drummer extraordinaire Pablo Bencid from Venezuela has an extensive and impressive career from his early days as a drummer for the best reggae, rock, and punk bands in Caracas to his international performances with the classical music sensation Labèque Sisters and the Either Orchestra.

Keyboardist Matt Jenson is a mainstay in the New England music scene, having performed with the top blues, jazz, funk, and reggae acts in the region, including the legendary Ronnie Earl, Johnny Adams, and Mighty Sam McClain. His passion for Latin music has made him a sought-after pianist in the Latin music scene. He also leads his own ensembles, Combo Sabroso (old-school salsa) and Rebel Tumbao (reggae and salsa).

Venezuelan trombone virtuoso Angel Subero is a uniquely versatile musician, working on the classical music front with the likes of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops, as well as with the top salsa and Latin jazz ensembles in New England. He tours internationally on a regular basis and performs in the region's most important venues. 

Singer and bassist Alex Alvear from Ecuador is a driving force in the promotion of Latin culture as a promoter, as well as a very active musician in the region. In addition to having performed and toured with artists such as Paquito D'Rivera, Orlando "Puntilla" Ríos, Celia Cruz, and Cachao, to name a few, he is the leader of the critically-acclaimed ensembles Mango Blue (Afro-Latin funk) and Equatorial (new Ecuadorian music).

Since the birth of the group it has made Salsa Sundays a memorable night at the Beehive.

The Cinco Son concert is hosted by Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA).

Luques Curtis has performed bass professionally from a very young age and earned a full scholarship to Berklee. He and his brother have led their own band for six years and recently released their third album on Truth Revolution Records.

Now living in New York, Curtis has been performing with artists such as Stefon Harris, Donald Harrison, Brian Lynch, Eddie Palmieri, and Ralph Peterson. He appears on a number of recordings, including Gary Burton's Next Generations (Concord), Dave Valentine's Come Fly with Me, Sean Jones's Kaleidoscope, and Christian Scott's Rewind That.

The Curtis Brothers concert is hosted by Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA).

Ritmo Masacote is a 12-piece salsa, timba, and Latin jazz orchestra composed of some of Berklee's most talented students/alumni and Boston's finest musicians. The orchestra was created with the purpose of bridging the growing divide between the music and dance genres. This young, charismatic cast produces commanding presentations full of life, spirit, and energy.

Ritmo Masacote was founded out of Boston in 2006 by composer/pianist Joel Massicot. He earned the alias Masacote in 1998 as an introduction into his piano solos while playing in Washington, D.C. In Cuban slang, "masacote" specifically refers to the rhythm created by combining the basic percussive instruments in salsa/mambo (the congas, guiro, timbales, clave, and bongo). More generally, this term refers to the design of merging various elements.

With this design in mind, Masacote set about creating an ensemble that would serve to merge various components of music and dance, shaping the perception of Latin music today. Often coupled on stage with the Masacote Dance Company, the ensemble is cultivating an international appreciation and demand for danceable and captivating band performances.

Ritmo Masacote's reach extends internationally as far as Australia, China, Japan, Singapore, Turkey, Germany, Lithuania, Colombia, Brazil, and across North America. The ensemble's music can be found on motion pictures, instructional DVDs, and major radio stations and satellite radio both nationally and internationally. Everyone can relate to the orchestra's unique compositions and arrangements with focused directions in timba, salsa, and Latin jazz grounded in Cuban roots.With two critically acclaimed Latin jazz albums to its credit, Ritmo Masacote is working to deliver its first salsa/timba-focused album for its growing fan base around the globe. This third release is scheduled for 2011.

The Ritmo Masacote concert is hosted by Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

Milly Quezada, better known internationally as "the Queen of Merengue," was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Her parents and four siblings immigrated to New York during the early '70s, where she graduated from City College of New York with a degree in communications and mass media.

Quezada's musical inclinations manifested in the streets of her community, Washington Heights, and she, along with her siblings and soon-to-be husband Rafael Vásquez, formed the group Milly Jocelyn and Los Vecinos in 1975. The group during the '70s and '80s made musical history with international hits such as "La Guacherna," "Volvio Juanita," and "Tengo."  Los Vecinos's unique style—female vocalists performing the male-dominated rhythm of merengue—earned the band a rightful place in Dominican Republic's musical history.

The elegance and style of its stage performances took Los Vecinos on a worldwide tour that made the act a "first" on many levels. The band was the first in performing live merengue in Tokyo in 1990 and 1992, and the first Dominican orchestra to perform in a United States inaugural gala—that of George Bush in 1990.

The passing away in 1996 of her husband, producer, and orchestra manager Vásquez marked the turning point of Quezada's life. Her solo career has produced multiple career achievements and recognitions both nationally and internationally. Her impressive discography includes 28 productions recorded under various labels.

Quezada's 2006 Best Merengue Album Latin Grammy Award for MQ heads an impressive list of awards. She has received multiple Casandra Awards, including the most-coveted Soberano Award—the highest category in this Dominican annual event that honors its own. Other awards include the 2003 Latin Grammy Award for her album Pienso Asi; multiple Billboard and Premio Lo Nuestro awards from Univision; ACE and Globo awards in New York; and a special recognition from the senate of Puerto Rico for more than two decades of distinguished musical accomplishments in La Isla del Encanto. The New York City mayor's office dedicated November 8 as Milly Quezada Day in honor of her major contributions to the Latin music industry.

The Milly Quezada concert is hosted by Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

La Cumbiamba eNeYé is an ensemble that performs concerts and workshops with traditional instruments from the African diaspora in Colombia, as well as indigenous and European, all of which are blended together in the traditional musical styles that developed throughout the colonial era, and continue to evolve. The group has the versatility to perform in a quintet format, for reduced-space events, or a 10-piece band format for large events.

La Cumbiamba eNeYé was created in the summer of 2000 by a group of musicians who share an enthusiasm for investigating, performing, and advancing musical expressions emanating from the mix of African, Native Indian, and European cultural contributions in the Americas. Initially, La Cumbiamba eNeYé began performing a repertoire of cumbia-related rhythms outdoors in different public areas of New York. The group adopted "cumbiamba" from the cultural vocabulary of the northwestern Caribbean coast in South America. In Colombia, "cumbiamba" is a familiar word, carrying the meaning of an outdoors celebration with live cumbia music, or the bands that perform in such events. La Cumbiamba eNeYé evokes this lively atmosphere with every performance and has also extended them into different cultural venues throughout the city and beyond. 

La Cumbiamba eNeYé's musical work and development is shaped by traditional styles that emanate from the popular coastal traditions in which music is just one of the various artistic manifestations. The group takes coastal music as a departing point and source of material not only because of the musical background of some of the members, but because coastal traditions in Colombia, as in other regions of the Caribbean, are inexhaustible fountains of artistic traditions.

La Cumbiamba eNeYé's approach to music is investigative. However, from the styles, genres, rhythms, and melodies explored, the group is inspired to create new arrangements and even entirely new compositions that, although traditional influenced, may have eclectic characteristics in texture, harmony, or rhythm. This aspect of La Cumbiamba eNeYé can be seen as the result of being a New York–born and –based group, where interactions and continuous contact with musicians from different places around the world generate new possibilities.

The La Cumbiamba eNeYé concert is hosted by ZUMIX.

Born in Colorado, Cameron Galpin spent much of his early childhood traveling around the world with his family. With two British Beatles fans for parents, it isn't surprising that he naturally fell in love with the art of the song. Trapped on various trains planes and automobiles, he had plenty of time to listen. He received his first guitar at 16 and began taking weekly lessons. By 18, he had produced his first full-length album of original material. At 19 he was awarded a scholarship to Berklee.

Upon arriving at Berklee, Galpin found himself drawn into a network of talented musicians who loved nothing more than sharing their ideas and supporting each other's musical visions. Carving out a style reflecting influences from John Mayer, D'Angelo, and the Band, he set out to record his first EP of more of his original music. By 2010, his 10-piece band finished the EP, complete with a five-piece horn section. Over the past seven semesters, he spent his time studying and playing with great instrumentalists such as Jamie Haddad, Julian Lage, and David Grisman, saturating his style with a mix of jazz, bluegrass, funk, and soul. He currently lives and performs in Boston while completing his degree at Berklee.

Kelly Bartley is a singer-songwriter from Santiago, Chile. With influences like Kris Kristofferson and Hank Williams, Bartley's music can be described as Americana/country. Her band, Kelly and the Hermanos, is recording its first album. She has recorded with Grammy-winning producer, John D. Thomas, and with Bill King in a tribute to Bob Dylan.

Mandolinist Eric Robertson attended high school at the Weaver Academy for the Performing and Visual Arts in Greensboro, North Carolina and recently graduated from Berklee. At Berklee, he developed his passion for songwriting and mandolin playing, and in his explorations found connections between R&B and country music. Robertson’s love of performing resulted in the formation of his band, the Boston Boys.

In addition to touring internationally with various folk, traditional, and world music projects, Robertson collaborates with rising singer-songwriters Emily Elbert, Tubby Love, and Jenna Belle. Robertson’s debut album is entitled Listen and is available on iTunes.

Saxophonist Jesse Scheinin is looking for something new. Music that sounds and feels like 2010, but that has the energy and spontaneity of '60s jazz—Sigur Ros meets Coltrane—is the goal. His songs are about dreams, adventures, and growing up. Inspired by the magical realism of authors Gabriel García Márquez, Haruki Murakami, and Jorge Luis Borges, they try to bring listeners into a state of fantasy. Having been mentored by Joshua Redman, Danilo Perez, and Billy Harper, Scheinin is completing his studies at Berklee.

At 21, he has performed with many top artists, including Jack DeJohnette, Matt Wilson, and Louie Bellson, and has already led his band at venues like the San Francisco Jazz Festival, Yoshi's Jazz Club, Chris's Jazz Café, the San Jose Jazz Festival, Club Passim, and the Kuumbwa Jazz Center. A Jesse Scheinin Band show is an event: big energy, big melodies, and total spontaneity. It's serene and raw and filled with theatricality; it's electric.

Hailing from Minneapolis, Adrianne Lenker is an authentic and passionate singer, songwriter, and performer. Her debut CD, Stages of the Sun, produced by Steve Hodge (Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Sting), was released on LucidTunes when Lenker was only 14. The title cut was a top 5 finalist for song of the year in the 2005 Independent Music Awards in the Singer/Songwriter category. "My Bliss" was a finalist in the 2005 International Songwriting Competition. Four tracks from the album were featured on MTV's The Hills in 2007 and 2008.

Lenker's follow-up CD/DVD, Live at the Southern, was recorded just before her 15th birthday at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis. Her third release, Then the Rain Came, was released in 2009.

While studying classical music, guitarist Noe Socha began to privately study jazz and blues guitar with Enrico Zanella. Between 2004 and 2006 he participated in various acoustic guitar workshops and deepened his finger-picking method with Franco Morone and Walter Lupi. In 2008 he participated in a Berklee seminar at Umbria Jazz and was selected as part of an ensemble to open Umbria Jazz Winter in Orvieto.

Noe then won a scholarship to attend Berklee's Five-Week Summer Performance Program. During the five weeks of study he won Guitar Showcase, was selected out of 200 guitarists to open the final concert at the Berklee Performance Center, and won a full-tuition scholarship to continue his studies at Berklee. 

Arooj Aftab innovates off classical sufi music for a sound that is fresh, graceful, and musically complex. To her subtle, intricate, dynamic vocals grounded in an ancient mystical tradition is added acoustic guitar, drum, and bass. This is music that moves you to peace, to inspiration, to embrace the divine.

"Aftab's ethereal voice swirls and dives in the delicate, complicated motions of her country's long musical heritage, and the young musician merges sonic palettes with natural grace." —Boston Globe

Nick Susi is a multi-instrumentalist raised by music teacher parents in Connecticut. He blends classical and jazz music with traditional songwriting. Through his studies at Berklee, he has had the good fortune to collaborate and share the stage with brilliant musicians and writers from all around the world. He is fond of rich soundscapes and visceral lyrics that inspire goosebumps. For him, nothing is more important than art for the sake of art.

Hailing from the U.K. and Canada, Boston-based singer-songwriter Tamsin Wilson pulls from the warm folk sounds of Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake, with a dash of Feist, to create a welcoming ambiance and heartfelt, sweet-tongued songs.

"Wilson's voice is crystal-clear and perfect, with enough edge to her alt-folk pop songs to keep it from being too commercial or saccharine. With her coquettish glances at the crowd and knowing twinkle in her eye, she is nothing short of captivating." —Rachel Clare, Amelia's Magazine  

Troy Cartwright is a singer-songwriter out of Dallas, Texas who has a passion for writing songs and using his talents to captivate any audience. At age 21, he has already played for crowds of more than 15,000 and doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon.

Pianist Caili O'Doherty, 19, is currently a sophomore at Berklee College, studying jazz performance on a full scholarship. She began studying classical piano at age 5 and discovered her love for jazz at 11, when she transferred to an arts school in Beaverton, Oregon, called ACMA. As part of the school's award-winning jazz band, she played twice at the Monterey jazz festival and at Jazz at Lincoln Center while still in middle school. In addition to festival soloist awards and All-State jazz band awards, O'Doherty has won two Down Beat Student Music Awards for jazz piano performance and composition.

In 2008, she was a Grammy band finalist and was selected for the Berklee Five-Week Summer Jazz Workshop band led by Terri Lyne Carrington and Rick DiMuzio. She was honored to receive a 2009 ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer Award for her song "Padme." During the summer, in addition to gigs and private piano lessons, O'Doherty taught piano to 8–17 year olds at Willowbrook Arts Camp. Last May, she was selected as one of five female jazz pianists to participate in the inaugural 2010 Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Emerging Artists Workshop held at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and to perform at a showcase concert at the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival.

Tubby Love and Eric Robertson come from very different musical roots
grown in the same soul. The idea of a collaboration stemmed from
their mutual appreciation for good songs without regard to style or
genre. The young duo will be teaming up to create a fresh breed of
earthy acoustic sounds and touring hard to promote the new project.

il abanico is a native Colombian duo, formed in 2010 by Juliana Ronderos (vocals) and Nicolás Losada (guitar). With extremely different tastes in music and similar personalities, they started writing songs and experimenting with new sounds and compositions.

The band includes members from places as diverse as Peru, Japan, and Argentina. In December 2010 they recorded their EP, Crossing Colors, at Studio G in Brooklyn. They now perform around the Boston area and have played in venues such as the Paradise and the House of Blues. Rapidly growing on a greater audience, il abanico brings a fresh proposal of music influenced by alternative, experimental, and pop music. Their music has been described as "a weaving tapestry of textures and sounds" by the Hurdy Gurdy. 

Everybody's mother is somebody's daughter, brother. Dig? Sons of Daughters features Berklee alumni Devin Drobka and Aaron Darrell as well as New School for Jazz alumnus and John Coltrane Foundation scholarship winner Patrick Breiner.

The members of this trio have performed with Jerry Bergonzi, Joe Lovano, Tony Malaby, Greg Osby, Ches Smith, Becca Stevens, and Dave Stryker, among others. They tour the East Coast and Midwest regularly and collectively have graced the stages of Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Yoshi's, Smalls Jazz Club, the JVC Jazz Festival, and many other stages in the United States and Europe.

Sons of Daughters was born through an unlikely union. Having heard for months of young guns Darrell and Drobka, Breiner traveled from his home in Madison, Wisconsin to Milwaukee in May of 2010 for a one-nighter at the Jazz Estate. He showed up a half-hour late and the band was already knee-deep in an epic performance of "Autumn Leaves." Breiner stepped on stage to take a solo before the rest of the band even realized he had shown up. He didn't meet the bass player and drummer until the set break.

Soon after, Darrell moved to Boston to complete a degree at Berklee and Drobka moved to New York to pursue his dream of becoming a failed actor turned singing waiter on rollerskates in midtown (done aaaaand. . . done). Breiner stayed put in Madison where he continued to undermine the lounge jazz scene one gig at a time.

This trio of brilliant young improvisers plays incendiary originals and reaches deep into the pantheon of jazz classics in order to deliver telepathy-laced shang-a-lang that transcends its geographical limitations.

Raised in Texas on a musical diet of Antonio Carlos Jobim, James Taylor, and '60s radio, Emily Elbert fell in love with guitar when she was 15. Three years later, she released her first album of original music. Now at 22, Elbert has played over 350 shows internationally, from Alaska to Memphis, Austin to New York, as well as Italy, Scotland, Puerto Rico, Saint-Barthélemy, and Peru. Glamour magazine recently named her one of the Top Ten College Women of 2010, and her second album, Proof, was released in September. It features Elbert at her best, with strong melodies, straight-to-the-heart vocals, and intricate guitar work.

In the past few years, Elbert has opened for artists as diverse as Richie Havens, G-Love and Special Sauce, Raul Midon, Jorge Drexler, Janis Ian, Kaki King, Patty Larkin, and Kate Voegele. Fans from around the globe have watched her YouTube videos in droves, including over 300,000 views of her version of Michael Jackson's "Thriller." The Boston Folk Festival notes: "Emily is among the most glowing of the upcoming generation of American singer-songwriters, if 'upcoming' even applies to this phenom any longer."

William F. Wells was born and raised in Sicklerville, New Jersey, just across the water from Philadelphia. He discovered his passion for songwriting and composition early in his high school years, and that same passion was set on fire when he came to the Berklee Five-Week Summer Program in 2005. After graduating high school, Wells entered Berklee for full-time study in the fall of 2007. He has since emerged as a songwriter, composer, arranger, engineer, and musician and has had the opportunity to work with such renowned artists as John Mayer, Wyclef Jean, Bobby McFerrin, and Patrice Rushen.

Some young, unsigned singers might find the prospect of doing a Canada Day gig in front of 30,000 Londoners intimidating. However, most young singers have not lived Kiesza's life. To say she's already had quite a journey is a bit of an understatement. Where do you start? Recently, the Calgary native performed on July 1 in London, along with such high-profile Canuck luminaries as Sarah Harmer, Hawksley Workman, and the Canadian Tenors at the Canada Day celebrations taking place in London's Trafalgar Square. Or if that doesn't grab you, there's her latest quest, to break through in the hyper-competitive New York music scene from her East Coast base as a scholarship student at Berklee. Or, if all that strikes you as too American Idol for words, how about her stint, a half-decade back, as a 17-year-old girl who followed her big brother into the Canadian navy? Let's start there.

"I'm very adventurous," Kiesza says from a studio in Boston, where she's taking a break from recording. "I was that kid who just wanted to try everything . . . and one day, my brother, who didn't know what he wanted to do . . . signed up for the navy. My mom encouraged him. And I was just like, 'I want to sign up for the navy, too!'" Kiesza's mom thought that boot camp would be good for her. It turned out that she also possessed certain talents that caught the eyes of the military brass. "I went to boot camp and ended up winning the top shot," she says. "I became a marksman," she adds. "Some people from the regular (armed) forces-I think some people from the Highlanders in Calgary-offered to link me up with the guy who trained the Canadian who shot the longest shot in history for sniper trainer. But I was like, I don't think killing people appeals to me at all," she says. Rather than pursuing a military career as a sniper, she opted for navy code-breaking, because she had an affinity for Morse code. Is this young woman the next G.I. Jane or the next Lady Gaga? (And we haven't even got room to write about the time she entered the Miss Universe-Canada competition, or met the Queen. . . . )

Suffice to say, Kiesza's days as a young assassin-in-training petered out once she picked up a guitar. And that same day, as an 18-year-old, that she picked up the instrument, she also wrote her first song. Two weeks later, it was played on the radio. A month later, she had a demo tape. All of which sounds pretty breathtaking, but since moving east to study in Boston, Kiesza has discovered that there's a lot of grind behind every overnight success.

All of this comes at a time when she is in the middle of dramatically redefining her sound. She started out as a folk singer, but being exposed to the Berklee music community and the New York scene has driven her toward a more uptempo sound. "It's funny," she adds, "the bigger the crowd, the more at home I am on stage. There's something about the energy of a crowd that I just really feed off ." And besides, if the whole music thing doesn't work out, there's always work for a good sniper.

Julia Easterlin is a vocalist, songwriter, and performer from Augusta, Georgia. As a secondary student, Easterlin attended Davidson Fine Arts School where she received training in dance, classical piano, acting, and visual arts, until commiting to studies as a vocalist and performing musician in 2005.

Since then, Easterlin's talents as a performer and songwriter have been recognized by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, the Gibson/Baldwin Grammy Jazz Ensembles, DownBeat, the John Lennon Foundation, and the New York Songwriters Circle.

In 2007, Easterlin was awarded a full-tuition merit scholarship to attend Berklee, where she has been a featured performer on the student-run Heavy Rotation Records record label for two consecutive years and served as the vocalist for the InterArts Ensemble's pioneer project in Havana, Cuba in 2010. This is Easterlin's second year representing Berklee in the Summer Concert Series.

When it comes to saxophonist, vocalist, composer, lyricist, and arranger Grace Kelly, people seem to be divided into two groups: those who marvel at her proficiency, creativity, and ever-accelerating growth, and those who have yet to encounter the 18-year-old wunderkind. The ranks of the former are growing by the day. Trumpeter and Jazz at Lincoln Center artistic director Wynton Marsalis was so impressed with Kelly's three-night stand as guest of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in November that he invited her to join the ensemble at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater in Washington, D.C. for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day/Inauguration Eve concert. Harry Connick Jr. heard Kelly in a master class on a December afternoon and brought her on stage to sit in with his band that night. This capped an already exceptional end of 2008 in which Kelly's appearance on NPR's Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland was syndicated nationally, the Boston Music Awards declared her the city's Outstanding Jazz Act, and local ABC affiliate WCVB-TV named her one of five Bostonians to Watch in 2009. The 2009 Downbeat Critics Poll added to her list, naming her one of the Alto Saxophone Rising Stars, the youngest ever to be named so. She has numerous other awards to her credit.

To this astonishing list of kudos and credits, Kelly now adds Mood Changes, the fifth release on her PAZZ label. The album mixes six standards with four Kelly originals and features her working quintet (Jason Palmer, trumpet; Doug Johnson, piano; John Lockwood, basses; Jordan Perlson or Terri Lyne Carrington, drums), with guest appearances by guitarist Adam Rogers on two tracks and trombonist Hal Crook on one.

Adventure has been the watchword for the teenaged phenom, who was born Grace Chung on May 15, 1992. (She became Grace Kelly after her mother divorced and remarried and her stepfather, Bob Kelly, legally adopted Grace and her sister Christina.) The strong classical music background of her mother's family led her to begin piano lessons at age six, and she still does much of her composing at the piano as she sings wordlessly. Singing, dancing, writing songs, and theater were also early passions, soon joined by a fascination with the recordings of Stan Getz and other jazz saxophonists that her parents played during Sunday brunches. She began to study the clarinet at her elementary school in the fourth grade, and began private saxophone lessons a few months later. Further inspiration was provided by Ann Hampton Callaway, who detected "the boundless spirit and imagination of a natural artist" when she met Kelly in 2002. Another early champion, middle school music teacher Ken Berman, was so inspired by the pre-teen's playing and writing that he insisted, "you have to record." What followed was her first disc, Dreaming. "The CD release took place on March 17, 2004, when I was 12," she recalls, "and as soon as I walked on stage, I realized that performing was my favorite thing to do."

A growing list of triumphs and testimonials to Kelly's brilliance followed. Times Too (2005), a two-disc set, found her expanding her musical pallet while interpreting such classics as "Isfahan" and "'Round Midnight" with the gravitas of a veteran. The title track of her next disc, Every Road I Walked (2006), garnered the first of her ASCAP Foundation awards and an invitation to perform with the Boston Pops. When conductor Keith Lockhart asked her to play the composition at the concert with just a rhythm section, Kelly countered by suggesting that she write an arrangement for the full orchestra.

Kelly continued to garner accolades from artists she revered, sitting in with the likes of Dave Brubeck, Frank Morgan, and Phil Woods. ("I gave her my hat, that's how good she sounded," Woods enthused. "She's the first alto player to get one.") Perhaps her most intensive connection has been with Lee Konitz, who Kelly has studied with for the past three years. "The biggest lesson that Lee taught me has been spontaneity, from day one," she emphasizes, while Konitz has referred to Kelly as "all ears and all heart." Kelly asked Konitz to guest on two tracks for her fourth album, an invitation that led to the joint composition "GRACEfulLEE" and an entire disc of the same name. GRACEfulLEE, with the all-star support of guitarist Russell Malone, bassist Rufus Reid, and drummer Matt Wilson, garnered a rare four-and-a-half-star review in Down Beat, and has been widely acclaimed as one of the best jazz recordings of 2008.

Kelly received a full scholarship to Berklee and started college at the age of 16. She has already performed over 500 concerts as a leader all around the world.

A native of Byrdstown, Tennessee, Sierra Hull became well known in bluegrass circles for her skill on guitar and mandolin at age 8, performing on the Grand Ole Opry with Alison Krauss when she was just 11. As a teenager, she joined the Great High Mountain tour with Krauss, Ralph Stanley, and others. At 16 she released her debut album, Secrets, coproduced by Ron Block of Alison Krauss and Union Station. Her follow up, Daybreak, was coproduced by Barry Bales. She's a recipient of Berklee's presidential scholarship and has performed in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the National Prayer Breakfast.

Mark Whitfield Jr. was born in Brooklyn. The son of two musicians, his early years were filled with music and he began playing the drums at an unusually early age. At the age of 2, Whitfield made his first concert appearance at the Varsity Theater at Louisiana State University as a guest drummer with his father, guitarist Mark Whitfield and legendary clarinetist Alvin Batiste. The story of his prodigious talent began to spread as his musical abilities continued to develop and at age 4 he appeared with his father's quartet on the Good Morning America 1994 Thanksgiving Day broadcast. The performance was so successful that it led to several subsequent TV appearances, including a CNN lifestyle piece, a full feature with Dr. Billy Taylor for his CBS Sunday Morning jazz segment, and a follow-up appearance on the Good Morning America 1995 Thanksgiving Day broadcast with his dad's group.

In 2001, Mark Jr. and his younger brother Davis returned to the New York area to live with their father and attend school in Jersey City. Whitfield continued to perform with his father's group, including a performance at the Iridium in New York as part of the JVC Jazz Festival and occasional appearances at Smoke, another popular jazz club in New York, and performed regularly with three other talented teenagers as part of the Stephen Chaplin Quartet. Since the summer of 2004, they have performed at the prestigious Newport Festival in Rhode Island and appeared as the opening act for Peter Cincotti, Chris Botti, and many others. Their debut CD, Just among Brothers, is a favorite among local jazz fans.

As a junior in high school, just a couple weeks after his 16th birthday, Whitfield was the first participant in the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program under 18 years old. For his performance at Jazz Ahead the following June Whitfield was invited to participate in Ravinia at the Steans Institute for the Arts, under the instruction of Nathan Davis, David Baker, Rufus Reid, and James Moody.

That same summer, Whitfield attended the Berklee Five-Week Summer Performance Program, where he was rewarded a full-tuition scholarship. Since coming to Berklee, he has worked with jazz greats such as Joe Lovano, Terri Lyne Carrington, Hal Crook, Ralph Peterson, Darren Barrett, and Dave Santoro. He is also a member of the Roy Guzman Quintet, which played at the Newport, Duke Ellington, and Monterey jazz festivals representing Berklee. Since then, Whitfield has gone on to be a member of the inaugural class of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute and perform at other jazz festivals around the world, such as the Vitoria Jazz Festival and Summertime Jazz Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Zac Zinger Group is a quartet made up of four progressive jazz musicians with a passion for exploring new music in ways that challenge both the musicians and the listener. Formed in 2007, signed to Jazz Revelation Records in 2009 and 2011, and a featured band at the 2010 Falmouth Jazz Festival, the Group is influenced by elements of jazz, soul, funk, gospel, fusion, and R&B, but does not quite fit into one specific genre.

Composer/saxophonist/EWI player Zac Zinger is a 2011 graduate of Berklee College of Music. Born and raised just outside of Pittsburgh, he picked up the saxophone at age 9 and has since received a number of awards, including the Herb Pomeroy Award two times, the Pittsburgh Jazz Society Award for Musical Excellence, the Irene S. and Harry Louik Theatre Arts Award, and the Melville Alexander Eberhardt Award. He has performed in 10 countries and written and had performed works for ensembles ranging in size from jazz quartets to a 90-piece orchestra. Zinger currently writes music for movies and video games, as well as all of the music in the ZZG repertoire.

Zinger is joined by virtuoso Puerto Rican pianist Abraham Olivo, a veteran of the Monterey Jazz Festival who has played with the likes of Floetry, Chaka Kahn, and Hugh Masekela; bassist Kellan Thomas, a full scholarship recipient and graduate of the Berklee College of Music; and drummer Alex Melcher, a 2010 recipient of the Steve Gadd Award. Together ZZG boasts a fresh contemporary sound that has been compared to artists as prominent as the Yellowjackets, Michael Brecker, and David Sanborn.

Mark Hadley is a guitarist/composer unconfined by the accepted definitions of genre and continually trying to push the envelope with his music.

Born and raised in Rochester, New York, Hadley began his musical journey with piano and trumpet lessons as a child until getting his first guitar at the age of 11. He played mostly pop/rock music until he began to study jazz with Bob Sneider at Eastman School of Music during high school. Hadley won several local music awards throughout high school and got accepted to Berklee on scholarship his senior year.

At Berklee, Hadley is pursuing a degree in film scoring and performance, and anticipates graduating in 2011. He has had the privilege of studying with incredible musicians such as Mick Goodrick, Tim Miller, Rick Peckham, Hal Crook, Dave Santoro, and David Gilmore in the Performance Division, and also has been very active within the Film Scoring Department. In the spring of 2009, Hadley won the grand prize in Berklee's annual film scoring contest for his original score for the short film "Michael's Rose."

Hadley has performed at numerous venues around the country, from small restaurants like Bistro 135 and the Savant Project to world-renowned venues like the Rochester International Jazz Festival. He leads his own groups, in which he composes the music, and performs around Boston. Outside of his own projects, Hadley also plays guitar as a sideman in several other bands around Boston, ranging from singer-songwriters to jazz to pop/rock. He also performs frequently as a studio musician, on all types of guitars as well as mandolin.

The Jazz Tellers comprises Berklee seventh-semester students Clay Lyons (alto sax), Lee Dynes (guitar), and Nate Wong (drums). Lyons and Dynes hold full-tuition scholarships and Wong is a World Scholarship Tour recipient.

During their young careers, the individual members of this group have already played many professional gigs and received awards and scholarship including awards from the IAJE, NASCAP, IMEA, and Berklee. Over the summer of 2010 the Jazz Tellers brought their energy-packed, spontaneous improvisations and intricate originals to audiences around the world in a tour that spanned Ohio, Wisconsin, California, Hong Kong, and China. On this tour they performed more than 30 engagements in two months, including many club and concert hall dates, live radio performances, and live TV performances, and were written about in major newspapers at every stop of the tour.

Born in Oslo, Norway, Felix Peikli found his way into music through the local marching band at the age of 8. They picked out the instrument, which today seems to have been the perfect choice, a clarinet. Two years later, he received a Benny Goodman recording from his grandfather, and Benny Goodman became the new idol. His first performance was during a jam session at the Oslo Jazz Festival in 2002. Too young to enter the bar, Peikli and his mother argueed their way in. Unaware that celebrities like Joe Lovano were in the audience, he played and was invited back the next day for his first hired gig playing with a visiting band in the Mirror Hall of the Grand Hotel.

Peikli became a student at the Barratt Dues Classical Institute of Norway and studied there with Fredrik Fors from 2004 to 2008. He also was selected to compete won National Dream Prize in 2005. Peikli became a student at Foss Music High School in 2006, and in the same year he won the Grand Chance on national TV. He began playing concerts internationally, including Italy, France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Croatia, and the U.K. He received the Capital of Norway Honors Prize as the youngest recepiant ever in 2007, and the same year he attended Berklee's Five-Week Summer Performance Program. He received a full-tuition scholarship to Berklee in fall 2008 and has had the opportunity to study with Frank Tiberi, Harry Skoler, Terri Lyne Carrington, Leo Blanco, Greg Osby, Hal Crook, and Joe Lovano.

Born in Aarau, Switzerland, Christoph Huber was the son of a professional pianist, composer, and arranger. After starting out with recorder and Swiss melodeon, he began taking lessons on drums at 8 and tenor saxophone at 9 with the Polish saxophonist and clarinetist Witek Kornacki. His first public appearances as an improviser were at the age of 11. From 2004 to 2009 he studied with former Berklee faculty member Fritz Renold and regularly participated in the annual Jazzaar Concerts in Aarau, where he had the opportunity to perform with and learn from artists like Christian Jacob, Buster Williams, Victor Lewis, Adam Nussbaum, Barry Lee Hall Jr., Tommy Smith, Donny McCaslin, Tierney Sutton, Mark Gross, Tia Fuller, the Whitney Houston Rhythm Section, Steve Reid, Tom Garling, Gildas Bocle, and many more. In addition to his practice as a performer, Huber is also developing his skills as a composer and arranger for different musical formations and instrumentations. He's currently attending Berklee on a scholarship, studying with Ed Tomassi.

Often compared to the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, Nadia Washington's style incorporates a fusion of different musical avenues. Her smooth, velvet-cloaked vocals draw in an audience, leaving many feeling quite misty.

Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Washington was surrounded by some of the premier musicians of the area. Of course one in particular would be her mother, Nelda Washington, who took the hotel bar and lounge circuit by storm in the late '80s and early '90s. Being a single parent, Nelda would bring her daughter to studio sessions and some hotel gigs. This was the beginning of her education.

At the age of 5, Washington had her first performance at a church that seated five thousand. This was the start of her passion for performing. As she began to really get serious about her craft, her mother would invite her to sing along with on some gigs. Eventually, Washington began singing with her in studio sessions for clients such as Frito-Lay and McDonald's. She has also been involved in numerous studio sessions with various major recording artists, including David and Tamela Mann of the new television sitcom Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns.

By the time she hit her teenage years, Washington found a new passion: jazz music. At the age of 15, she was accepted to Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, where could learn more about the music that mesmerized her. Attending this school led her to many more opportunities that gave her national recognition: two DownBeat Student Music Awards and an honor from the National Foundation of the Advancement of the Arts. In 2006, she received the Monterey Jazz Festival Outstanding Jazz Vocalist award and participated in the Grammy Jazz Ensemble. She was also accepted to Berklee on the Bill Cosby Presidential Scholarship.

While studying at Berklee, Washington has made a mark on both coasts, playing at the Blue Note in New York as well as at Vibrato in Bel Air, California. She was an affiliate of many ensembles, most notably those led by Terri Lyne Carrington, Greg Osby, and Ralph Peterson, touring the East Coast.

Washington has appeared as a guest vocalist for many occasions, including a musical tribute to Dave Brubeck in 2007, and she was a featured performing artist in the Trinidad and Tobago Steelpan and Jazz Festival in 2008. Shortly thereafter, she played the role of Billie Holiday in the musical Love and Hunger. Most recently, Washington had the opportunity to sing with legendary jazz pianist Kenny Barron in the 2010 commencement ceremony at Berklee.

Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Nadia Washington was surrounded by some of the premier musicians of the area. Of course one in particular would be her mother, Nelda Washington, who took the hotel bar and lounge circuit by storm in the late '80s and early '90s. Being a single parent, Nelda would bring her daughter to studio sessions and some hotel gigs. This was the beginning of her education.

At the age of 5, Washington had her first performance at a church that seated five thousand. This was the start of her passion for performing. As she began to really get serious about her craft, her mother would invite her to sing along with on some gigs. Eventually, Washington began singing with her in studio sessions for clients such as Frito-Lay and McDonald's. She has also been involved in numerous studio sessions with various major recording artists, including David and Tamela Mann of the new television sitcom Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns.

By the time she hit her teenage years, Washington found a new passion: jazz music. At the age of 15, she was accepted to Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, where could learn more about the music that mesmerized her. Attending this school led her to many more opportunities that gave her national recognition: two Down Beat Student Music Awards and an honor from the National Foundation of the Advancement of the Arts. In 2006, she received the Monterey Jazz Festival Outstanding Jazz Vocalist award and participated in the Grammy Jazz Ensemble. She was also accepted to Berklee on the Bill Cosby Presidential Scholarship.

While studying at Berklee, Washington has made a mark on both coasts, playing at the Blue Note in New York as well as at Vibrato in Bel Air, California. She was an affiliate of many ensembles, most notably those led by Terri Lyne Carrington, Greg Osby, and Ralph Peterson, touring the East Coast.

Washington has appeared as a guest vocalist for many occasions, including a musical tribute to Dave Brubeck in 2007, and she was a featured performing artist in the Trinidad and Tobago Steelpan and Jazz Festival in 2008. Shortly thereafter, she played the role of Billie Holiday in the musical Love and Hunger. Most recently, Washington had the opportunity to sing with legendary jazz pianist Kenny Barron in the 2010 commencement ceremony at Berklee.

The Nikolas Anadolis Trio is a group of three extraordinary musicians from all over the world. The leader and composer of all the material is 19-year-old virtuoso Nikolas Anadolis, who hails from Thessaloniki, Greece. Joining him are bass player Hoo Kim from Seoul, Korea, and drummer Angelo Spampinato, from Berkeley, California. They are all Berklee scholarship recipients. The trio has played at such places as the BeanTown Jazz Festival, and the Berklee Performance Center, to name a few. Such diverse backgrounds lead to a unique style of music you can't hear anywhere else. 

Nikolas Anadolis started to play the piano and improvise starting at the age of four. Since arriving at Berklee, Anadolis has performed at the Blue Note in New York, the Umbria Jazz Festival, the 10th European Jazz Festival in Athens, and the Jazz Au Chellah Festival in Morocco, and most recently won first prize at the Martial Solal Jazz Piano competition in France.

Angelo Spampinato is a 21-year-old drummer from with 9 years of experience in all genres of music. He is more than able to work in all types of professional music environments. Before beginning his studies at Berklee in 2008, he had already studied/performed with Frank Martin, Benny Green, Mike Clark, Mic Gillette, John Santos, and Alan Hall among many others at famous venues such as the BeanTown Jazz Festival, the Lafayette Jazz Festival, and the Berklee Performance Center. Since being awarded a generous scholarship to Berklee, Spampinato has been living in Boston, Massachusetts where he continues to expand his musical horizons and develop a unique sound.

It isn't hard to believe how quickly audiences sit up and take notice whenever Vaughnette takes center stage and starts to sing. Her rich, warm, earthy tones caressingly draw you in, as she delivers effortlessly on some of the most timeless standards and ballads. When it comes to jazz, Vaughnette fits right into the groove. It is, after all, the music that deeply inspires her.

Hailing from La Brea in the south of Trinidad, Vaughnette debuted on the jazz circuit at the Steelpan and Jazz Festival, performing as a guest vocalist with virtuoso pannist Len "Boogsie" Sharpe. She next graced the stage later that same year at the San Fernando Jazz Festival, appearing with visionary Carlton Alexander and the Coalpot Band. Audiences at the Sando Jazz were also treated to her performances alongside Botswanan flugelhorn player Socca Moruakgomo. Many still recall her sunny session at Jazz on the Beach, Tobago, which kept her audience buzzing long after she had left the stage. Clearly, this La Brea lady was developing an impressive fan base!

Never one to take her talent and artistry for granted, Vaughnette continued to perfect her craft, studying voice and jazz performance with some of music's finest. Her focus and hard work paid dividends in 2008 when she became one of few Caribbean nationals ever to be awarded a scholarship to attend the prestigious Berklee Five-Week Summer Performance Program.

Fast forward to 2010, and Vaughnette is heaping praise on individuals like Gabrielle Goodman and Janice Pendarvis (Berklee College) and Dominique Eade (New England Conservatory) for guidance in taking her vocal abilities to the next level. Her list of appearances keeps growing as she showcases her vocal mettle.

With vocals evoking a distinct Caribbean charisma and a personality that embraces you like a longtime friend, Vaughnette continues to charm her listeners wherever she performs. When she isn't weaving her magic on stage, Vaughnette works as an occupational health and safety professional at a petroleum company.

Women of the World is an international vocal ensemble currently based in Boston. What started out as a dream three years ago has become a real musical force. Ayumi Ueda, a Berklee student from Japan sought to create an eclectic ensemble of women from all over the globe in order to create music for peace. In 2008, Ueda joined forces with other Berklee students Ali Rapetti from the United States, Katerina Polemi from Greece/Brazil, Giorgia Renosto from Italy, and Annette Philip from India in order to manifest this vision.

From the group's very beginning, the five core women delighted in sharing the beauty of different cultures and what that cross-pollination sounded like in music. Each of the five women has a strong artistic identity shaped by the culture in which she grew up, and each finds endless excitement in learning and exploring the many cultures of the world. The unique music that stems forth from this mixture of artistry has created for a sound that is all its own—borderless, spirited, and carrying the undeniable message of unity.

The Women of the World repertoire is thus vast and varied. Constantly searching for new genres to explore, the group has performed in over a dozen of the world's languages. From Bulgarian, Cuban, Ladino, Brazilian, African, Indian, and Japanese music to spontaneous improvisation and a cappella interludes, the sound created by this unique group has grown to have a power that moves not only the members, but larger and larger audiences, as it spreads awareness of different cultures, music, and philosophies.

Through their work, Women of the World has created a stir in the community, receiving support from renowned artists such as Grammy Award–winning maestro Bobby McFerrin. In 2010 they shared the stage with iconic African vocalist, Angelique Kidjo. The group has also supported various causes, including fundraisers for victims of natural disasters in Haiti, Pakistan, and, most recently, Japan.

Following their recent New York debut concert at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the five lead singers and their 11-piece band are now in the process of recording their debut album to help spread their message of cultural awareness and peace to be released later this year.

Aires de Argentina was founded by I-Yun Chung in the spring of 2008 at Berklee College of Music. The group is a world folk ensemble bringing together talented musicians from different countries, including Taiwan, Argentina, Korea, and France, who aim for true musical expression with passion—giving a different sound to traditional Argentinean music. The idea of this group is not just to perform but to share.

Aires de Argentina combines classical, jazz, and rock with Argentinean music. The band will present original compositions and new arrangements of Argentinean music.

Since she came to Berklee in 2008, Silvina Moreno has had one goal: to explore her music potential and become the best artist she can be, a loyal messenger of beautiful music. Since the age of 10, Moreno has been mainly passionate about singing and performing, and has also developed her songwriting abilities, stage presence, guitar, piano and bass skills, and music business knowledge.

At Berklee, she has become involved with a series of high-profile shows, including the commencement ceremony in the Agganis Arena in Boston, singing for Grammy Award–winner Juan Luis Guerra in front of 6,000 graduating students and families.

In January of 2011, Moreno had the privilege of sharing the stage with acclaimed Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler. She says, "Jorge has taught me to breathe, to explore my identity as a songwriter, and have patience with the process of embracing my artistry."

She has also had the honor to sing with 10-time Grammy Award–winner Bobby McFerrin in a group of talented Berklee singers called the Singing Tribe. This concert was mainly produced to generate improvised music in song circles, mixed with composed choral pieces as well. "Bobby McFerrin has taught me how to learn from mistakes, how to embrace the stage and the audience, and forget about everything else. In the end, it is really all about the music," Moreno says. "That was one of the most unforgettable experiences I have had in my entire life."  

Moreno spent last summer in London, where she interned for Camden Bars and performed in many venues, showcasing her music with an amazing group of musicians.

The Jazz Urbane is a contemporary music movement that embraces and infuses jazz with great R&B songwriting, melodies, grooves, and style. It's not really a "new movement," but a new configuration of mindset. The idea, both philosophically and as a demographic, is to share artistry that is mature, sophisticated, and creative, while providing a groove that anyone can feel. The result is a progressive cultural musical response: the Jazz Urbane.

Tuffus Zimbabwe is a pianist and composer from the Roxbury area of the city of Boston. He comes from a rich background of artists and musicians, most notably the jazz and classical musical genius Edmund Jenkins.

Zimbabwe, a versatile composer and master musician in his own right, started piano lessons at the early age of 5. His parents, armed with knowledge of their rich musical heritage, made it a point to provide him with substantial musical exposure. He began by studying classical piano, which he did for roughly two decades. At the age of 12 he explored gospel music with a local church choir.

In his early teens, Zimbabwe joined Berklee College of Music's City Music Program, where he began his formal training in jazz. Here is where his skills and talents as a musician matured. The program offered him a laboratory to develop his compositions and a forum to perform with his peers. At 18, he received the prestigious Walter Beasley Award, won the songwriting competition at Berklee's Five-Week Summer Program, and was subsequently awarded the full-tuition City Music Continuing Scholarship to study in Berklee's undergraduate program (class of '05). Here he dual-majored in music business and film scoring while engaging in extensive studies in composition and performance.

In 2007 Zimbabwe continued his education, earning his master of music degree in jazz studies from New York University ('09), where he studied with master musicians such as Stefon Harris and Gil Goldstein to name a few. Zimbabwe was also honored as a recipient of the prestigious Barney Josephson Award for Excellence in Jazz.

Zimbabwe has maintained an active practice as a music educator, teaching for two years at NYU as Jazz Studies adjunct faculty, as well as in numerous youth programs including the Berklee City Music Program, Hamilton-Garrett Music and Arts Academy, and presently the Piano Outreach of New York (PONY). Zimbabwe is also musical director for youth service at the Mount Zion Baptist Church of Newark.

Zimbabwe currently works as a keyboardist in the Saturday Night Live Band on NBC. He also works in a number of bands such as Ron Reid's Sunsteel and Jovol Bell's Reality. He has performed in several festivals and venues across the United States. 

Jordan Snow was born in Baumholder, Germany, and grew up in Vermont.

His father, Myk Sno', introduced him to music and has been an inspiration for his musical endevours. Snow started with piano lessons as a child and then went on to play guitar and drums, which has become his true love. In high school he started playing drums in the band Proctor Connection. Snow is going into his senior year at Berklee, majoring in performance. This is where he met one of his favorite trios to play with, Allthat. During his weekends he performs in Vermont, Boston, and New York in clubs and private parties.

He has performed onstage with James Brown and Mariah Carey. As a musician/songwriter he has published songs with his father on iTunes and Amazon on the album Take a Moment by Acoustik Soul.

Born in Colorado, Cameron Galpin spent much of his early childhood traveling around the world with his family. With two British Beatles fans for parents, it isn't surprising that he naturally fell in love with the art of the song. Trapped on various trains planes and automobiles, he had plenty of time to listen. He received his first guitar at 16 and began taking weekly lessons. By 18, he had produced his first full-length album of original material. At 19 he was awarded a scholarship to Berklee College of Music.

Upon arriving at Berklee, Galpin found himself drawn into a network of talented musicians who loved nothing more than sharing their ideas and supporting each other's musical visions. Carving out a style reflecting influences from John Mayer, D'Angelo, and the Band, he set out to record his first EP of more of his original music. By 2010, his 10-piece band finished the EP, complete with a five-piece horn section. Over the past seven semesters, he spent his time studying and playing with great instrumentalists such as Jamie Haddad, Julian Lage, and David Grisman, saturating his style with a mix of jazz, bluegrass, funk, and soul. He currently lives and performs in Boston while completing his degree at Berklee.

It's not the size of the man, it's the size of the Love. Ranging from acoustic soul to futuristic reggae fusion, Tubby Love is diversely devoted to consciously delivering a message of truth and love. Love's constant quest for a greater purpose can be easily translated in songs like "Constant Motion" and "The Awakening."

A graduate of Berklee and recipient of the Scott Benson Award, Tubby Love has been blessed to share the stage with many of his influences, such as Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, Passafire, and the Aggrolites, and continues to make a name for himself in the future roots music scene. "I try not to box myself into a genre," he says during an interview at the Salem Jazz and Soul Festival, "What I play is music. I draw inspiration from everything." Outwardly expressing his love for experimental music, Tubby Love is constantly collaborating and combining new flavors, creating what some are calling a "reggae soul revolution." He just calls it music.

Two student groups are slated to perform from 3:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on the main outdoor stage as part of the Boston Arts Festival in Christopher Columbus Park. The festival features music, visual art, and dance. Marcio Philomena Group goes on first. 

Marcio Philomena is a guitar player from Porto Alegre, the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state. The Marcio Philomena Group was born out of the idea of reuniting fellow talented Berklee students from different parts of the globe to create instrumental music that is based in jazz but also incorporates a blend of different tastes, rhythms, and melodies.

The Group debuted on January 2010 at the famous Ryles Jazz Club in Boston; with its strong rhythmic drive and intense stage energy, the band keeps performing regularly around New England area.

The Group consists of Philomena on guitar, Dwight Rivera on piano, Greg Feingold on bass, and Patrick Simard on drums.

Born in Oslo, Norway, Felix Peikli found his way into music through the local marching band at the age of 8. They picked out the instrument, which today seems to have been the perfect choice: a clarinet. Two years later, he received a Benny Goodman recording from his grandfather, and Goodman became the new idol. His first performance was during a jam session at the Oslo Jazz Festival in 2002. Too young to enter the bar, Peikli argued his way in with his mother. Unaware that celebrities such as Berklee faculty member Joe Lovano were in the audience, he played and was invited back the next day for his first hired gig.

Peikli became a student at the Barratt Dues Classical Institute of Norway from 2004 to 2008. He also won the National Dream Prize in 2005; one year later, he won the Grand Chance on national TV. He began playing concerts internationally, and received the Capital of Norway Honors Prize as the youngest recipient ever in 2007. He received a full-tuition scholarship to Berklee in fall 2008 and has had the opportunity to study with Frank Tiberi, Harry Skoler, Terri Lyne Carrington, Leo Blanco, Greg Osby, Hal Crook, and Lovano.

Two student groups are slated to perform from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on the main outdoor stage as part of the Boston Arts Festival in Christopher Columbus Park. The festival features music, visual art, and dance. Samantha Schultz goes on first.

Born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Samantha Schultz is 20 years old and graduated in June 2009 from the Victoria School of Performing and Visual Arts. She began singing at the age of 3 and has been playing the guitar since she was 11. Schultz writes her own lyrics and music and has a subject range far exceeding her years.

She has had many opportunities to showcase her talents, performing at numerous festivals across Canada, most notably the Edmonton Folk Music Festival and the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Music Festival. In 2006, Schultz was the youngest nominee in the category of Young Performer of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards. 

Schultz has also performed at Cafe 939's Red Room in Boston, as well as at the Berklee Performance Center. She adds to her credits opening for such artists as Ryan Cabrera, Livingston Taylor, Ben Taylor, and Ruthie Foster. In 2010, she was awarded the Carl M. Benito Eagle Award for Oustanding Student. 

Schultz has completed her second year at Berklee College of Music in Boston, thanks to the generous Gary Slaight Family Scholarship, and will be continuing her third year this fall. This summer, she has officially released her sophomore album, Ink to Paper.

Keren Tayar 

has a fashion sensibility of yesteryear, a love for nick-knacks and childrens' toys, and an eclectic sound that combines pop, folk, and jazz, with her love for the theater.

Berklee Summer in the City culminates with Boston's biggest and best block party, the Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival. Launched in 2000, BeanTown has delighted tens of thousands with a mix of jazz, Latin, blues, and groove acts. Berklee students and faculty have shared the stage with such jazz greats as Herbie Hancock, Claudia Acuña, Mike Stern, Donald Harrison, Kenny Garrett, Delfeayo Marsalis, Bobby Hutcherson, and Geri Allen. The city comes out in force—more than 70,000 strong in 2010—to enjoy world-class music on three stages, great food, and good times stretching six blocks in Boston's historic South End. It is a family-friendly affair with face painting, inflatable rides, and an educational instrument petting zoo.

Berklee's renowned ensemble, directed by Alain Mallet and Jamey Haddad, features Berklee students from Canada, Mexico, Lithuania, Spain, Israel, and the U.S. With unique instrumentation, including voice, violin, reeds, and a rhythm section, and students from the world over, the octet's rich, improvised music reflects the musical and cultural diversity of its members.

The ensemble is also an intensive course at Berklee, team-taught by pianist Alain Mallet (Paul Simon, Paquito D'Rivera, Madeleine Peyroux, Phil Woods) and percussionist Jamey Haddad (James Taylor, Paul Simon, Yo Yo Ma, Paul Winter). The band performs compositions by Mallet, current ensemble members, and Berklee alumni.

Born in Colorado, Cameron Galpin spent much of his early childhood traveling around the world with his family. With two British Beatles fans for parents, it isn't surprising that he naturally fell in love with the art of the song. Trapped on various trains planes and automobiles, he had plenty of time to listen. He received his first guitar at 16 and began taking weekly lessons. By 18, he had produced his first full-length album of original material. At 19 he was awarded a scholarship to Berklee College of Music.

Upon arriving at Berklee, Galpin found himself drawn into a network of talented musicians who loved nothing more than sharing their ideas and supporting each other's musical visions. Carving out a style reflecting influences from John Mayer, D'Angelo, and the Band, he set out to record his first EP of more of his original music. By 2010, his 10-piece band finished the EP, complete with a five-piece horn section. Over the past seven semesters, he spent his time studying and playing with great instrumentalists such as Jamie Haddad, Julian Lage, and David Grisman, saturating his style with a mix of jazz, bluegrass, funk, and soul. He currently lives and performs in Boston while completing his degree at Berklee.

Berklee student Hailey Niswanger has an impressive list of accomplishments that reach far beyond the borders of her home in Portland, Oregon and well beyond her years. She has shared the stage with DeeDee Bridgewater, George Duke, George Garzone, Red Holloway, Terell Stafford, Phil Woods, James Moody, Steve Nelson, Christian McBride, McCoy Tyner, Maceo Parker, Wynton Marsalis, Mark Whitfield, and other jazz greats. She leads her own quartet, which has performed at the Portland Jazz Festival, Jimmy Mak's Jazz Club, Mt. Hood Jazz Festival, and other jazz venues around Portland.  In September 2009, she was selected as the new alto saxophonist in the internationally acclaimed big band the Either/Orchestra, occupying the chair previously held by Miguel Zenon and Jaleel Shaw, among others.

Hailey's June 2009 recording debut as a leader-the self-produced and self-released CD Confeddie-was promoted to both U.S. and Canadian press and radio, establishing her throughout North America. The album was reviewed in such leading jazz magazines as JazzTimes and Jazziz and inspired veteran jazz critic Nat Hentoff to profile her in the Wall Street Journal. It was programmed on more than 100 radio stations in North America and was on the CMJ (College Music Journal) Jazz Top-40 chart for 11 consecutive weeks, four in the top-10 and three in the top-5-including two weeks at its peak position of No. 4 and was the No. 1 jazz add during its add week. Confeddie also appeared on the JazzWeek Top-50 chart three times and was among the top 100 jazz CDs in the country for two months.

Berklee's renowned ensemble features students from Canada, Mexico, Lithuania, Israel, and the United States. Directed by Alain Mallet and Jamey Haddad.

With unique instrumentation including voice, violin, reeds, a rhythm section, and students hailing from the world over and the U.S., the octet's rich, improvised music reflects the musical and cultural diversity of its members.

The ensemble is also an intensive course at Berklee, team-taught by pianist Alain Mallet (Paul Simon, Paquito D'Rivera, Madeleine Peyroux, Phil Woods) and percussionist Jamey Haddad (James Taylor, Paul Simon, Yo Yo Ma, Paul Winter). The band performs compositions by Mallet, current ensemble members, and Berklee alumni.

Berklee's renowned ensemble features students from Canada, Mexico, Lithuania, Israel, and the United States. Directed by Alain Mallet and Jamey Haddad.

With unique instrumentation including voice, violin, reeds, a rhythm section, and students hailing from the world over and the U.S., the octet's rich, improvised music reflects the musical and cultural diversity of its members.

The ensemble is also an intensive course at Berklee, team-taught by pianist Alain Mallet (Paul Simon, Paquito D'Rivera, Madeleine Peyroux, Phil Woods) and percussionist Jamey Haddad (James Taylor, Paul Simon, Yo Yo Ma, Paul Winter). The band performs compositions by Mallet, current ensemble members, and Berklee alumni.

Berklee student Hailey Niswanger has an impressive list of accomplishments that reach far beyond the borders of her home in Portland, Oregon and well beyond her years. She has shared the stage with DeeDee Bridgewater, George Duke, George Garzone, Red Holloway, Terell Stafford, Phil Woods, James Moody, Steve Nelson, Christian McBride, McCoy Tyner, Maceo Parker, Wynton Marsalis, Mark Whitfield, and other jazz greats. She leads her own quartet, which has performed at the Portland Jazz Festival, Jimmy Mak's Jazz Club, Mt. Hood Jazz Festival, and other jazz venues around Portland.  In September 2009, she was selected as the new alto saxophonist in the internationally acclaimed big band the Either/Orchestra, occupying the chair previously held by Miguel Zenon and Jaleel Shaw, among others.

Hailey's June 2009 recording debut as a leader—the self-produced and self-released CD Confeddie—was promoted to both U.S. and Canadian press and radio, establishing her throughout North America. The album was reviewed in such leading jazz magazines as JazzTimes and Jazziz and inspired veteran jazz critic Nat Hentoff to profile her in the Wall Street Journal. It was programmed on more than 100 radio stations in North America and was on the CMJ (College Music Journal) Jazz Top-40 chart for 11 consecutive weeks, four in the top-10 and three in the top-5—including two weeks at its peak position of No. 4 and was the No. 1 jazz add during its add week. Confeddie also appeared on the JazzWeek Top-50 chart three times and was among the top 100 jazz CDs in the country for two months.

Berklee student Hailey Niswanger has an impressive list of accomplishments that reach far beyond the borders of her home in Portland, Oregon and well beyond her years. She has shared the stage with DeeDee Bridgewater, George Duke, George Garzone, Red Holloway, Terell Stafford, Phil Woods, James Moody, Steve Nelson, Christian McBride, McCoy Tyner, Maceo Parker, Wynton Marsalis, Mark Whitfield, and other jazz greats. She leads her own quartet, which has performed at the Portland Jazz Festival, Jimmy Mak's Jazz Club, Mt. Hood Jazz Festival, and other jazz venues around Portland.  In September 2009, she was selected as the new alto saxophonist in the internationally acclaimed big band the Either/Orchestra, occupying the chair previously held by Miguel Zenon and Jaleel Shaw, among others.

Hailey's June 2009 recording debut as a leader-the self-produced and self-released CD Confeddie-was promoted to both U.S. and Canadian press and radio, establishing her throughout North America. The album was reviewed in such leading jazz magazines asJazzTimes and Jazziz and inspired veteran jazz critic Nat Hentoff to profile her in the Wall Street Journal. It was programmed on more than 100 radio stations in North America and was on the CMJ (College Music Journal) Jazz Top-40 chart for 11 consecutive weeks, four in the top-10 and three in the top-5-including two weeks at its peak position of No. 4 and was the No. 1 jazz add during its add week. Confeddie also appeared on the JazzWeek Top-50 chart three times and was among the top 100 jazz CDs in the country for two months.

Berklee student Hailey Niswanger has an impressive list of accomplishments that reach far beyond the borders of her home in Portland, Oregon and well beyond her years. She has shared the stage with DeeDee Bridgewater, George Duke, George Garzone, Red Holloway, Terell Stafford, Phil Woods, James Moody, Steve Nelson, Christian McBride, McCoy Tyner, Maceo Parker, Wynton Marsalis, Mark Whitfield, and other jazz greats. She leads her own quartet, which has performed at the Portland Jazz Festival, Jimmy Mak's Jazz Club, Mt. Hood Jazz Festival, and other jazz venues around Portland.  In September 2009, she was selected as the new alto saxophonist in the internationally acclaimed big band the Either/Orchestra, occupying the chair previously held by Miguel Zenon and Jaleel Shaw, among others.

Hailey's June 2009 recording debut as a leader-the self-produced and self-released CD Confeddie-was promoted to both U.S. and Canadian press and radio, establishing her throughout North America. The album was reviewed in such leading jazz magazines asJazzTimes and Jazziz and inspired veteran jazz critic Nat Hentoff to profile her in the Wall Street Journal. It was programmed on more than 100 radio stations in North America and was on the CMJ (College Music Journal) Jazz Top-40 chart for 11 consecutive weeks, four in the top-10 and three in the top-5-including two weeks at its peak position of No. 4 and was the No. 1 jazz add during its add week. Confeddie also appeared on the JazzWeek Top-50 chart three times and was among the top 100 jazz CDs in the country for two months.

The members of the quartet are all enrolled in the Berklee Global Jazz Institute (BGJI), a unique focused area of study at the college designed to foster creativity and musicianship through various musical disciplines. World-renowned pianist Danilo Perez serves as its artistic director.

The program's directed study classes and seminars are designed to help the students build a community of creativity. Classes include Introduction to Global Jazz, focusing on the development of jazz from Africa to Europe and the Americas; Global Jazz Workshop Assembly, offering a forum for artists-in-residence and presentations from the Liberal Arts, Music Therapy, and Composition departments; and Creative Improvisation Through Interdisciplinary Collaboration, exploring the creative process and the connection between jazz and performing and visual arts, including painting and dance. 

Experiential and service learning are also be integral to the program. Explained Marco Pignataro, managing director for the BGJI, "They've been given this great musical talent. We'll teach that as artists, they are responsible to positively affect their communities." In addition to playing with and being mentored by jazz masters, the students travel together to play at festivals in Panama, Puerto Rico, and other places, and record original material in the studio. They give back to the community by working with children, teaching music locally through Berklee's City Music program and in other cities during institute performance trips. Students develop the skills needed to become role models for a new generation of musicians and inspire leadership in others.

The members of the quartet are all enrolled in the Berklee Global Jazz Institute (BGJI), a unique focused area of study at the college designed to foster creativity and musicianship through various musical disciplines. World-renowned pianist Danilo Perez serves as its artistic director.

The program's directed study classes and seminars are designed to help the students build a community of creativity. Classes include Introduction to Global Jazz, focusing on the development of jazz from Africa to Europe and the Americas; Global Jazz Workshop Assembly, offering a forum for artists-in-residence and presentations from the Liberal Arts, Music Therapy, and Composition departments; and Creative Improvisation Through Interdisciplinary Collaboration, exploring the creative process and the connection between jazz and performing and visual arts, including painting and dance. 

Experiential and service learning are also be integral to the program. Explained Marco Pignataro, managing director for the BGJI, "They've been given this great musical talent. We'll teach that as artists, they are responsible to positively affect their communities." In addition to playing with and being mentored by jazz masters, the students travel together to play at festivals in Panama, Puerto Rico, and other places, and record original material in the studio. They give back to the community by working with children, teaching music locally through Berklee's City Music program and in other cities during institute performance trips. Students develop the skills needed to become role models for a new generation of musicians and inspire leadership in others.

Julia Easterlin is a vocalist, songwriter, and performer from Augusta, Georgia. As a secondary student, Easterlin attended Davidson Fine Arts School where she received training in dance, classical piano, acting, and visual arts, until commiting to studies as a vocalist and performing musician in 2005.

Since then, Easterlin's talents as a performer and songwriter have been recognized by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, the Gibson/Baldwin Grammy Jazz Ensembles, DownBeat, the John Lennon Foundation, and the New York Songwriters Circle.

In 2007, Easterlin was awarded a full-tuition merit scholarship to attend Berklee, where she has been a featured performer on the student-run Heavy Rotation Records record label for two consecutive years and served as the vocalist for the InterArts Ensemble's pioneer project in Havana, Cuba in 2010. This is Easterlin's second year representing Berklee in the Summer Concert Series.

Before Mario Castro even discovered his passion for music he was a shy little boy who loved to see his father perform and rehearse with his band. Although it was his mother who took him to his first saxophone lesson, he originally started playing music with the intentions of creating a better relationship with his father. He attended the famed Escuela Libre de Musica in Puerto Rico.

His first exposure to jazz was two years after he started taking lessons, when he first laid ears on Dexter Gordon's huge and soulful sound; later he got the opportunity to perform in the Puerto Rico Heineken Jazz Festival with the Berklee in Puerto Rico student big band. His performance earned him a full scholarship to attend Berklee's 2005 five-week program. Today he attends Berklee, where he has the honor of studying with Jeff Stout, Greg Badolato, George Garzone, Tony Germain, Shannon Leclair, Greg Hopkins, Phil Wilson, Dave Santoro, and more.

Although Castro's primary interest is jazz, that has not stopped him from learning his Afro-Caribbean roots and how to play various styles of music. This attitude led him to perform with a great variety of artists and gain a reputation among the veteran musicians in the Puerto Rican music scene. He has played in Puerto Rico's most important theaters and stages, including with the Puerto Rico Philharmonic Orchestra.

Before Mario Castro even discovered his passion for music he was a shy little boy who loved to see his father perform and rehearse with his band. Although it was his mother who took him to his first saxophone lesson, he originally started playing music with the intentions of creating a better relationship with his father. He attended the famed Escuela Libre de Musica in Puerto Rico.

His first exposure to jazz came two years after he started taking lessons, when he first laid ears on Dexter Gordon's huge and soulful sound; later he got the opportunity to perform in the Puerto Rico Heineken Jazz Festival with the Berklee in Puerto Rico student big band. His performance earned him a full scholarship to attend Berklee's 2005 Five-Week Summer Performance Program. Today he attends Berklee, where he has the honor of studying with Jeff Stout, Greg Badolato, George Garzone, Tony Germain, Shannon Leclair, Greg Hopkins, Phil Wilson, Dave Santoro, and more.

Although Castro's primary interest is jazz, that has not stopped him from learning his Afro-Caribbean roots and how to play various styles of music. This attitude led him to perform with a great variety of artists and gain a reputation among the veteran musicians in the Puerto Rican music scene. He has played in Puerto Rico's most important theaters and stages, including with the Puerto Rico Philharmonic Orchestra.

Nicky Egan, originally from Philadelphia, spreads her love for music through a sound that blends elements of soul, R&B, and rock. With her influences ranging from Etta James, Sarah Vaughan, and Janis Joplin to the Beatles, James Brown, and Joe Cocker, Egan drives her performances with memorable songs, young energy, and a positive message. Since Egan formed her band in 2007, they've played throughout the East Coast and have played shows from L.A. to Santa Cruz. They've shared a bill with Boston's Eli "Paperboy" Reed and London's Sam Bradley.

Currently residing in Philadelphia, Egan recently graduated from Berklee with a bachelor's degree in contemporary writing and production. Her band is entertaining crowds between Philadelphia and Boston in venues such as World Cafe Live, the Tin Angel, NYC's S.O.B.'s, Le Poisson Rouge, the Lizard Lounge, and House of Blues Boston. Egan released her debut album, a 12-song LP produced by Egan and bandmate Johnny Simon Jr., January 7, 2011. The album, Good People, embraces a collection of soul, pop, and R&B.