It was a simple statement but one that captured the essence of the 1998 Encore Gala. For the fourth time in as many years, Berklee College of Music and its supporters transformed the dark-paneled rooms of the Harvard Club into a more musically diverse Lansdowne Street. Each year, this smorgasbord of mini-nightclubs highlights the wide-ranging musical talents of Berklee faculty and students and raises money for Berklee City Music.

The event once again broke its own fundraising record, netting more than $200,000—up $50,000 from the year before—to fund scholarships to the five-week Summer Performance Program for talented urban high-school students, as well as four-year, full-tuition scholarships to Berklee for outstanding graduates of the summer session. The $250-a-plate dinner was once again sold out, with guests filling the ballroom floor for the formal part of the program and packing the whole building for the nightclub hopping, which was open to members of the Berklee community for just $50 a ticket.

Berklee City Music is a worthy cause, to be sure, but it's no sense of obligation that draws this crowd. Encore Gala has simply become Berklee's biggest party of the year, with performances by nearly 100 Berklee students and faculty members. The acts on this October night ranged from Associate Professor Ken Zambello's Berklee Jazz-Rock Ensemble in the Superstar Ballroom to the original songs of Adena and Jolana Sampson in the Unicorn Coffee House. The third-floor World Music Gallery treated listeners to the bluegrass of student fiddler Casey Driessen's band and Romanian music from the pan flute of Damian Draghici as well as red-hot Latin jazz from Associate Professor Wayne Naus's ensemble. The audience spilled into the hallway for Professor Bob Doezema's Blues after Dark faculty band, featuring the B3 organ of Associate Professor Al Kooper.

"Everyone I've ever invited finds that it's a one-of-a-kind charity dinner," says Sharon S. Mohney, a member of the Berklee Board of Visitors and cochair of the 1998 Encore Gala. Trustee Craigie Zildjian also cochaired the event for the third year in a row. Says Mohney, "It gets bigger and better every year."

Lee Eliot Berk, Susan G. Berk, Andy Zildjian, Armand A. Zildjian Bob Kramer Studio

President Lee Eliot Berk and his wife Mrs. Susan G. Berk organized the first Encore Gala in 1995, as part of Berklee's 50th anniversary, and they remain honorary cochairs of the event.

"Susan and I are thrilled that the gala is able to help so many young people seeking a meaningful life through their music," says President Berk.

The gala has grown in tandem with its beneficiary Berklee City Music. In 1998, Berklee City Music gave out more than 35 SYSTEM 5 scholarships (Summer Youth Scholarship for Talent and Excellence in Music) to the five-week Summer Performance Program, for the first time offering assistance to high-school students in Somerville, Cambridge, and Lynn as well as Boston. Setting aside 25 scholarships for Boston residents maintained the college's commitment to serving its hometown youth, while the remaining scholarships gave the program a chance to bring in what Director of Education and Community Partnerships J. Curtis Warner calls "some top-shelf kids" from neighboring cities.

In addition, Berklee initiated Worcester City Music, an inspiration credited to Worcester-based Allmerica Financial, lead sponsor of the 1997 Encore Gala. Five scholarship students rode to Berklee every day of last year's summer program in a van driven by Worcester school psychologist and music coordinator Robert Monroe, who also led an ensemble for the central Massachusetts students.

And, in the most dramatic sign of growth, Berklee City Music increased the number of full-tuition Berklee scholarships awarded at the end of the summer program from three to four. The additional scholarship was badly needed, says Warner, because a greater number of candidates are going through the summer program more than once and are being mentored during the school year. Last fall, with a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, City Music established Saturday School for students who had already gone through the two levels of music theory offered during the summer. These students also receive private lessons from Berklee faculty. This improved student preparation has made the awarding of scholarships more difficult, says Warner.

The growth of Berklee City Music is made possible, to a large extent, by the Encore Gala, an event that's supported by an assortment of friends of Berklee—friends old and new, some both at the same time.

The lead sponsor, Schwab Capital Markets & Trading Group, is one of Berklee's old-new friends. Schwab's Boston office is a new operation headed by Charles Milligan, formerly of Fidelity Investments. Phoebe Zaslove-Milligan, Charles's wife, is a Berklee trustee. Together, they approached the Schwab organization about sponsoring the gala.

"Schwab as an organization has a real commitment to community and education, nationally, and they had just opened an office in Boston, which was a big deal for them," says Zaslove-Milligan. For Schwab, sponsoring Berklee's City Music benefit would be "beyond perfect," she says.

Schwab Capital Markets President Lon Gorman agrees. "I knew when we expanded our Capital Markets presence here in Boston that Schwab would want to get involved in this community," Gorman told the gala crowd as he accepted a crystal obelisk from President Berk commemorating Schwab's sponsorship .

Taking note of the Schwab slogan "Helping Investors Help Themselves," Gorman says that Schwab's philosophy is "to help people take control of their own lives and their own futures, to serve as a catalyst, to help make a difference. Schwab believes this is the same principle behind the Berklee City Music program, and we're proud to add our name to its long list of supporters." Proud enough that Schwab has signed on as lead sponsor for the 1999 gala as well.

Other supporters include Cutler Associates and Shawmut Design and Construction, two firms that have been involved in the upgrading of Berklee's campus. Shawmut, which built Berklee's Genko Uchida Building, sponsored the gala for the third year. "What impressed me was the opportunities which it funded," says Shawmut Vice President Emil Frei. "That's what sold it for me." Not to mention, he says, "the music is absolutely fantastic."

"It's a great event, a showcase of the talent that's at Berklee," agrees Frederic Mulligan, president of Cutler Associates, which renovated the Massachusetts Avenue residence hall. Cutler sent a delegation to the 1997 gala, then signed on as a sponsor for 1998—only to find that a single table was not enough. "We overfilled it," he says. "Everybody just wanted to be there."

Once again, the gala's silent auction had grown bigger and better than ever, under the leadership of Trustee Don Rose for the second year. "We're pleased with the growth," which has been 30 percent each year of his chairmanship, Rose says. "It's going to be tough to sustain that [pace]."

The donated auction offerings ranged from dinner for four at Harvey's at St. Botolph to a $15,500 Disklavier GranTouch digital grand piano, donated by Yamaha Corporation of America and Boston Organ and Piano, and demonstrated at the gala by Berklee Executive Vice President Gary Burton, who played vibes accompanied by the digital presence of frequent duet partner Makoto Ozone '83. Burton's performance also promoted his own auction contribution of a private David Friend Recital Hall concert of vibes and Disklavier.

Still, despite the diversions of food, music, and merchandise, it was never far from anyone's mind that the real reason for the Encore Gala was Berklee City Music beneficiaries such as Storme Bracey '98, who that night received an award for achievement in Music Production and Engineering. "I am so happy that I went there [to Berklee]," says Bracey, who's now working with Producer Richard "Younglord" Frierson at Bad Boy Entertainment in New York City, and with her own Boston-based production company Bell-Storme. "Because of my education being so rounded, I am absolutely prepared, whether it's utilizing my musicianship skills [as a drummer] or my engineering skills. I didn't understand it when I was there, but now that I'm out in the world I do."

For Brent Irvine, playing at the Encore Gala is one way of showing his appreciation for the opportunities Berklee City Music has provided him. "That's a big part of it, a big part of it for all of us," says Irvine, "giving back to a program that's given us so much."