By Rob Hayes
Assistant Vice President for Public Information
July 29, 1999
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Berklee saxophone instructor Dino Govoni walks a student through a chart |
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If you wanted to imagine for yourself the ultimate summer experience in studying music, you'd probably pull together some of the following elements: topflight, dedicated faculty, who are working music professionals in their own right; fellow student musicians with talent and commitment; a star-studded music festival nearby to inspire your studies; and a superb location, of equal parts gorgeous scenery, fascinating history, and wondrous climate. And, of course, you'd add some amazing food.
Truth is, there's no need to rely on your imagination, because that place exists in Perugia, Italy, where Berklee has been holding its Summer School at the Umbria Jazz Festival since the mid-1980s. Every July, for 12 days during the jazz festival--widely regarded as one of the world's most creative and influential--200students from Italy and throughout Europe work to achieve the high standards of the Berklee educational experience.
While the classroom experience closely replicates what happens at Berklee, the location won't remind anyone of Boston's Back Bay. The school is located in Perugia's historic Scuola Elementare Fabretti, built on the ruins of the ancient Etruscan city wall. Its windows and terrace overlook views of this central Italian hill town of 200,000, and the valleys beyond.
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Bassist Antonella Mazza bears down in her ensemble |
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By night, the students can enjoy a smorgasbord of world-renowned jazz artists, like Chucho Valdes, Branford Marsalis, Charlie Haden, John Scofield, Herbie Hancock, and Danilo Perez, to name just a few from this year's festival, at eight separate venues. Scofield and Perez are themselves two of the more than 25 Berklee College of Music alumni playing at the festival this year.
Now in its 14th year, the Berklee Summer School at Umbria Jazz Clinics is led by codirectors Larry Monroe, the leader of the college's International Programs Office, and famed bassist and jazz educator Giovanni Tommaso. The program is designed to provide a brief, intensive version of the Berklee experience in Boston, with private lessons, ensembles, and concentration on harmony, improvisation, and theory. To further round out the educational experience, each night the Berklee faculty play in and host a jam session for the students, just steps from the main performance venues.
Special seminars are often given by famous teachers, and these have included--to name a few--Milt Jackson, Bill Frisell, Johnny Griffin, and Elvin Jones. Berklee alumnus Danilo Perez was a visitor to the school this year. The entire 12-day program culminates in a two-day series of concerts, held on one of the festival's performance venues, in which every student performs.
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Larry Monroe leads a composition class with assistant Maddalena Deodato |
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Many of the Summer School's students have later attended Berklee, and this year, throughout the program, students have been auditioning for $60,000 in scholarships to the college in Boston. To show you what can happen, a Summer School and Berklee College of Music alumna, vocalist Chiara Civello, is performing at the festival this year. Further, 10 players are selected from the entire student body to perform at Umbria Jazz's winter festival in the nearby town of Orvieto.
Rob Hayes is the Director of Public Information at Berklee College of Music.
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