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Entering with Enthusiasm
New students show that they're passionate about music at the 2002 Convocation.
By Rob Hochschild
Berklee.edu Editor
September 6, 2002
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President Lee Eliot Berk (left)
and Robert Moog pose for
photographs prior to the
convocation ceremony.
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| Photo by Rob Hochschild |
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The man who sparked a technological revolution in music and Berklee's entering Class of 2006 seemed to be on the same wavelength last night. Inventor and engineer Robert Moog created the first keyboard synthesizers, but when he spoke to 950 freshmen, he didn't talk about machines but about the humanity of music and the sustenance it provides. Judging by the way new students responded to the 2002 Convocation Concert, it was a sentiment they embraced.
Reacting with whoops and hollers throughout the hour-long performance, students demonstrated that they have come to Berklee with a clear passion for music. Learning how to create music may be their goal, but they seemed to know that listening to and loving music is essential to getting there.
During brief comments after he received an honorary doctor of music degree, Moog spoke about his company, Moog Music, a North Carolina-based manufacturer of keyboards and other electronic instruments. Half of his 14-member staff are musicians, Moog said, but all of them are "ardent music listeners."
"For them, listening to music is on a par in importance with the food you're going to eat, what car you're going to drive, and how comfortable your home is," he said. "To be fully human is to need music and derive nourishment from the music that you hear...what you do with (Moog Music) instruments helps us to be human, too. I want to thank you for that."
Berklee also awarded an honorary doctor of music degree to singer/songwriter Patty Larkin '74, an artist who is known as much for her virtuosic guitar playing as she is for composing memorable tunes. She urged students to take advantage of the rare opportunity music school provides.
"You have the enviable task of being able to take the time out and learn here and absorb here from all the people you see, all your teachers," Larkin said. "To quote Stanley Kunitz, a wonderful poet: 'Be what you are/Give what is yours to give/Have style/Dare.' I look forward to hearing from you."
Moments later, Larkin and Moog got a taste of what Berklee's upperclassmen can do, as the Jazz/Rock Ensemble performed an eclectic set, cutting across such styles as soul, r&b, classic rock, country, funk, jazz fusion, musical theater, and straight-ahead jazz.
Students paid tribute to Moog with an update of the 1970 Emerson, Lake & Palmer hit, "Lucky Man." Israeli keyboardist Ruslan Sirota turned in a solo on the MiniMoog synthesizer that demonstrated the instrument's versatility and beauty when in the hands of a talented player. Just as Sirota did, lead vocalist Adam Moore, of Marblehead, Mass., helped give a fresh sound to the oft-heard tune.
California native Alicia Champion later strolled onto stage, acoustic guitar in hand, and performed a rollicking version of Larkin's "The Book I'm Not Reading." The ten-piece ensemble's full-throttle performance of the tune provided a sharp counterpoint to Larkin's equally bracing solo rendition of it at her clinic in July 2002.
The loudest applause of the night may have come in response to piano solos played by Mamiko Watanabe, of Japan, on Cole Porter's "Get Out of Town" and by Sirota, on Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind." Watanabe's right-hand flourishes were always tuneful and smooth and Sirota's four-minute introduction covered a wide swath of piano genres, from stride and boogie-woogie to jazz and pop.
Other highlights included performances by Texas vocalist Nicole Hurst on "Medley from The Wiz;" Leonard C. Walston III, of Virginia, who added spice to his singing on "Stay With Me Tonight" by dancing in a style that combined James Brown and Michael Jackson; and Israeli tenor saxophonist Gilad Ronen, who improvised several excellent solos during the evening.
While music provided the pleasure, it was the deafening approval voiced by the entering class that left many an ear ringing at the show's end. If the Class of 2006 has as much enthusiasm for creating music as they do for listening to it, the sounds they make will be worth hearing for a long time.
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