City Music Takes Its Show on the Road

A key program expands as student performers show what all the noise is about.

By Nick Balkin
Berklee.edu Correspondent
January 31, 2007

	Erin Lyder performs with the City Music All-Stars at the Experience Music Project.
	Photo by Nick Balkin

When Berklee announced plans to expand City Music—the college's groundbreaking, free music-education program for underserved, inner-city Boston youth—on a national scale, Erin Lyder was more than happy to help get the word out. "City Music pushed me to become a better singer, arranger, and writer—to take my music to the next level," said Lyder, a vocalist from Dorchester, Massachusetts, who now attends Berklee on full scholarship. "I'm excited to help bring this opportunity to students throughout the U.S."

As a member of the Berklee City Music All-Star Ensemble, composed of a few of the most gifted young musicians to emerge from the program, Lyder embarked on a West Coast promotional tour in January that included gigs at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco, the Experience Music Project in Seattle, and the NAMM music products trade show in Anaheim, California. The two-week tour began immediately after the official announcement on January 2.

The Berklee City Music Network will hit the national circuit in March 2007 at youth organizations in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, and at the Experience Music Project, an interactive museum in Seattle. The network will launch programs using the PULSE teaching methodology at these sites, which will be provided with specially trained alumni teachers and access to an extensive online network of learning resources and community-building tools.

Through the PULSE methodology, students will learn music theory, ear training, and performance by playing and analyzing the music of their day: Gnarls Barkley, Beyoncé, Green Day, and a library of other popular r&b, rock, hip-hop, and jazz songs.

A key component of the network is enhancing classroom experience with webcasting and videoconferencing technologies to provide face-to-face interaction between City Music Network students at partner sites and faculty and students at Berklee's Boston campus.

The college plans to expand the City Music Network to 50 sites in three to five years, followed by continuing rapid growth. The network's expansion is being led by the project's codirectors Curtis Warner, executive director of Berklee City Music/assistant vice president, external affairs; and David Mash, vice president of information technology.

Apollo Payton performs with the Berklee group in Seattle.
Photo by Nick Balkin

Lyder's tour began in San Francisco. Macworld attendees buzzing from Apple's major iPhone announcement filtered out from Steve Jobs's keynote address and were met with a dazzling performance by the All-Stars. The band's set included Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable," "September" by Earth, Wind & Fire, and "You Don't Know My Name" by Alicia Keys.

The next destination for Lyder was an unseasonably cold and snowy Seattle at the Experience Music Project. Performing in the celestial, 85-foot high Sky Church in front of the world's largest indoor video screen, the band received a standing ovation from a packed house of 200-plus people, who were clearly eager to welcome contemporary music instruction to their city. The next day, the ensemble toured the EMP, exploring the museum's famous Sound Lab, Guitar Gallery, and Jimi Hendrix exhibitions. "The highlight for me was seeing Michael Jackson's white glove," said Lyder.

The tour wrapped up at the NAMM show, the largest trade show of its kind in the world, which this year brought in a record-breaking 84,695 people. The student group, too, drew its biggest crowd of the tour at NAMM, performing at the Hilton lobby shortly after the first day of the trade show ended. "Now I know why people call NAMM the musician's heaven," said student vocalist Apollo Payton, who along with the other All-Stars spent the next few days networking and wandering the tradeshow.

With the tour behind him, Payton, who, like Lyder, received a full scholarship to Berklee after completing City Music, emphasized the importance of a serious music education. "Music is a language—a skill that will last throughout your whole life," said Payton.

Nick Balkin is a publicist in Berklee's Office of Public Information.