Berklee and Electronic Arts Celebrate Inaugural EA Day
Katie Rupinski (center) was presented with the first EA/Berklee Next Gen Scholarship by (left to right) Screen Scoring Chair Sean McMahon; Screen Scoring Assistant Chair Esin Aydingoz; composer Nami Melumad; Worldwide Executive and President at EA Music Steve Schnur; Berklee President Erica Muhl; composer Dara Taylor; and Dean of Professional Writing and Music Technology Matthew Nicholl.
Adam Glanzman
Award-winning composers Hildur Guðnadóttir, Stephanie Economou, Chanda Dancy, Nami Melumad, and Dara Taylor spoke on a panel and Q&A session with students, moderated by Sean McMahon and Steve Schnur.
Adam Glanzman
Berklee and Electronic Arts (EA) celebrated the inaugural EA Day at the college’s Boston campus with a day of activities, which included a panel of groundbreaking composers and musicians and the presentation of the first EA/Berklee Next Gen Scholarship to Katie Rupinski, a student in the Screen Scoring Department.
As part of the EA Day celebrations, a panel of acclaimed composers including Hildur Guðnadóttir (Battlefield 2042, Joker), Stephanie Economou (Assassin's Creed: Dawn of Ragnarok), Nami Melumad (Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond), Chanda Dancy (Devotion, I Wanna Dance with Somebody), and Dara Taylor (The Tender Bar, The Invitation) shared their insights and expertise on working in the entertainment industry, concluding with a Q&A section with students. The panel was moderated by Steve Schnur, worldwide executive and president at EA Music, and Sean McMahon, chair of the college’s Screen Scoring Department. In a discussion about working across different aspects of composing, from video games to television and film, Guðnadóttir said, “There’s so much to learn whenever you go out of your comfort zone.”
EA Day began with a special Screen Scoring Studio Orchestra class, during which 45 orchestral student musicians gathered in one of Berklee’s flagship studios, and the day concluded with mentoring sessions between panelists and students.
Earlier this year, the Screen Scoring Department at Berklee College of Music and EA Music announced their partnership, which will enable greater equity in the entertainment industry and world of screen scoring. Each semester, the EA/Berklee Next Gen Scholarship will offer one qualified woman or non-cisgender composer studying in the Screen Scoring Department the chance to not only receive a financial scholarship but to be mentored by an industry-leading team and learn how they compose, orchestrate, and arrange an original score for an EA video game title.
Ahead of the panel, the inaugural EA/Berklee Next Gen Scholarship was awarded to Rupinski, a senior studying screen scoring at the college. Originally from Sherborn, Massachusetts, she began writing for video games after joining the video game music club on campus in the spring of 2020. During that time, she fell in love with the wide range of music in games and the process of scoring them, a completely different approach compared to film.
Rupinski has her sights set on immersing herself in all things video games in the future. She plans to move to Los Angeles after graduation to join the gaming industry; her ultimate goal is to work for a AAA company before taking her knowledge to an indie game setting, experiencing all that the industry has to offer. She will begin her apprenticeship with EA on Wednesday, April 26.
“I am incredibly honored to receive the EA/Berklee Next Gen Scholarship,” said Rupinski. “This award means so much to me, and will help me to pursue my dreams in the media scoring industry. Thank you to EA and Berklee for this amazing opportunity, and to my amazing professors, friends, and family for their unwavering support and encouragement. I can't wait to see what the future holds and to be a part of the growing world of games!”
