February Performers in Berklee’s Two Track Series Celebrate Empowerment

Berklee’s Two Track music video series features some of the most talented artists from the Berklee community performing in a stripped-down recording session filmed in continuous camera shots with just a single microphone. Launched in September 2021, the performances, which have collected over 400,000 views to date, premiere every Wednesday evening at 8:00 p.m. ET on the Berklee’s YouTube channel.

Each installment of Two Track revolves around a monthly theme that the artist engages with, either through their choice of songs and/or through a short storytelling segment recorded as part of the session. In February, performers explored the theme of empowerment.

Roella Oloro

On February 1, the series began with a performance by Roella Oloro, a British composer and multi-instrumentalist of Nigerian and Jamaican descent. Roella performed “Actual Proof” by Herbie Hancock and her original song “Something Sultry.” Oloro’s early musical home was in the Pentecostal church, where she played piano in regional gospel choirs around southwest England. She also plays the clarinet, alto saxophone, and bass guitar. Inspired by jazz in her early teens after hearing the virtuosic brilliance of Canadian pianist Oscar Peterson, she moved to London in 2017 to study at Trinity Laban and quickly became involved with the city's vibrant music scene. Oloro was offered a full scholarship to study at Berklee after attending the Aspire: Five-Week Music Performance Intensive program during the summer of 2018. In 2022, she won the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers (ISJAC) Prize for Emerging Black Composers. 

Mae Ya Carter Ryan

Twenty-one-year-old student singer-songwriter and arranger Mae Ya Carter Ryan opened her Two Track performance on February 8 with the song “Greatest Love of All” by Whitney Houston, followed by her original song “Learn to Fly.” The self-taught vocalist seamlessly moves between jazz, gospel, R&B, classical, and blues. Raised in a home of jazz lovers, Carter Ryan grew up listening to musical legends like Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Mahalia Jackson. At age 7, she asked her mother for voice lessons, singing around the house when her mother didn't sign her up right away. The vocalist, who has been performing ever since, has appeared on several television programs, including WGN-TV’s Morning News, CBS-TV’s Someone You Should Know segment, and Ovation Network’s Young Marvels, a 10-week series featuring child prodigies.

Samuel Sjostedt

On February 15, Samuel Sjostedt performed two songs accompanied by Sueda Catakoglu (piano), Filippo Goller (bass), and Alek Surenian (darbuka, a Middle Eastern percussion instrument). The first song, "Fluttering Bird," was an original track cowritten with Armadi Tasyn. The second piece included the traditional Armenian folk song "Dle Yaman," performed on the duduk, an ancient Armenian double-reed woodwind instrument made of apricot wood. Sjostedt talked about the importance of young Armenians continuing “to empower our culture, empower the spirit of our people, and try and make it through these difficult times as a culture, and as humans.”

Vivienne Artur

Two Track's empowerment cycle closed on February 22 with Vivienne Artur, a singer-songwriter from Lambertville, New Jersey, who sang the much-covered 1986 single “Don’t Dream It’s Over” by Australian rock band Crowded House. She also performed her original song “Kept Me Alive,” accompanied by Jackson Ledbetter (cajon), Eduardo Chocron (violin), Adam Schwartz (guitar), and Vance Spina (guitar). She released her first EP, Everything I Am, in 2022, and is planning to release new music later this year.