Summer's Gone

Summer's Gone

	Adrian Ross '96
	Photo by Paul Foley

The summer has swept by us, leaving behind memories from several successful alumni events. On May 20, I had the pleasure of being among some of the performers who played at the alumni jam session/open mic night at the Attic Club in San Francisco. The evening began with solo performances by several of the Bay Area's most talented singer/songwriters. Later, audience members mixed among themselves and toward the end of the night, there was an open jam session. During the jam session, the house rhythm section effortlessly moved in and out of swing, funk, and blues grooves, providing a solid foundation for each soloist. For hours the small stage was crowded with horn players, guitarists, and vocalists. A great time was had by all and we look forward to more jam sessions in the future.

In early summer, Laine Henderson '95 and I organized a songwriter's night in New York for June 10. The event took place at the Living Room on Stanton Street for an audience of 50 people. There were two sets with three performers in each. The first featured Cat & Eddie '94, Laine Henderson, and Ian McGlynn '95. Victor Della Pello '89, Patricia Ossowski '86, and Jordan Zed '00 took the second half. The performances were top- notch and got a great response from the audience.

There was also an alumni reunion in New York at the Apple Marketing Center on June 19 that was held in conjunction with the MacWorld Conference and Expo. Berklee Vice President for Information Technology David Mash made a presentation about new trends in music software and hardware, the new power available to musicians in smaller packages at lower prices, and how quickly the music products industry is moving towards supporting the new Macintosh OS X operating system. Mash demonstrated Emagic's Logic Audio Platinum version 5 for Mac OS X, which had been announced just that day at the MacWorld Expo. The group of about 50 alumni discussed how the new operating system would affect hardware and software compatibility, the promise of the newly proposed mLAN standard, USB and FireWire Audio and MIDI devices. They also discussed how to cope with all of the rapid changes and still make music.

From the left: Andrew Lubman '88, David Mash '76, Allan Planchard '86, Joffrey Jones '77, and Jason Vogel '88 at the Mac World Expo/alumni reunion in New York on June 19.

The college hosted two successive ProTools workshops this summer on July 23 and July 30 in Studio A73. The classes, taught by Associate Professor Jeffrey Baust and assisted by lab manager Chris Hull '95, walked alumni through the flagship ProTools 888 Mix System. During the two-hour class, attendees had the opportunity to mix, edit, and crop music to a QuickTime movie. Due to the small number of stations in the studios, the classes reached capacity quickly. We hope to offer a similar class later this fall or early next year.

The Nashville alumni chapter has begun publishing a newsletter titled "Nashville Beat.” Written and produced by alumni, it contains news, profiles, an event schedule, and classified ads. Congratulations to Pamela Roller and the entire team for a successful project.

During my trips and through various meetings, I have had the pleasure of meeting numerous alumni who are making significant progress in their areas. Paul Goldman '93 has recently opened the doors to his new sound design studio and company entitled Eargoo, located in New York's East Side. His state-of-the-art facility offers two full studios and several mixing/mastering rooms. David Collins '99 is working at LucasArts Entertainment in San Rafael, California, as a sound design engineer and is involved in the production of several video-animation projects.

Bassist Michael Manring '79 has been touring with the trio Attention Deficit. They recently released their second CD The Idiot King. In addition to working on projects at his private studio in Berkeley, California, Manring has been playing with several other contemporary jazz/fusion ensembles. John Blackwell '95 is the drummer for Prince and was featured on the cover of the October issue of Modern Drummer magazine. Blackwell is endorsing products for Evans and Axis Percussion Pedals among others. Stefan Redtenbacher '96 is the head of the bass department at London's Musician's Institute. In addition to teaching, he has recently toured Germany and other parts of Europe with various ensembles and is working on a new CD.

In other news, I would like to keep you apprised of an enhancement to the alumni website. For those who have taken advantage of the lifetime e-mail accounts offered by the college, there is now an alumni directory on the site for use by the alumni community and the general public. It is still possible to advertise your services, and you can also search for friends in the rapidly growing database. In the near future, we will be providing an entire alumni directory online, so stay tuned to the web for updates. The number of site users is increasing every day, so I encourage you to become part of Berklee's growing online community. That's all for now.

All the best,
—Adrian Ross '96
Director, Alumni Affairs