Gretsch and Hearst Foundations Give to Berklee
From the left: Assistant Chair of Music Business/Management John Kellogg, Dean of Professional Education Darla Hanley, Gretsch Company President Fred Gretsch, and Berklee President Roger Brown. Phil Farnsworth Gretsch clinicians Bob Sabellico (guitar) and Jim Pettit (drums) were joined by faculty bassist Winston Maccow for a BPC clinic/performance. Phil Farnsworth
Gretsch Foundation Endows Scholarship
On August 11, Berklee celebrated the 125th anniversary of the Gretsch Company, one of the world’s best-known guitar and drum makers. Members of the Berklee community packed the Berklee Performance Center for a special Gretsch clinic featuring Jim Pettit, owner of the Memphis Drum Shop, and jazz guitarist and composer Bob Sabellico, who has played on sessions with Béla Fleck, Jaco Pastorius, and Phoebe Snow, among many others.
Prior to the clinic, President Fred W. Gretsch, the fourth-generation descendant of company founder Friedrich Gretsch, and Joe Carducci, Gretsch’s guitar marketing manager, provided an account of the company’s colorful history.
August 11 also marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of legendary Gretsch Company guitar clinician and marketing manager Jimmie Webster. Accordingly the Gretsch Foundation has endowed a scholarship at Berklee in Webster’s name. A guitarist, inventor, and marketer, Webster guided Gretsch in an era of explosive growth and popularity beginning in the 1940s and extending through the 1960s. The Gretsch scholarship will support an outstanding student majoring in music business.
“We are deeply honored by the association with the Gretsch Company, and grateful for the opportunity to assist a deserving student in our major,” says Don Gorder, chair of Berklee’s Music Business/ Management Department. “Gretsch products are known throughout the world for quality, and that’s what we strive for at Berklee. This gift will help us to attract the best and brightest.”
William Randolph Hearst Foundation
Berklee is proud to have received a $100,000 gift from the Hearst Foundation to establish the William Randolph Hearst Endowed Scholarship Fund at Berklee. It provides scholarship support for juniors and seniors of the Music Technology Division who excel academically and who have demonstrated financial need. The Music Technology Division includes the Music Production & Engineering and Music Synthesis departments, where advancements in technology and production styles are constantly evolving. The scholarship will recognize and reward students who actively contribute to such advancements and thereby help to enhance and enrich music through the technologies at the heart of music production and music synthesis in the future.
“This scholarship fund will be a significant help in assisting our students to achieve their career goals and set new standards of excellence in advancing the field of music technology,” says Stephen Croes, dean of Berklee’s Music Technology Division. “We are grateful to the Hearst Foundation for making this generous gift and providing deserving students a strong academic foundation for their professional lives.”
