L.A. Newsbriefs

Shawna Corso ’11 is seeing her star rise. She is in demand as a background singer for artists on tour, TV, and in the studio, and serves as a creative director and vocal producer for performances. Recently, she appeared with Twin Shadow and Iggy Azalea on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, with Passion Pit on the Late Show with David Letterman, and sang gospel backgrounds on “Stay with Me” alongside Denise Hudson ’06 and Will Wells ’11 for Sam Smith’s appearance on The View.

The Hexany Audio team specializes in interactive media. The four alumni who make up the company, Richard Ludlow ’14, Andy Forsberg ’13, Richard Gould ’13, and Juan Cortés ’13, met as students at Berklee (which they call the Hogwarts of music and sound). They pooled their diverse skill sets and specialties and opened their own studio and their business has been expanding ever since. Their projects range from games and application development to film and TV, and focus on collaboration. To learn more about Hexany, visitHexany Audio, Berklee-Bred Business, Blasts Off.

Composer, arranger, and drummer Eric Kalver ’09 accepted a position as the music coordinator at Activision. With previous experience in pitching and licensing music at Alfred Music Publishing and Heavy Hitters Music, Kalver transitioned to the role of music coordinator for Activision. This year he also cowrote music with Dan Wessels and played drums for the original musical Miley Montana the Musical at Second City Hollywood.

Film and concert music composer Sharon Farber ’97 recently received her first Emmy Award nomination in the 41st Annual Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards in the Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series category. Farber also penned scores for the documentary films Body and Soul: The State of the Jewish Nation and last year’s The Dove Flyer. Her concerto for cello, orchestra, and narrator Bestemming, based on the true story of Holocaust survivor Curt Lowens, received critical acclaim for a June performance at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills. The work was commissioned by cellist Ruslan Biryukov and the Glendale Philharmonic Orchestra and will be performed in Germany, England, Holland, Denmark, Israel, and several American cities.

Jeriel Johnson ’11 has been named as a project manager at the Recording Academy for the Urban Music Awards. Johnson oversees the awards eligibility process verification, various committees, and the balloting and voting processes.

After competing on American Idol Season 10 in 2011, Michael Jade (a.k.a. Mike Aljadeff ’09) relocated to Los Angeles in 2012 and signed with Spin Move Records. He recently played keyboards, did programming, and sang backgrounds on the Richard Marx album Beautiful Goodbye. He is also a music therapist working with children and adults with various disabilities.

Jesse Stern ’92 and Scotty Grand (a.k.a. Scotty Granger ’06), host a popular music evening in Hollywood called Encore Fridays. Additionally, Stern has released a single every month this year, singing all the vocals and playing all the instruments.

Mathias Weber ‘91 won a LOLA from the German Film Academy in Berlin for Best Music for the movie Das Finstere Ta (The Dark Valley), an alpine revenge thriller set in the Austrian mountains in the late 19th century.

Finally, the Summer Internship Program in Los Angeles wrapped up in early August. We extend thanks to Jerome Leroy ’05, Richard Gibbs ’77, Lauren Brockie ’09, and Buffy Hubelbank ’12 for sharing their expertise during the student workshops.