Ensemble Faculty

"I teach a contemporary styles ensembles. Over the course of the semester, we play everything from modern pop to straight-ahead jazz and everything in between. In ensemble playing, you need to be generous musically. You need to listen to the other people. You have to play like a team. If you're not playing as much for the other people in the group as for yourself, that's a problem. You have to have musical humility, to think about the song first. The song is the focus, not the guitar solo."

"The Urban Outreach Ensemble—cosponsored by the Community Affairs Office and the Ensemble Department—is a very rewarding part of my teaching at Berklee. It's an educational jazz orchestra that I've led for the past 12 years. Its primary purpose is to travel and present live jazz to inner city schools. We've played several times at Symphony Hall and other venues. Many of the students who have heard us end up joining Berklee's summer program and even getting four-year scholarships to study at Berklee."

"Music lifts me up. It is emotionally based. It helps people be healthy in their emotional well-being. As a player, it's how I express everything that I'm feeling. It is the voice that I speak from. I know how to create textures and colors with it."

"I teach the ensemble that plays for the Song Demo Production class. Their goal for the semester is to sound like a band that's played together their whole life, from the first note to the last, the first time through. I don't allow them to see any of the music until they walk into the studio. I set it up like this: If you're going to become a studio musician, this is how it's going to happen, and this is how you're going to have to deal with it."

"Ensembles are all about relationships. At the beginning of the semester, we sit down together and I ask everyone to tell me about themselves: Where they come from, what they like personally and musically. In order to play with your peers, you have to know something about them. It brings cohesiveness to the class."

"A professional musician must approach gigs in a businesslike way. The thing is not only to get the call, but to get the call back. As a sideman, I am there to follow instructions from the music director and satisfy the artist. If I am the music director, my job is to make the artist comfortable and ensure that my team supports the artist musically and emotionally. I'm not there to jam. I do my job well, regardless of whether I am playing the easiest or the hardest piece of music. A true professional musician has the ability to play a triad, minor seven flat five chord, or even a sus sharp eleven with the same intensity."

"As soon as I became a true student of music, I began to teach. I grew up in a family of musicians so it was somewhat inevitable that I would follow in their footsteps, regardless of how many times I said I was going to be an entertainment attorney! At the age of 14, I knew in my heart that life as a musician was the course for me. I asked my father to be my coach, and that's when my intense training began. Hard work, patience, faith, persistence, and pass-it-on are a few of the many character traits instilled into me as a young musician and that I try to practice to this day."

"I'm there to help my students become what they want to be, whatever that is. I think it's our job as teachers to try to provide options as much as we can, because you don't know what's out there. You like to sing, but don't really like to perform? Well, you could be a session singer. You like to write songs? You don't have to sing your own songs; you can write songs for other people and get a publishing deal. There are all kinds of things you can do to be a successful musician."

"I've been teaching the Alexander Technique for the last 20 years. The Alexander Technique concerns itself with how you do what you do. We try to have you move as easily and freely as possible while making your music. We call that difference 'use': how you use yourself as an instrument. My belief is that the more you perform in a healthy manner, the better your sound will be. I've certainly seen it demonstrated."

"A great ensemble player comes from different angles. You have several options of doing things so you don’t get bored and so others don’t get bored with your response to what’s coming at you. It’s like saying the same thing over and over when you’re having a conversation."