2011–12 Signature Music Series Lineup Announced

Berklee's 2011–12 Signature Music Series includes Gary Burton, Ivan Lins, George Clinton, and more.
September 13, 2011

The 2011–2012 Signature Music Series at Berklee has an extraordinary season planned with jazz, funk, Latin, Middle Eastern music, and selections from the Great American Songbook. Performers include a cross-section of Berklee students, faculty, and alumni, and world-renowned, award-winning musicians. The series of seven concerts offers a range of sounds for every listener: The New Gary Burton Quartet (9/25), Ivan Lins Meets Berklee (10/26), Celebrating Maggie Scott: 30 Years of Jazz Vocal Night (12/8), George Clinton Meets Berklee (2/16), the Great American Songbook: The Music of Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer (2/26), Middle Eastern Music Festival (3/12), and An Evening with Kirill Gerstein: Rhapsody in Blue (3/30).

The Signature Music Series at Berklee takes place at the Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston. Concerts start at 8:15 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Purchase tickets at berkleebpc.com, by calling 617 747-2261, or at the Berklee Performance Center Box Office. The venue is wheelchair-accessible.

September 25—The New Gary Burton Quartet
7:30 p.m.
Gary Burton's new release on Mack Avenue Records, Common Ground, is his first studio album since 2005, and introduces his latest band the New Gary Burton Quartet featuring bassist Scott Colley, and alumni guitarist Julian Lage and drummer Antonio Sanchez. Burton, the Grammy-winning pioneer of the four-mallet vibraphone technique, has been well-known throughout his five-decade career for his quartets, beginning with his 1967 group featuring Larry Coryell, Roy Haynes, and Steve Swallow. The group performs during the closing-night concert of the 2011 Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival.

October 26—Ivan Lins Meets Berklee
Produced by Oscar Stagnaro, arranged and conducted by Matt Nicholl

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Ivan Lins lived in Boston as a child before returning to Brazil. His music has been heard through the voices of Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Manhattan Transfer, George Benson and more recently Barbra Streisand, Sting, and Jane Monheit. Today, Lins is one of Brazil's most-recorded and best-known composers. His career has spanned 35 years, 27 records, and multiple Latin Grammy Awards, with over 350 songs recorded in Brazil and hundreds more around the world.

December 8—Celebrating Maggie Scott: 30 Years of Jazz Vocal Night
With special guests Antonia Bennett, Lalah Hathaway, Robin McKelle, Esperanza Spalding, and Nadia Washington
Produced by Greg Hopkins with Karen Bell

Many students who have studied with Maggie Scott during her 40 years as a Berklee faculty member have gone on to distinctive careers. Tonight, five of them return to Berklee to pay tribute to their mentor.

February 16—George Clinton Meets Berklee
Produced by Lennie Stallworth and Africana Studies

The Berklee P-Funk Ensemble has been a popular ensemble since the 1990s. George Clinton made a surprise visit and directed the group for an MTV special a few years back. Now, one of the foremost innovators of funk music returns to Berklee for a four-day residency and a concert covering his artistic trajectory from Parliament in the 1960s to Funkadelic, and his amazing solo career.

February 26—The Great American Songbook: The Music of Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer
7:30 p.m.
Produced by the Yo Team

Individually, Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer composed some of the greatest tunes in the American songbook. Together, they wrote time-tested standards as "Stardust" and "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening." At Berklee's annual celebration of the American Songbook, student and faculty vocalists backed by a full orchestra interpret the individual and collaborative songs of these American masters.

March 12—Middle Eastern Music Festival
Produced by Christiane Karam with Javier Limón

The Middle Eastern Music Festival is a celebrated annual event that joins gifted artists from the Middle East and the Balkans with students from all over the world to perform traditional and inspiring music from these homelands.

March 30—An Evening with Kirill Gerstein: Rhapsody in Blue
With special guest Anat Cohen
Produced by Kirill Gerstein, directed by Phil Wilson

Since completing his studies at Berklee, Kirill Gerstein has devoted his career to classical repertoire. In 2010, he was awarded the coveted Gilmore Artist Award, which is presented every four years to recognize extraordinary artistry. Gerstein returns to Berklee with a program that includes Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue in the original 1924 arrangement, with guest clarinetist and Berklee alumna Anat Cohen.