Berklee's First Presidential Visit to India

Following the launch of the Berklee India Exchange, Berklee President Roger H. Brown visits India and meets with A. R. Rahman, Clinton Cerejo, and many others.

May 29, 2015

In April 2015, Roger H. Brown became the first Berklee president to make an official visit to India. It was the next step following the 2014 launch of the Berklee India Exchange, a platform for cultural conversation about Indian music via artist residencies, musical collaborations, and performances. Following concerts, clinics, workshops, and master classes with famed Indian musicians A. R. Rahman H'14 and Clinton Cerejo, Brown's visit afforded him opportunities to learn more about the music of India and the country's booming entertainment industry. Alongside major Indian artists, Brown explored possibilities for future artist visits to Berklee and future collaborations in India. 

Brown's three-city tour began in Chennai, where he met with A. R. Rahman and visited the school Rahman founded, KM Music Conservatory (KMMC), a preparatory institution for grade school students. Brown attended the school's annual spring concert, featuring a phenomenal Qawwali ensemble and performances of Indian classical, a cappella, electronic, and Western classical music, as well as opera.

While at KMMC, Brown announced the establishment of the A. R. Rahman Scholarship, the college's first scholarship to be awarded exclusively to students from India. The first recipient of the A. R. Rahman Scholarship will be admitted with the 2016 undergraduate class. Brown made the announcement at a press conference attended by approximately 100 journalists, ranging from reporters for local Tamil-language publications to those from national print, online, and broadcast outlets. With cameras rolling, Brown and Rahman discussed the scholarship as well as Rahman's work with Berklee students and faculty during his artist-in-residency tenure and his honorary degree concert in October 2014. 

Also during his time in Chennai, Brown was hosted by Ashok Leyland, the second-largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles in India, for a private concert of Carnatic music by renowned composer and flautist B. V. Balasai. Before the performance, Brown connected with guru T. V. Gopalakrishnan, musician and author T. M. Krishna, percussionist R. Purushothaman, Carnatic vocalist and composer Bombay Jayashri, vocalist Sangeetha Sivakumar, Indian classical dancer and educator Priyadarsini Govind, and pianist and educator Anil Srinivasan. 

Brown's next step was Mumbai, where he was graciously hosted for meetings and social gatherings by A. P. Hinduja and his wife, Harsha Hinduja, whose daughter, Satya Hinduja '04, studied at Berklee. During the events hosted by the Hindujas, Brown met with educators, entertainment industry executives, and a number of popular entertainers. Among them were producer, composer, arranger, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Clinton Cerejo, who was a Berklee visiting artist in 2013; vocal guru Pandit Jasraj; vocalist Vijay Prakash; percussionist Sivamani; guitarist and composer Dhruv Ghanekar; flute guru Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia; celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor; and actors Anil Kapoor and Aamir Khan.  

Brown's final stop was New Delhi, where he visited the future site of the Global Music Institute (GMI). GMI, fast outgrowing its first campus in the center of New Delhi, is expanding to Noida, a rapidly developing community, to accommodate more students studying contemporary music education and its intersection with Indian traditional and folkloric styles. The school's founders, brothers and Berklee alumni Aditya '10 and Tarun Balani '10, gave a tour of the new campus' classroom building and dormitory, which will serve as the new home for one of India's first contemporary music institutions built on Berklee's teaching methods.

The first presidential visit to Chennai, Mumbai, and New Delhi gave Brown a glimpse of the myriad cultures of India in addition to its rich musical traditions and thriving entertainment industry. It also renewed acquaintances and forged new relationships, including those with musicians who may visit Berklee's Boston campus in the near future as visiting artists. With a flood of performance requests for the Berklee Indian Ensemble, directed by faculty member Annette Philip '09, and a future A. R. Rahman scholar on the horizon, the door of possibilities for future collaborations is wide open. 

Liz Lupton is a publicist in the Office of Media Relations. Media inquiries: llupton@berklee.edu.