PODCAST: Inside Berklee—Alison Plante

Veteran Berklee educator and award-winning composer Alison Plante, who has recently been named chair of Berklee's Film Scoring Department, discusses her plans for preparing those interested in careers in scoring for film, TV, video games, and other visual media.

August 23, 2016

Veteran Berklee educator Alison Plante was recently named chair of the college’s Film Scoring Department. Plante is an award-winning composer whose credits include work for PBS, the History Channel, and national television commercials as well as independent films, museum installations, and live theater productions. She is also a successful entrepreneur, having founded her own scoring business, Treble Cove Music.

Plante’s appointment makes her the first female chair of a collegiate film scoring department in the nation, and in this episode of Inside Berklee, she talks about her desire to help spark greater diversity in the industry through projects such as the Women’s Film Initiative. Plante serves as advisor to the Berklee student-run organization cofounded by Elisa Rice ’13 and Leah Dennis ’13, the latter of whom recently completed score coordination work on The Angry Birds Movie.

Read more about Dennis and other alumni working on recent films.

“The fact that we have so many alumni out in the field in Hollywood and beyond means that there is a ladder of hands to hold on to as you’re rising up,” Plante says.

For those interested in studying scoring for film, TV, video games, and other visual media, Plante says her goal is to deliver the world’s best preparation for students seeking careers in Hollywood, Bollywood, New York City, and other global hotbeds.

Read the press release announcing Plante's appointment.

Listen below for more from Plante, including the interdisciplinary work she has engaged in to simulate industry dynamics for students, the importance of an adaptive mindset in the face of rapid technological change, and her all-time favorite film score.

Producer: Mike Keefe-Feldman
Engineer: Andres Felipe Gonzalez Cardona
Recorded at the BIRN Studios