Student Dazzles Symphony Hall while Charting Course at Berklee

Berklee student Davey Thomas Ronaldo, who recently performed with acclaimed group Pink Martini at Symphony Hall, quenches his thirst for adventures in music.

December 4, 2014

In his first three semesters at Berklee, multi-instrumentalist and composer Davey Thomas Ronaldo has explored a wide swath of paths in music with gusto, including film scoring, songwriting, and performance. The latter includes a recent concert performance on clarinet with acclaimed group Pink Martini at Boston’s historic Symphony Hall, with another to follow on New Year’s Eve at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The high-profile gigs came about via Ronaldo’s quest for adventures in music—a quest that Berklee has advanced with a hallway full of open doors.

Sources of Inspiration

Ronaldo grew up with music in Oak Grove, Alabama thanks to his grandmother, a professional musician who wrote and performed songs in the Birmingham area. At her house, he watched many classic movies and was keenly interested in the scores to the films.

“I would ask for soundtracks for my birthday and just fell in love with storytelling with sound,” Ronaldo says.

He took up clarinet in middle school and learned trumpet, marimba, and piano in high school before attending the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he did not feel like he was thriving in music, so he took time off and moved to Los Angeles to explore film scoring from its epicenter. While in LA, he spent summer months touring and playing trumpet with the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps, which is a member of Drum Corps International (DCI), the nonprofit organization that routinely packs football stadiums across the U.S. with marching band performances that Ronaldo notes are “almost like Cirque du Soleil on a field.”

While in LA, Ronaldo was eagerly reading Berklee film scoring professor Richard Davis’s Complete Guide to Film Scoring.

“His book really inspired me, and while I was in LA, it helped me to realize where I was as a young composer, how I fit in, and what I could do to be a part of things,” Ronaldo says. He decided to see if he might be able to study with Davis by applying to Berklee, so when the college held auditions on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, Ronaldo showed up with his clarinet in hand.

“I decided to apply, but I thought it was out of reach,” Ronaldo says.

Upon being accepted with a scholarship and the ability to transfer credits, Ronaldo found that what he thought was unrealistic was, in fact, possible.

The Big Gig

Although it got him into Berklee, Ronaldo was on the verge of deemphasizing his clarinet work in favor of film scoring and composing endeavors when Pink Martini came knocking. His introduction to the band came by way of a mutual acquaintance, Ronaldo’s boyfriend, and Ronaldo instantly gelled with the band’s founding pianist, Thomas Lauderdale, as they conversed while walking around Boston and taking in some museums. Lauderdale asked if Ronaldo would be interested in performing on the group’s original jazz tune, “Hang On, Little Tomato,” at an upcoming show at Boston’s Symphony Hall.

Ronaldo had only recently begun studying jazz with Berklee Woodwinds Department professor Harry Skoler, but he nevertheless accepted the invitation.

“I thought I enjoyed classical the most but when Harry threw some jazz my way, it was just so much fun,” says Ronaldo. “Who knew I would really enjoy this jazz clarinet sound?”

The crowd at Symphony Hall enjoyed it, too, meeting Ronaldo’s carefully practiced performance on “Hang On, Little Tomato” with a thunderous roar of applause.

“I’ve had some pretty cool audience reactions from Drum Corps, but for me as a student here at Berklee finding my way to go and do that show in Symphony Hall in Boston and to have all of those people clapping for me? It really made me feel like a professional,” Ronaldo says.

Among those in the crowd was Skoler. Ronaldo knew his teacher was out there, proud of his student's work.

Avenues of Exploration

Ongoing experience with Pink Martini aside, Ronaldo remains committed to film scoring. “I think about it every day,” he says.

Still, the Pink Martini engagement has left Ronaldo wondering if he should be performing more; he is already playing clarinet with the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra and passionately pursuing a composing and songwriting project with fellow student Lainey Dionne, with plans to release an EP. And every new course adds more layers of interest, such as a recent class assignment that has left Ronaldo wanting to delve deeper into blues.

“I’m being torn in every which way, musically,” Ronaldo says.

If Berklee has presented him with a hallway full of open doors, Ronaldo loves music so much he wants to walk through several of them—and that’s a good thing. While a more focused path is likely to follow, this expansive exploration phase is a key ingredient in making his music education worthwhile—and with exploration comes surprises, some of which end with the sounds of applause filling a concert hall.