Berklee Asia Rising Brings Asian and Asian American Music to Signature Series
Vocalists Alex Gao, Jo Tayaban, Lizi Aquilina, and Poppy Pyonn, from left to right, perform at a 2025 Berklee Asia Rising recital at David Friend Recital Hall, joined by Stephen Guerra, Colin Marcel, Dhruv Banerji, Raindra Priyanto, and Matey Hei.
Image courtesy Berklee Asia Rising
Berklee’s fall Signature Series will present Berklee Asia Rising: Celebrating Asian and Asian American Voices in Contemporary Music on Tuesday, November 3, at 8 p.m. at the Berklee Performance Center. Featuring original student music and new interpretations spanning pop, R&B, jazz, rap, film music, and rock, the concert brings together artists and musical communities from across Asia and the Asian American diaspora.
The Signature Series event offers an introduction to Berklee Asia Rising (BAR), founded by Edvard Lee, associate professor of ensembles. BAR began in 2024 as an ensemble centered on music by Asian and Asian American artists, and has since grown into a broader student platform connecting artist development, performance, recording, media production, and professional engagement. Its longer-term aim is to strengthen creative and professional connections among students, alumni, and collaborators in the US, across Asia, and throughout the wider diaspora, helping the work and relationships begun at Berklee continue beyond graduation.
“I want BAR to help students develop their own voices and find people they can keep creating with,” said Lee, the concert’s executive producer. “Students of all backgrounds are writing, arranging, performing, and producing work together. The concert brings many of those efforts into one evening, and gives audiences a chance to experience what they’re building together.”
The November concert takes that work to a shared stage through 11 performances connecting Central, East, Southeast, and South Asia, as well as the Asian American diaspora. Elnar Dastan, joined by Amina Kurbanova, reimagines Kazakh music for dombra, piano, voice, rhythm section, and orchestra. Vietnamese artist Alexis Cao and Myanmar rapper Poppy Pyonn present a three-song original set combining vocals, rap, live instrumentation, and dance. Aarushi Kombial presents “RAFTAAR,” an original composition co-arranged with violinist Sandhya Saravanan and involving musicians from the Berklee South Asian Scholar Association.
The evening also includes “The Khalil Fong Tribute Medley,” arranged by Berklee alumnus Walter Kwan ’18, who previously worked with the singer-songwriter and producer. Participating student communities include the Berklee Philippine Student Association, the Berklee Indonesian Community, the Korean Culture Student Association, and B-Girls, with students contributing across performance, orchestration, conducting, engineering, choreography, and production.
Beyond the concert, BAR connects students through live showcases, recordings, and projects that build professional experience and bring their work to wider audiences. As of August 2026, 241 Berklee students had contributed to BAR projects, and the program had presented 15 performances and five forums. Its recorded work had generated more than 5.7 million combined views on Instagram and YouTube.
In celebration of Filipino American History Month, BAR recently released a live-performance cover of “Pasilyo” by Filipino band SunKissed Lola. The band shared the students’ performance on Instagram, helping it reach a wider audience and bringing recognition from the original artists. The full performance is available on YouTube.
The Berklee Performance Center is located at 136 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston. Tickets are available online and at the Berklee Box Office. Learn more about BAR and explore its student projects at berkleeasiarising.com.
