A Message from the President and Executive Director: Updates on Our Vision for 2025

Dear families,

At the State of the College and Conservatory events in the fall semester, our institution’s vision for 2025 was shared, along with the strategies to achieve it. Our priorities include enrolling great students, providing them support throughout their education, and preparing them for success in their lives after Berklee. Today, we are pleased to bring you up-to-date on the progress that has been made throughout the College and Conservatory.

Enrollment

 

A key to Berklee’s success is to continue to enroll talented students who will make their mark as musicians, dancers, actors, and beyond. The quality of our fall admission pool is very strong across the board, and we are making progress toward our goals to increase female, international, and ALANA (African American, Latino/Hispanic, Asian, and Native American) applicants across all our programs. Highlights include:

  • Fall applications to the College and Conservatory increased 10 percent over last year;
  • There has been a 7 percent increase in female applications to the College and 11 percent increases in both international and domestic ALANA applications for the College; and
  • Combined College and Conservatory selectivity increased, with a lower admission rate year over year.

Black Scholars Initiative Program

 

This past summer, we launched the Black Scholars Initiative (BSI) program at the College. Funded by a trustee, this program is designed to reflect Berklee's roots in African American musical traditions with the goal of fostering a strong sense of African American community, support, belonging, and cultural history. Sixty participating students took part in a three-and-a-half day pre-orientation program that included music education and performance, social and cultural programming, budgeting and financing workshops, and cocurricular events. We are pleased to report positive academic achievement in the first semester among program participants and a 100 percent retention rate for spring. This summer, Conservatory students will also have the opportunity to participate in BSI.

New Minors

Both the Conservatory and College are offering new minors for students.

This past academic year, the Conservatory implemented three new minors for College students. Student interest is growing, as indicated by College student enrollment levels in Conservatory courses, as well as in the new minors in:

  • Dance: seven declared students;
  • Musical theater: ten declared students; and
  • Stage management: six declared students.

Beginning in fall 2018, Conservatory students will be able to minor in the following subject areas at the College:

  • Acoustics and electronics;
  • English: Creative Writing;
  • English: Literature;
  • English: Spoken Word;
  • History;
  • Philosophy;
  • Psychology;
  • Visual Culture and New Media Studies; and
  • Instrument Repair.

Everyday, we are imagining new possibilities for our students to benefit from being part of this larger Berklee organization and we expect to continue to expand these offerings in the future.

Career Jam

 

This year’s Career Jam event took place on Friday, April 6, following last year’s highly successful inaugural launch. This full day of professional development included panelists, workshops, auditions, and mentoring sessions with more than 50 industry professionals. Joining via Skype, Pharrell Williams delivered the keynote address. Other notable guests included alumna Susan Tedeschi Trucks ’91, Mark Kelley (bassist of the Roots), Paul Wachter, Neil Stubenhaus, Tef Poe, and many more, along with representatives from companies including Instagram, Facebook, Spotify, Snapchat, Apple, Paradigm Talent Agency, Atlantic Records, and more.

Launch of Career Communities

 

Built around seven areas of interest—business, composition, design, education, health and wellness, performance, and production—the career communities model was launched last month at an event in the Stan Getz Library and Media Center. This new model enables College and Conservatory students to better align their academic interests with various career paths, and engages more students across all majors and programs by providing deeper expertise from our advisors to meet their needs in partnership with Academic Affairs. The Career Communities website is designed to digitally deliver this new career communities model.

Alumni Achievement Awards

 

On Thursday, April 5, the Berklee Alumni Achievement Awards honored the best of Berklee, with winners chosen as a result of a juried process involving a list of hundreds of our most notable alumni. Honorees this year included Cristina Abaroa ’91, Tim Cushman ’80, Eugene Gearty ’82, Mihail Jojatu (G.P.D. ’99, cello, Conservatory), Stephen Oremus B.M. ’92, Susan Tedeschi Trucks B.M. ’91, Robert Vega B.M. ’06, and Makeba Riddick-Woods ’99. Many of these alumni joined us for Career Jam the following day. It was very exciting to welcome this group back to campus to celebrate the diverse paths of success achieved by our alumni in their careers and their communities.

Valencia Fifth Anniversary

 

Berklee’s Valencia, Spain, campus began 2018 by welcoming its largest group of students (278) to date. The campus marked its fifth anniversary in 2017, a milestone we celebrated with multiple events, including a five-year alumni reunion and the awarding of an honorary doctorate to John McLaughlin.

Important milestones for the campus include:

  • More than 2,000 students, hailing from more than 70 countries, have studied in Valencia.
  • Ninety percent of our graduate alumni are active in the music industry across 40 countries.
  • More than 40 free concerts are offered to the community each year, reaching more than 20,000 people annually.

Capital Campaign

In September, Soundbreaking, the campaign for Berklee reached its $100 million goal, nearly two years before its scheduled conclusion at the end of FY19, thanks to extraordinary generosity by trustees, Presidential Advisory Council members, and patrons. This support enables us to fund innovative programming and pathways for our students, propelling them to successful careers in music, performing arts, business, and beyond.

Berklee Equity

While we have been working hard on the initiatives mentioned above, a great deal of our focus has also been spent addressing sexual assault and harassment at Berklee. As stated in the vision for 2025, we are committed to building an inclusive culture that promotes diversity in all its forms and to empowering musicians, actors, and dancers to better our world. We recognize the need to make Berklee a place where harassment, discrimination, and sexual misconduct are not tolerated. The following is a small sample of what has transpired over the spring semester:

  • A working group of students, faculty, staff, and senior leaders is convening throughout the spring, summer, and fall 2018 semesters to develop a shared understanding of the foundational issues surrounding harassment, discrimination, and sexual misconduct that impact the lives of our students, faculty, and staff and recommend ways to create the inclusive and respectful community outlined in our vision for 2025.
  • The role of chief equity officer and Title IX coordinator, which was previously combined with the role vice president for Student Affairs, has been established as a singular role whose efforts focus solely on equity matters, reporting to the vice president for Student Affairs. This position has been filled and, in addition, the Center for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion now has six full-time staff including an intake officer and a full-time investigator.
  • Title IX expert Jody Shipper was engaged to assist in reviewing our policies and sanctioning guidelines. She has met with several groups within our community, including Berklee’s leadership, to facilitate educational sessions that include a foundational overview of Title IX and the current landscape; key considerations for leaders who manage staff, faculty, and/or students; and an interactive discussion facilitated with some hypothetical scenarios culled from her long career as a Title IX coordinator and investigator.
  • A variety of trainings have been offered throughout the Berklee community. A sample of the topics covered include reporting, an overview of resources, consent, bystander intervention, working with male survivors, responding to disclosures, intimate partner abuse, and more.
  • Design consultants IDEO (who helped design our career strategies area that has been so successful of late) have been engaged to help us formulate an approach to culture change at the institution.
  • The annual Berklee Teachers on Teaching (BTOT) conference was redesigned to include an expanded equity track.
  • A comprehensive and campus-wide messaging and promotions campaign was produced about Berklee’s equity policy, process, and resources.

Facilities

 

Exterior of 8 Fenway building

Berklee recently completed a renovation of the Conservatory’s historic 8 Fenway building, and is nearing completion of a new dance studio at its facility on Commonwealth Avenue. The institution also plans to significantly increase the number of practice rooms over the next year. The opening of the new Career Center and the Center for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at 921 Boylston Street, as well as a new Student Success facility at 939 Boylston Street, further supports our students as they prepare for graduation.

Commencement

 

This year’s College commencement ceremony will take place on Saturday, May 12 at Agganis Arena, where we will honor Rosanne Cash, Nile Rodgers, and Esperanza Spalding ’05 with honorary Doctor of Music degrees. More than 175 College and Conservatory students representing more than 30 countries will perform the night before at the same venue. Berklee graduating seniors will pay tribute to these artists in a concert featuring their music, and have the opportunity to share the stage as they perform with both Spalding and Cash.

The Conservatory will also host its commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 12. Executive Director Cathy Young will present honorary doctorates to opera superstar and alumna Victoria Livengood (M.M. ’85, voice) and Tony Award–winning performer Billy Porter in recognition of their extraordinary contributions to the fields of opera and theater. Both artists will deliver commencement remarks at the ceremony.

We want to thank our committed faculty and staff, who keep our students at the center of their work and are the driving force behind the good news highlighted above. We are proud of all we have accomplished together.

Yours,

Roger H. Brown
President, Berklee

Cathy Young
Executive Director, Boston Conservatory at Berklee