Studying Strings at Berklee
At Berklee, you will find your own voice and develop your own style. You will not be limited to one direction. We encourage you to experiment with other styles that interest you, so that you can challenge yourself, improve your skills, and develop your instrumental craft. We will help you to become a string player with a strong musical identity.
Berklee prepares you for today's music by building on traditional aspects of learning. In all instruction offered in the String Department, emphasis is placed on achieving a solid foundation in the standard technical challenges of professional performance, including scales and études as well as harmonic materials, contemporary scales, and arpeggio patterns and exercises played through all twelve keys.
Private Lesson
In your first week at Berklee, you will be given a placement audition by a String Department faculty member, and the chair of the department will match you with the teacher best suited to your needs for private instruction. Every student will take at least four semesters of private lessons and must pass a final exam at the end of each semester on the skills learned. Music education and professional music majors will take six semesters; performance majors will take eight semesters, with extra recital preparation lessons before senior jury and recital.
The Berklee World Strings
The Berklee World Strings is a chamber-sized string orchestra committed to the art of ensemble playing and the development of repertoire featuring improvisation and the rhythmic capabilities of string instruments and players. The group's repertoire includes original compositions and new arrangements of a variety of contemporary music styles and settings.
Watch a Berklee World Strings performance:
The Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra
The Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra is a full symphonic ensemble committed to the art of orchestra playing that honors the past, present, and future. In addition to the great orchestral compositions of the past, this orchestra's repertoire includes original compositions of faculty and students, contemporary orchestral music from around the globe, and contemporary genres such as film scores and video game music.