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| Berklee City Music Blow-out Concert Berklee College of Music will present its 15th annual Berklee City Music Blow-Out Concert with performances by promising teen talent from urban neighborhoods throughout Greater Boston, Tuesday, August 12, at 7:30 p.m. in the Berklee Performance Center, 136 Mass. Ave, Boston. This landmark concert gets bigger and more diverse with four ensembles performing pop, jazz, r&b, and rock music. The evening will culminate in the awarding of full-tuition scholarships to hopeful student performers for full-time study at Berklee College of Music beginning this fall. Recipients have auditioned for the scholarships, but the winners' identity won't be revealed until the announcements are made. For more information go to the Berklee box office or Berklee.edu/events. The concert will feature 51 student musicians and vocalists between 15 and 19 representing Dorchester, Hyde Park, Roxbury, Allston, Mattapan, Cambridge, Chelsea, Lynn, and Lawrence, among other areas. All are enrolled in Berklee's 5 Week Summer Performance Program on SYSTEM 5 scholarships. The Summer Youth Scholarship for Talent and Excellence in Music is one component of Berklee City Music: a program that provides underserved, inner-city youth as young as 10 from the Boston area with after-school classes taught by Berklee faculty and alumni, Saturday schooling, summer study, and full-tuition scholarships to Berklee at no cost to them or their families. Currently under the direction of Krystal Banfield, Ed.D, director of City Music, Boston, the program has provided educational and mentoring opportunities to more than 1, 000 young musicians from local urban areas since its inception in 1991. This year "we were able to budget for six scholarships in the spring, not knowing what the applicant pool would look like. We actually have 15 of 62 SYSTEM-5 students vying for the full tuition scholarship this summer, " says Banfield. Last year Berklee launched the City Music Network, expanding the program nationally to member sites in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Seattle, Memphis, and Washington, D.C. Berklee College of Music was founded on the revolutionary principle that the best way to prepare students for careers in music was through the study and practice of contemporary music. For over half a century, the college has evolved constantly to reflect the state of the art of music and the music business. With over a dozen performance and nonperformance majors, a diverse and talented student body representing over 70 countries, and a music industry "who's who" of alumni, Berklee is the world's premier learning lab for the music of today — and tomorrow. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Jazz News :: home page |