On this page, you can find the Culminating Experience (CE) Projects for all graduate students from the Berklee College of Music master’s program Contemporary Performance (Production Concentration) (CPPD) from 2015 – present. Click on any title for more information and access to the full paper and other deliverables (if available).
-
The Modern Musician Triangle ABE: Art, Business, Education
Judy Shin
2016Over the past 20 years, I have encountered a number of educators who have influenced my musical growth. As being in Berklee Valencia was the last year of being a student before stepping into the professional music industry, I wanted to not only develop my performance skills but also acquire practical skill sets other than performing; the objective of my Culminating Experience Project is to prepare myself as a versatile pianist who shares the experience as an educator. At this point of transitioning from a student to a professional artist, financial stability is valued just as much as the aesthetics and purpose of the art (music) itself, and therefore, I, as an artist who enjoys teaching, have chosen to combine the two elements to setup a freelance-career. The vision of this project was to gain confidence in both teaching and performing, and as a result, the outcome of it entails two components: self-produced tracks that demonstrate myself as a versatile musician (pianist/composer/producer), and building a foundation for a freelance educational website, which includes video tutorials and business plans.
-
Modern Portfolio for the Contemporary Guitarist
Aaron Sutton
2016Creating a professional portfolio for a working guitarist in the modern day.
-
LaVaaz: The sound, the stories, the process & the next step
Danielle Turner
2016“Kenopsia” is an extended play featuring four original recordings of electronic, jazz-hop style music. I will write, arrange, and orchestrate the songs in an electro-acoustic format which includes the use of Ableton to design synths, textures, and various other electronic elements, and also multi-tracking vocals, trumpet, and live drums to be featured on these tracks. Furthermore, I will also be experimenting with running trumpet through digital effects to create unique sounds and textures that will make up a bulk of the EP’s sonic palette. Each of the songs in this EP will be connected to the word Kenopsia which according to the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows means, “the eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that’s usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet—” For me, I see this word as a metaphor for my memory and the feeling I get when I visualize the fading imprints left by meaningful people who are no longer part of my life. As an extension of the recordings, “Kenopsia” will also include a live performance video of one of these recordings and artwork to help promote and market the EP online. For the video, I will record a live performance of a sophisticated multi-tracked arrangement that sounds very close to the recording. For the artwork, I will work with my sister, a talented artist, who will design concept art connected to the governing concept.
-
CIAO BAMBINO
Elizabeth Turner
2016For my Culminating Experience, I decided to create my own piece of art, a truly original musical. An opportunity that will highlight the three main aspects of performing, composing and recording for myself. For the 2015-2016 academic year, in pursuit of a M.M. in Contemporary Performance & Production from Berklee Valencia, Let me present to you my original musical “Ciao Bambino”.Ciao Bambino tells the story of overcoming heartbreak, and language/social barriers, through culture and music. It is a story filled with passion, love, and laughter that the entire family can enjoy, and sing along too!
-
The Melody of Rhythm in Percussion Yesterday, and Today.
André Walker
2016This project is about displaying and going on a harmonic, rhythmical journey of percussion- from yesterday to today!
-
A Touch of Life
Phillip Watson
2016My plan is complete a business proposal for for a community- oriented organization, entitled "a touch of life".
-
Stepping Stones: My Early Steps as a DIY Songwriter
Jessica Whaley
2016My project is about my path, my journey, and what is to come, inspired by my past and my present. It is a collection of the promotional assets I have created in order to carry me into the next phases of my musical career beyond Berklee, as well as the songs that I have created and the process of creating them. I will start by discussing the steps I took to complete this project.
-
THE BREDRENS: BRINGING CALYPSO MUSIC TO BERKLEE
Maria Achaiba
2015The main objective of the band "The Bredrens" is to bring calypso music to a new dimension at Berklee with musicians from different musical backgrounds and perform in Valencia. Also keeping the dying art of calypso music alive outside of Trinidad and Tobago.
-
SPIRITUAL FRUIT
John Alden Davis
2015My project involves some of the fruits of the spirit, which are stated in Galatians 5:22-23 in the Bible, in a 4-song instrumental EP that incorporates different genres of music. I aimed to make this a project where it would challenge me to grow in my musical writing skills and to be highly decisive in how I arranged each piece, with my goal being a completed product that would be a moving experience for the listener. This was the first step in my long-term project to record two EPs that incorporate all of the fruits of the Spirit, and to put on a promotional concert for an organization, called New Strength Homes, that provides safe homes to at-risk women. I believed that this project would also help keep me grounded in the spiritual truths that I have been raised upon, which I have come to truly embrace.
-
BALKAN MEETS BERKLEE
Kristina Bijelic
2015I decided that I would make an EP of arrangements of Balkan folk songs, each with different musicians and engineers, and all in different styles. It only took a few days at Berklee to realize that this would be a unique opportunity to collaborate with amazing musicians from all over the world, all with unique personal and musical backgrounds. I wanted my final project to be a complete collaborating between myself and some of these great musicians and engineers, and would function as a true showcase and tribute to my generation at Berklee Valencia. At first I did not know which songs I would decide on and with whom I would work, but as I slowly started meeting more and more people from across the masters programs, the project began taking a more definitive shape in my mind and eventually in practice.
-
WATER LILY: AN ALBUM RECORDING PROJECT FEATURING ORIGINAL COMPOSITIONS, A TOUR AND SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTION
Rubén Carlés
2015Water Lily is a Master’s Thesis Project which brings together some of the best musicians in the world to interpret and record the music of RUBÉN CARLÉS. This project involved four components: composition, the design of a website touring and recording, all of which culminated in the recording of the album “Water Lily.” The following pages outline in detail the process and outcomes of this project.
-
LEADER OF THE BAND
Shane Del Robles
2015In order to help fulfill the goal of developing as a bandleader, this reflective paper will seek to ascertain answers to mainly four questions: What gives one the right to be a leader? Can good leadership be boiled down to one trait? At what level do tonal hearing, tonal theory, and notation reading need to be developed for an individual to be a leader? What is the path that non-pitched instrumentalists should take to progress as leaders?
-
More to Music than Meets the Eye: The Correlation Between Music and Spirituality
Sissy Dinkle
2015This project is designed to explore the relationship between music and spirituality throughout different contexts such as historical and global/cultural in order to see how that relates to people today. The historical section of the research conducted will cover different perspectives, religions and spiritual movements such as Confucianism, Dr. Sigmund Freud’s opinion of music and the American hippie culture of the 1960s and 70s. This is to explore how the musical and spiritual elements fit together and to give us a very general historical background and context for which we find ourselves today. This is not a complete survey of history up until this point, but instead a brief selection of different ideologies over different time periods. This is to test that even throughout vastly different points and places in history the ideas of music and spirituality have been found to be intertwined in a substantial way.
-
Synchronicity: Ecuador
Sandra Durán Sánchez
2015This project comprises the composition of original pieces for en EP that fuse traditional musical genres from Ecuador music with contemporary styles that have influenced me. It is a search for a better understanding of my cultural identity and how I might in turn contribute to it by creating new music.
-
Mediterricana: A Marriage of Musical Styles
Sharif El-Mahdi
2015This Culminating Experience Project investigates the inner workings of my career, and delivers some bold changes, creating something special and unique for the future of my career in music.
-
Colectiva Corazon: A work of musical composition and fusion of Cumbia music with South American rhythms"
Gonzalo Eyzaguirre Rodriguez
2015This paper talks about my culminating experience project called Colectiva Corazon, a work that involves me as a composer, performer and musical producer in an EP of 5 songs that shows a style that identifies me as Chilean, and as Latin American as well. I explored the Cumbia style and implement different aspects of Latin America percussion to give a completely new feel and groove to my music. Music I have composed. One of the important objectives of this project is to also innovate and I believe that this is a good point to start.
-
Food for Thought: A Growing Palate
Wycliffe A. Gordon II
2015Music is very similar to eating a meal. Listening is an occasion when we glean meaning from auditory stimuli, such as music. Going to see a concert is akin to going out to eat. The International Listening Association believes that “Listening: [is] the process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken and/or nonverbal messages”. Your ears are the key to experiencing music, similar to that is how the tongue is the key to experiencing food.
-
ORIENTAL IMPRESSIONS
Zhu Haiming
2015I chose this project because I am a Chinese jazz bass player and I want to mix jazz with Chinese traditional music to create something new. Not only is it a creative investigation, but it also benefits Chinese people by helping them be introduced to jazz. Nowadays the oriental music market and western music market are unbalance: western music is more popular than oriental music. I use “Oriental Impression” as the name of my EP because I hope it can be heard and liked by western audiences as well as oriental, letting everybody hear the oriental sound. This is why I choose this project for my culminating experience.
-
Story Teller
Brent Hamker
2015I wanted to do a project that created drama. I wanted a project that had clarity and honesty. I wanted honesty of where I’m from and who I am. I also wanted a project that would challenge me and make me leave my comfort zone. I have not spent a considerable amount of time composing my own music and thus I felt that this would be a great opportunity to gain some experience in this facet of my career. I decided to write a five-part suite in which the music would narrate a story from my own imagination. I began outlining the story and the parts I believed to be most important to its plot. The most important parts would be the parts of the story in which emotion was at its peak and I that could capitalize on the most as far as material to work with.
-
Revival of a Sound: Analysis, Production, and Innovation of Latin Rock
Roberto Hermosillo
2015My intent with this thesis project was to enhance certain musical skills through the study of this style of music. I mainly wanted to improve my songwriting and production skills. So, with the help of one of my advisors, Gael Hedding, I put together a method to accomplish such goals. The idea was that if jazz musicians learn to improvise by listening, analyzing, and transcribing the solos of their heroes, I could do the same for songwriting and production. So, the process would begin with analyzing a big portion of the main songs of Latin Rock. After doing a deep analysis of production, emotion, harmony, and lyrics, I should find a formula that I could use to write music in that style. The next part of the method would consist of writing songs using that formula, and arranging them in three different versions. The first version would be done in the style of the Golden Age of Latin Rock, the next one in New Latin Rock, and the last one would be a personal version. The personal version would be an innovation within the style. Then, with a focus group I would determine which of those versions is more likely to be successful.
-
INCLUSION THROUGH PERFORMANCE
Timotej Kotnik
2015This thesis explores musical performance as a form of inclusion, especially in relation to people with special needs. It introduces a brief historical overview and traces the development of society's reaction to People with special needs over time. In addition, it defines the ideal of inclusion. Performance, often seen as a single act, is presented instead as an ongoing process, providing participants with solid grounds for growth, learning and development. This thesis flirts with the idea of musical performance not only as a form of inclusion, but as a means of achieving catharsis for both the performer and the audience simultaneously. The idea and mission of the International Festival “Igraj se z mano,” is offered as a thread for the insight into the process, development and effects of performance while proving its potency as a vehicle for inclusion.
-
HANDS OF EMOTION
Jaewon Lee
2015The aim of this project, along with meeting the demands of studying at Berklee, is to follow these three objectives: creating hybrid drum sets, using these new instrumentations within music and experimenting with these instrumentations through the recording and production process.
-
HARLEM, BROADWAY, AND THE ABQ
Briana Lewis
2015The overall reasoning for this undertaking began after the frustration of not finding appropriated Tony-nominated Musical Theatre examples for elementary-age children during Career Day. Most of the Tony performances that had a lot to learn from were unsuitable for children of that age and Career Day would have ended with quite a few phone calls from parents. There was definitely room, even if it was just one song, for a song in a musical theatre style that was positive and uplifting for children. Soon, the intent was to create a lyrically positive and musically interesting song and commission it for an after school music program I was a part of in Albuquerque. I would work with my former supervisor, Alexis Corbin, and discuss the lyrics and overall concept of the song.
