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).
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Creativity and the Process of Singers: Allowing life into technique
Bruna Brenner Lucchesi
2015I began investigating different vocal possibilities during my undergraduate studies in Popular Music at Universidade de Campinas (UNICAMP 2009-2014) where I was introduced to different periods and genres of Brazilian music. Focusing on analyzing the vocal treatment of each context, we would not only discuss what kinds of world events or cultural specificities motivated these alterations but also reproduce this music absorbing the influence from these musical entities. Growing deeper into this matter, the next step was moving onto seeking and analyzing voice within different cultures, from spiritual rituals to spoken language, witnessing how vast are the possibilities of human voice.
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El Vuelo del Pájaro (The Flight of the Bird)
Juan Manuel Guevara
2015The purpose of this work is to create a professional album applying the knowledge obtained in the production classes at Berklee Valencia, generating the scenarios in which I will be challenged to confront my own standards while pursuing my recently discovered passion for music production and combining at the same time my experience as a performer.
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The Marimba and Vibraphone in Flamenco
Daniel Marín García
2015My CE is focused in the Flamenco style as applied to performance in the marimba and vibraphone. I´m going to research the flamenco guitar technique and musical skills particular to the instrument and apply it to the marimba and vibraphone. The process will start doing research starting from Spanish Andalucía dialect to performances in live concerts, through understanding the Flamenco Palos, traditions and techniques. I will create and record some compositions and arrangements in the flamenco style, which will include improvisation. The final production of these works will be a performance in a live concerts having all of this knowledges.
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THE JAZZ SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Jacopo Mezzanotti
2015As a musicologist I always been curious about the function of the orchestras related to the type of music they where playing along different periods in history. Studying jazz music brought me inside the broad world of improvisation, a place that seems to be so far from an orchestra written arrangement, where no much space is left to creativity. So I start to think about the relation between an orchestra and the improvisational component, especially how much an “orchestral” thinking can limit this peculiar element that distinguish jazz from other music styles. To do this I'm going to use as reference "Jazz Para El Autismo", a concert that I recently written for jazz symphony orchestra plus the jazz trio that I'm leading, the Joe Midnights Space Trio.
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Melodic and Harmonic Ear Training for Guitar
André Sebastián Pazmiño Betancourt
2015One of the most important components of performing music is listening. Learning to listen musically comes along with a basic and primary foundation of musicianship, which is ear training. In my personal experience, I could define ear training as the exercise of recognition and comprehension of musical language. Moreover, the main goal of ear training is to develop the basic components of the musical craft: first of all, it helps music readers to hear written music while looking at a particular piece of music; it aids composers in notating and arranging; and finally, it enhances performers vocabulary and understanding of the music they are hearing (Prosser 2000, 6). Furthermore, I believe that ear training is a powerful tool that reinforces the learning process of any musical instrument. For instance, the guitar player’s learning process is complex and very wide because of the disposition of the notes throughout the fret board; however, by applying ear training the mapping of notes will become more consistent and solid. Furthermore, it supports improvisation by establishing musical devices, reaction and creation towards harmony and rhythm (White 2012, 112). In other words, the very basic foundation of music performance and improvisation relies on a well-developed musical perception, recognition and reaction to music.
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CONTEMPORARY APPROACH OF ECUADORIAN POST COLONIAL MUSIC
Juan Alejandro Posso Cordero
2015The primary idea of this project is to use the elements found in traditional music from Ecuador. In this project I worked specifically with three basic elements of music; which are rhythm, melody and harmony, incorporating them in my compositions. One of the most important elements in music is the rhythm, it means, the more rhythms we know the more we can add different flavor and perspective to our music. One way to show people those rhythms is to incorporate them into songs so that they can be familiar with that kind of music. The objective of this work is to generate and contribute a way to enhance a musical identity. Working with different musicians form all over the world during my career showed me that Latin American countries especially Andean countries have strong traditions cultural influences imbedded in their music but sometimes they are not be able to experiment with this music for many reasons, and as a result of that, it remains static. New generations are looking for something to identify themselves with a certain type of music or other artistic tendencies normally from outside of our culture because they don’t know what their roots are.
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Cinco Canciones Berklee Valencianas: A Study of Musical Identity
Mariko Reid
2015Is it truly possibly to consciously combine two different traditions cohesively without dishonoring their roots? This is what I aim to explore with my culminating experience project, Cinco canciones Berklee Valencianas (Five Berklee Valencian songs). Though their formation and development were centuries apart, Spain and America share a common thread in the nascence of their most quintessential musical forms – flamenco and jazz. Many influential artists have already married flamenco and jazz, so I wanted to borrow from the classical tradition (my own musical roots) and turn to Spanish folklore.
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Honglish-Shenese
Hong Shen
2015When I arrived at Berklee my main goal was to have no limitation in my music This implied the idea of becoming an “independent DIY musician”. For this reason, I divided my efforts in two different directions. One one hand, the musical goal: to learn as much as possible in this very special multicultural environment, enlarging my perspective on music; improving my music technique, music theory (rhythm, harmony, arrangement, etc.); improving improvising, composing, performing level etc. On the other hand, the production goal: to learn about the process of music production, understanding the creation of a new composition; being able to record music and work in a studio; become familiar with operating programs such as Pro tools, Logic, Ableton Live, Sibelius, Finale and so on.
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Trans-continental Folk Jazz: A Path of Self Discovery in an Evolving Tradition
Travis Nathan Smilen
2015Inter-Continental Folk Jazz is a study I have been doing on my favorite musicians/artists. Inter-Continental represents the exchanging of ideas between cultures, in this case music. The word Folk represents the tradition in which I study while Jazz describes the spirit of the project. The goal of the research was to develop my improvisation abilities as well as my compositional abilities. In the process of doing this, I was able to study some great solos and tunes, which gave me the vehicle to explore my sound.
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Interplay: The Trio Project album
Yuri Storione
2015I’m a classical trained piano player who started to play improvised music. After a while, I became interested in jazz. I wanted to know how jazz works and why it sounds so beautiful. I wanted to understand how the musicians interplayed with each other and how they related each other. This is what I’m going to analyze in this document. Also I realized that improvisation is the most important thing in jazz.
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Princess and the FuzzBox (My Nevernding Story)
Jana Sustersic
2015In this Project I am bringing my research to light - research that put together my extensive classical piano history with experience of years and hundreds of performances as a contemporary vocalist and most importantly – debuting as a composer, arranger, lyricist and a songwriter. My goal is to bow to my influences and present my new found awarness and togetherness as a musician, as well as the vision of how I see myself as an artist in the future. But, above all, my goal is to tell a story that will hopefuly inspire others in their own journeys, goals, fears, doubts and fights!
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Guerrilla Tactics for Guitar Improvisation: a Non-Jazz Approach
David Villarreal
2015This project is a compilation of the most relevant lessons I’ve been taught concerning improvisation and knowledge of the guitar, along with some strategies and tools I found out on my own. I hope it helps all of those guitarists who are feeling like outcasts because they are not (or are not yet like in my case) interested in jazz but at the same time they want to become better improvisers. My CE describes the processes that will lead me to make such project a reality, the reasoning behind its main concepts, the pedagogical tools it will use as well as samples of some of its content.
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Los Enanitos Verdes “En Vivo”
José Guillermo Villarreal
2015For my thesis, I will be making a book with note-for-note guitar transcriptions of the 2004 album, En Vivo by Los Enanitos Verdes, a Spanish-Rock band from Mendoza, Argentina. The album was recorded on May 2nd 2004 in Phoenix (Arizona, USA) and May 11th 2004 in Tijuana (Baja-California-Mexico) during the Amores Lejanos tour. The album itself contains a total of 16 tracks ranging from Hits such as “Lamento Boliviano,” “La Muralla Verde,” “Por el Resto” as well as two new unreleased versions of “Tu Cárcel” by Marco Antonio Solís and “Mil Horas” by Andrés Calamaro among others. Additionally, a DVD of the bands performances was released soon after. The DVD features 6 new tracks that were not released on the album.
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The application of Chinese traditional music style in modern music
Yiya Wang
2015As a singer with a deep influence on Chinese traditional music, I aim to create modern music retains the characteristics of Chinese traditional music. I hope this is an inspiration for Chinese traditional music and modern music combination. I hope the Chinese contemporary popular music can combine the characteristics of Chinese traditional music with the trends of the time, create outstanding works!
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Ella and Me: The All-Inclusive Process of Creating a One Woman Show
Carmen Woodruff
2015“Ella and Me: The All-Inclusive Process of Creating a One-Woman Show” explores Ella Fitzgerald not only as an artist but also as a person. Candid accounts from family members and those closest to her drive this experience as well as careful analysis of performances which will be incorporated into the actual preview performance of “Ella and Me: A Conversation with Music” on July 4, 2015 at Jimmy Glass Jazz Bar in Valencia, Spain. I will continue to develop and grow this project throughout my post- graduate fellowship with the Berklee Global Jazz Institute at the Berklee College of Music in Boston during the 2015 – 2016 school year. The most impactful sources of my experience include my personal Berklee Valencia expedition as well as accounts on Ella Fitzgerald’s experience on video and audio biographical Web sites. This paper explores my personal discoveries in moving towards the decision to undertake the challenge of producing and writing a one-woman show, starting with how “Ella and Me: A Conversation with Music” began and how it continues to evolve even as I submit this paper. Future goals include a national and international tour as well as workshops, recordings and partnerships with universities and institutions.
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Creating A New Genre
Mi Young Kim
2015I want to compose, arrange and play traditional classical music combined with jazz that is different than the "Big Band" style.
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The Mediterranean Experience
Cassandra Allen
2014In this project, I will be focusing on music for cape Verde, and specifically music performed by Cesaria Evora. I will be recording a collection of songs in memory of the late great Cesaria Evora. I will be discussing the history of Cape Verde musical styles and what cape Verdeans are known for and the link between the styles and Cesaria Evora’s career, I will also briefly discuss the African and Spanish rhythm and why they are so closely related.
