Contemporary Performance (Production Concentration)

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  A Toolbox for the Well-rounded Musician in the Modern Music Industry

  Rachel Angel
  2022

  Before coming to Berklee, I was already building a fruitful career in music as a singer-songwriter and recording artist. I applied to Berklee Valencia because I had become aware of the gaps in my musical knowledge and had hoped to foster a better understanding of the industry and my place within it. I immediately came to realize that in the modern day, a musician must have a 360˚relationship to their music career. I set out to explore building a toolbox and subsequently a guide for the well-rounded musician in the modern day. Some of the tools and assets I acquired were content created individually and with collaborators, brand research that I incorporated into my artistic identity, promotional practices, outreach strategies, and an exploration into my craft and musical vocabulary. What I ultimately gained was confidence, self-sufficiency, and a better understanding of who I was an artist and what I was and wasn’t capable of. Unsurprisingly, I realized that it is impossible to do everything yourself and that it is absolutely essential to have a team. I also learned how important it is to be the sole backbone behind every aspect of your career as a musician. If you don’t make it for yourself then who will make it for you.

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  Embracing Mediterranean Roots: Flamenco Jazz Through Female Voices

  Eva Catala Sanchez
  2022

  The objective of this project is to help me forge my artistic identity. This has always been linked to the origins of music as a language, whose main purpose was to connect people and create a strong sense of community and belonging. This is why I have been always interested in Folklore, although until now I had not had the chance to learn the tradition from where my family comes from: Flamenco, which I wanted to incorporate to my own language. Therefore, this Project is displayed by one original composition and two arrangements within the language of Flamenco Jazz. For this I took three steps: first, I studied the main styles of Flamenco and analyzed the role of percussion in them; second, I researched contemporary female composers and their stories; and last, I analyzed the style of Jazz Fusion with other genres, from where I extracted a method that I applied afterwards to my own arrangements and compositions. This Project will also set the basis for my upcoming Project which aims to contribute to the cultural enrichment of the World Music offering my perspective and making it reach the new generations, and give voice to all these female composers.

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  Chord V Maybe: Developing A New Method of Artistic Expressions

  Rick Chang
  2022

  This CE is a form of music performance based on the music and recitals I came into contact with during my growth process. My objective is to create a new form of music communication that musicians can use during live performances together with music (Chord to Visual). Combining visual effects and interacting with the audience, discover new ways of artistic expression through the mix of acoustic music and mixed media, developing systems of communication between sound and image. I chose to do Action Research and make a real-time analysis of Chord to visual in live performances, because of this process, there will be many failures, so I can only try repeatedly until I succeed. That's why I chose Action Research This system will contribute to any musicians performing live performances. I believe this will be helpful to many musicians who like to combine live music performances with visual effects.

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  Creativity as courage and Music as expression

  Nadezhda Chebotareva
  2022

  This culminating experience is about creating my artistic identity, exploring, and building my vision. I have been working to explore my artistic vision, my music and history, and how I have reacted to global events. How can my music help me rebuild my thought process and how can I fix myself, my doubts, and my limitations? Through self-reflection and practice, I finally understood the roles of singer-songwriter, bandleader, producer, composer, arranger, and engineer. Now I can also estimate how long it will take me to create a new album, how much effort it will require, and what tasks it will include. Part of the research was based on an interview with the head of a Russian jazz label, which gave me the motivation to continue further research and plan to start my own music label. This will allow me to expand the music industry in my home country and explore opportunities for collaboration and knowledge-sharing between the Russian and international music markets. I hope that my work will help musicians who are searching for their artistic identity to begin that search and understand the different roles of an artist's team.

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  Environmental Advocacy through Music

  Joseph Cornella
  2022

  This project tells the story of an individual with backgrounds and talents in the sciences and arts and his first attempt to unite the two in one project. It is an episode of my artistic development where I focused on the natural environment, something that is rich in both science and art, and attempted to protect it by influencing society to action. In the artistic, “right-brained” component, I used music to tell stories relevant to climate change with the intention of moving audiences to act more for the environment. In the scientific, “left-brained” component, I performed informational interviews with experts in the field of sustainable events and festivals and summarized my findings so that I can practice my art in a more sustainable manner in the future. Throughout the process, I pushed my creativity to include storytelling and activism in my craft, I took the first steps to achieving carbon neutrality in my career, and I learned how to unify my background in science with my artistic identity.

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  Space Sluts : The Artistic Identity of Madi Cox

  Madison Cox
  2022

  The purpose of this project was to continue to develop my artistic identity by strengthening areas of my artistry that would help to build the Space Sluts brand. With Space Sluts being such a visual performance idea, I wanted to solidify visuals to accompany that image and become more familiar with various types of technology to add into my live set and to use as tools while developing my production skills. I also wanted to continue the conversation around highlighting more women in the music industry, with a focus on women in music technology. In the current climate of social media, having a solid image and performance style feels necessary to build a fanbase and give yourself an edge in marketing yourself. During this academic year at Berklee, I’ve learned how to use and incorporate new technology into my live set that I feel will help my artistic identity stand out.

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  Out of Shadows

  Daniel de Boer
  2022

  The main purpose of my project was to realize my dream of making an album with friends from all over the world, and by doing that gain insight into the process of building a collective of creatives. I documented the entire process of the making of the album, and I describe how slowly a collective of creative people, based all over the planet, started to form. Besides that, I analysed how two of my musical inspirations, Michael League and Derek Trucks, built their collectives, and how got those groups to where they are today. I did the latter by finding answers to the following questions in their interviews: - Where to start? - How to choose the people to work with? - How to be a good band leader? For the documentation of the process of making my album and the start of my own collective, I used reflections from the answers to the questions above, that I found in the interviews with Michael League and Derek Trucks. The project challenged me in many ways, but I learned a lot through the process of creating the album. I was also inspired by the words of Michael League and Derek Trucks, as I found useful information in their interviews about collective creation and collaboration.

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  How to become a versatile vocalist and well-rounded performer

  Simone Delgado
  2022

  “How to become a versatile vocalist and well-rounded performer” presents the layout for handbook in which I propose the study of musical performance for singers as a combination of several disciplines such as music, acting, and even psychology. This handbook is a result of my experiences in music and performance, prior to and while at Berklee, and intends to open the possibilities for the vocal student to explore the development of performance as an individual journey in which they search for their artistic identity with a practical guide. The key elements included in the handbook are tools to develop your artistry, such as: research of music context (composer, history, artists, lyrics), how to analyze and prepare a music piece in a performative perspective, basic vocal techniques, practicing songs with and without emotions, body expression, how our body reacts to emotions, how to create a performance, how to learn new music genres and tricks to get over stage fright and how can you develop your personal brand as an artist.

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  El Retorno de Saturno

  Julio Marín Díaz
  2022

  This project has had the objective of record and release and album of eight tunes all composed by myself that shows all my background and knowledge of my career as a student and musician. It has combined the development of several skills around composition, arranging, being a multi-instrumentalist and be a self- producer. The basic formation of the album is a sextet: clarinet/saxophone, trumpet, piano, double bass, percussion and drums and also appears some collaborations of electric guitar, flamenco guitar player, flamenco singer and strings quartet in different tunes. All the music and the vision Is based in all the knowledge that my teachers and partners had provided me during this year to be able to succeed and reinforce my artistry identity and my vision as a musician and human being.

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  Duality: A Self-reflection of the Influence of Societal Issues in South Africa on my Original Compositions

  Cornelis Fick
  2022

  Three of my original compositions are inspected through the lens of my experiences and observations while growing up in South African society as well as my transition from classical music to exploring other genres, thereby forming a new artistic identity. The impact of observing specific social issues, such as gender-based violence, poverty, and inequality on my compositional process gave rise to a characteristic duality within and between all my compositions. All the musical elements associated with this duality are pointed out and discussed. My most important findings and creative attempts in the recording studio are also discussed to demonstrate my growth as a music producer, especially my experimentation to try find my own recorded piano sound that I prefer for solo piano. Furthermore, I also demonstrate how I make use of cinematographic storytelling to further enhance one of my solo piano compositions where words play no part in conveying what the music is trying to say.

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  Reconciliation

  Victor Goldschmidt
  2022

  Who am I? What's my purpose in life? These are the questions that have shaped my work through my journey at Berklee. It all started from an interior schism between my artistic and human side. A depression that did not allow me to embrace my artistic visions nor my care for nature and earth. Each side is disputing for all my attention and time. In an effort of reconciliation, I decided to create a multidisciplinary live performance that would join both parts of my whole personality, creating a narrative line that would blend my concerns about the state of the planet with the music that has inspired me. It's a very introspective project requiring a lot of honesty and dedication. Even if I am still at a draft stage of my personal quest, I sense that a little light has turned on in me, giving me the courage to continue through this path. I envision giving depth to scientific and philosophic discourses with my art, trying to narrate inspiring stories and visions. By attending and performing in conferences on wildlife/biodiversity protection, social causes, climate etc.… It would be a way through my art to contribute to a greater cause than my individual development.

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  True Voice

  Samuel Kelly
  2022

  This year has been dedicated to the discovery and cultivation of my true authentic artistic voice through the creation of a three-song EP and the further development of my technical facility on the saxophone. At the core of my identity, I am a saxophonist, so much of this year has been dedicated to further developing my technique and improv abilities on this instrument. I also wanted to develop the skills and systems that enable me to effectively and efficiently produce original music. By analyzing songs from artists I admire, like Lettuce, Bon Iver, The Nth Power, Tom Misch, and Cory Wong, I have gained a further understanding of the musical elements these artists employ within their songs so that I could utilize them within my compositions. By taking advantage of programs like Ableton, Sibelius, and Pro Tools, I developed, recorded, and produced my music efficiently. The most important thing I learned through all of this though was how important it is to work with the right people and develop a team that can help you realize your vision. From co-writers at the beginning of the process to the mix engineer toward the end, each person you let into work on your piece of music leaves a piece of themselves in your art, so making sure they are the right fit has become very important to me.

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  Funkifying the Gyimes

  Samuel Keri
  2022

  Since my childhood, I have experienced the colorful and bright heritage of my culture, the Hungarian folk music. While I consider myself a jazz musician, my undergraduate and graduate studies at Berklee College of Music made me realize that music is exactly like a language. No matter which style a player dedicates himself to, without the knowledge of one’s mother tongue the products we create will never be fully ours. Throughout my academic years, several professors were encouraging me to discover what the Eastern European tradition has for me musically, and bring that to surface. This project is about bringing Hungarian folklore into the contemporary music scene in terms of both instrumental playing and arranging, composing, and producing. My research already began in my undergraduate years, but the great collection of my discoveries are expressed in this project for the first time. My thesis moves around one ethnic area of Hungary called Gyimes (located in Transylvania) out of multiple other ones. So to say, this is definitely just the beginning of a life-long journey that I started in this academic environment.

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  From album to EP: ‘Bird on Concrete’

  Nelleke Kuipers
  2022

  For my Culminating Experience I have made a concept album, in the form of an EP, by the proposed name ’Bird on Concrete’. By letting myself get inspired by dramaturgy and by analyzing my own compositions in the body of work, I have gotten a clear picture of my own definition of a concept album and my own definition of the term theatricality. Bird On Concrete ‘About time to throw these shoes off And walk on bare feet again’ The album ‘Bird on Concrete’ will be about the reconnection with your childhood self; how can you see life through the eyes of a child again? As people we consist of contradictions, in our personalities and in our choices. Being a woman consists of many contradictions too. Within the themes of the album I'm embracing the duality in myself as a person. I have fully written and produced the album by the end of June. I aimed to participate in live-performances as part of the promotional package of the album. I have premixes of all of the songs in the body of work ready. This marks the end of this CE project.

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  Fly Now

  Kyle Langlois
  2022

  A prioritized objective of mine is to convey emotion through honest and open discussion of various topics through my lyrics and music; I have held this mindset since I began songwriting in high school and throughout undergrad, but this Master’s program has encouraged me to continue on, dig deeper into my past and my memories, and create new music that would emit strong feelings, which in turn would be relatable to my audiences. This project sees me working on a self-produced studio album in order to further explore my lyrical voice and technological skills; in addition, I am creating a live show to promote and showcase the album, but the concert will be solely comprised of me using a loop pedal and different instruments on stage, allowing me to build arrangements in live time on my own. With the resources, materials and people here at Berklee Valencia, I can push my own developmental limits and continue along in my artistic journey.

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  As Your Mind Allows

  Sage Melcher
  2022

  ‘As your Mind Allows’ is a body of work that includes two projects; an EP with my collaborator in NY and an album that I have self produced at Berklee. The title comes from the idea that our perceptions are only ‘as our minds allow’. Originally my CE was going to just be focusing on my NY EP and using the rest of the time to improve my musicianship, production skills, engineering knowledge and business knowledge. But in April I decided to challenge myself and add a self produced album to my CE since I was learning so much and working with great musicians here at Berklee. I am now in the mix/master phase of the NY EP and am still in the production phase of the Album. I hope to finish the productions by August and then record all the vocals and start mix/mastering come fall. I will be moving back to NY and hope to gather a team to help release this music as well as help with other branding aspects. I will be assisting a producer in many of NYs tops studios, creating visuals for the music and playing shows.

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  The Birth of a Podcast

  Zachary Mondlick
  2022

  I wanted to focus on something that could engage my community, both as a resource and an audience, and incorporate my sense of humor. After some time and advice from friends, as well as seeing a hole in the Berklee, Valencia marketing, I decided that a great way to achieve my goals could be to start my very own podcast. I devoted my entire year to its production, from all angles, developing a variety of necessary new skills along the way. I loved finding a way to use music and humor to build something that wasn’t only writing funny music. In my presentation and in this paper I explain in detail the process of making my podcast. My Culminating Experience helped me unlock a part of myself that had always been there, but only through this experience has it been able to surface.

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  Cultivar Raíces: Contemporary Traditional Colombian Music

  Luis Narvaez
  2022

  The purpose of this project was to study, preserve and create traditional Colombian music with a contemporary approach. The outcome includes this reflective document and an EP titled ‘Cultivar Raíces’, consisting of four songs in the genre of Bambuco and Pasillo. In the deliverables, it is embedded the learning experience of my journey on approaching this type of music and understanding it, maintaining an important emphasis on vocal performance and music production as key aspects for the approach. As a part of the process, the conclusions roam around the importance of understanding the genres and where they come from (social, geographical, and historical implications), rather than trying to comprehend them solely with musical analysis. Finally, collaboration is approached and becomes an important part of developing the unique sound for the recordings, accompanied by vocal exploration, which was key for the music to fit in with the genres and have a contemporary sound.

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  Tres y Mas: A Diverse Exploration of the Tres Cubano

  Dariel Peniazek
  2022

  The following project is an exploration of the instrument known as the “tres cubano”. In this work, I present my efforts to push the boundaries of how to play the instrument far beyond its traditional context both in technique and stylistic approach. Throughout the past year, I have been developing this concept by playing the tres in a variety of different genres and styles of music ranging from Mediterranean jazz to Brazilian music. This paper describes in detail this creative process as well as how I plan to use the concepts I have developed through the project in future professional endeavors. The work is presented utilizing a combination of transcriptions, recordings, and analysis of much of my work from the past year. Through this work, I hope to bring the tres to new audiences, create more professional opportunities for myself, and continue to search for my personal artistic identity.

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  GENESIS: a new beginning

  Aliyah Qualls
  2022

  My culminating experience project will be an interdisciplinary work of art that includes music in many forms, enhanced by the use of visuals, dance, and narrative prose. Inspired by the occurrence of astrological and natural phenomena, I will explore the ideas of mental health, self-discovery, healing, and rebirth. Not only will this project be a sonic and visual representation of some of my personal experiences, but it will also serve as the springboard for my new artistic identity - one in which I work in various forms and am not limited to only one form of artistic expression. The project will contain various aspects of research and analysis, development of instrumental and vocal technique, composition, arranging, orchestration, lyricism, recording and production, and dissemination. It is an opportunity for me to continue expanding on the various areas that I am interested in and find ways to continue developing them to their full potential.

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  Music as a Tool for Re-Imagination - A Revisit on the Socio-Political Attributes of Music

  Manos Stratis
  2022

  The purpose of this project is to attempt to transform a culturally charged space into a social space allowing collective re-imagination and collective decision-making between both Performers and Audience. Through the manifestation of an Immersive Live Performance an endeavor to re-train both Performers and Audience members to envision a different normative, away from the predominant, popular and inherent narrative, is going to take place. Through this process, a demonstration of the power of Music beyond entertainment is going to be examined. What are the sociopolitical attributes of Music? Can Music initiate and host an environment that will generate thought provocation as well as question the status-quo? Can Music allow a collective to conceive beyond their socially inherited perception?

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  Level Up!

  Arnau Torné Sabaté
  2022

  This project aims to improve my composing skills at the same level as my performance skills. This will help to define my artistic identity as I want it to be, recognised as a jazz composer and bass player; therefore, I need to create a daily practice routine where I have in my instrument technique as well as my composing exercises. In addition, to achieve that, I will challenge myself to write an extended composition connected from beginning to end. In my composing routines, I did all kinds of exercises from free writing to imitating music that I like through transcription and analysis. But I also researched some new music, listened to it, or use the time to arrange my composition, produce sounds, etc. It was a great learning experience to use all this time not only write music but also to create the process. This way, I needed to spend time thinking about what I wanted, how I wanted it, and make it be something organized. This project didn’t only help to write this piece of music, it helped improve my composing skills, and I will keep that for all my career. This creating process is a great contribution to anyone that wants to write any kind of music and broaden the composition tools. Hopefully, this project will inspire new musicians to practice composing in their routines.

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  TRAUMA

  Ajda Stina Turek
  2022

  The purpose of this project is to free myself from emotional obstacles that are holding me back from being happy and confident about myself, and to raise mental health awareness in the world. To achieve this purpose, I have written and produced songs about my own traumas. The EP Trauma consists of 4 songs: Are Red Rivers Too Extreme (ARRTE), To My Lover, The News and Artefacto and I have closely worked with students from MPTI. These songs were inspired by self-doubt, the isolation of the pandemic, feelings of helplessness, loneliness, and heartbreak. Through this experience, I have established my artistic voice, presenting an honest and relatable identity. I have learned managing and creative skills, as well as collaboration abilities.

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  How Am I Here? - EP

  Ana Vaamonde
  2022

  This Culminating Experience is made up of six recorded songs which will make up my debut EP titled, How Am I Here? Although I come from singer-songwriter and pop roots, this EP does not fit perfectly into any certain genre and combines elements of different styles to form a unique sound. This reflective paper follows the journey of taking these songs from lyrics and chords in notebooks, to arranged and studio recorded songs that are on the way to being released. Much work was needed to make this all happen. With collaborations from other CPPD musicians that played on the tunes, and MPTI producers and engineers, we were able to take my songs to a new world; a world that will soon be shared with listeners across platforms. This year was one of not only musical growth, but personal growth. In this paper I reflect on the ways in which I grew, and I speak on everything it took to make a song sound how I had always heard it in your head, from rehearsals, to numerous recording sessions. The goal was to finish recording the stems of a work that would fit into the pop world but offer a new twist on the lyrical and musical content. With hard work and help from my wonderful peers, we succeeded in doing so.

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  Isaac Wisdom & the Search for a Sound

  Isaac Wisdom
  2022

  In this CE project, I set out to find my artistic identity based on four specific genres (jazz, latin jazz, samba, and funk) that I had identified as important to me in my time before Berklee, Valencia. To accomplish this goal, I completed research in one song from each genre, completing transcriptions/score analysis, emotional timelines, and harmonic analysis on the tunes “On Green Dolphin Street” from Life in the Bubble, “Pa’mi Gente” from Pasaporte, “Triste” from Elis & Tom and “Click Bait” from the Striped Album. While conducting this research, I composed original tunes for a 5 track EP of instrumental horn music exploring this new identity. In practice, each composition on Even More (“Prickly Pears,” “La Palma,” “O Papa-léguas,” “Aún Más” and “A Tune for my Friends”) each ended up being in a different style, each one helping the search for this sound and new identity. While I did not find the sound I was searching for, I did find out things about myself and my music that I will carry with me into my future career.