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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It All Starts With a Song
Carolina Magini
2018The purpose of my project is to forge an identity as a songwriter, composing songs and presenting them in the most stripped and pure version, removing all of the elements that surround a song to deliver them in a very distilled format. An underlying intention is to differentiate from other artists through unifying songwriting, singing and production skills. Firstly, I chose three tunes I wrote in the past that had really strong potential as pure compositions; I analysed and deconstructed them and I reworked their form, lyrics and melody (recreation process). In the second stage, I recorded a new version of the songs using a piano/vocal arrangement. Then, I processed my own vocals to make them sound the best using eq, compression, reverb, delay, etc. Because of this project, I grew as a vocalist, as a songwriter, and as a vocal producer. The design of the processes proposes a path that could be pursued by different professional profiles in the music industry that may need to rebuild existing material through reflecting over their own work or work done by others.
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COLOMBIAN CARIBBEAN INFLUENCES IN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
Sergio Andres Martín Isoza
2018The purpose of this CE is to analyse traditional rhythms from Colombia and use them in the context of a contemporary musician. This paper is a performative research project, where the author takes three traditional rhythms from the Colombian Caribbean: Gaita, Porro and Cumbia. The work starts with a brief description about the history of the city of Barranquilla in Colombia and its yearly carnival, event where these three rhythms are performed among others in a celebration of culture and tradition, and includes information about traditional instruments commonly used to perform them. The creative process begins with rhythms being analysed and briefly described instrument by instrument. Thereafter, rhythms are adapted to modern instrumentation and/or used as a compositional tool in the design of the groove, harmonic progressions and melody, and finally showcased in live performances and studio recordings. The files found attached to this paper are a compilation of instructional videos, scores and performance examples that helped the development of this material during the course of the year.
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The Versatile Vocalist: An Exploration of Personal Artistry and the Creation of a Well-Rounded Musician
Sarah Martinson
2018This paper overviews the compositional process of myself as a vocalist and trumpet player navigating between contemporary and classical music and aiming to find an identity amidst these differences. The main question that is answered throughout the project is: “how can I redefine what it means to be a well-rounded singer?” With character research, a new set of performing musician standards, and an in-depth detailed process of six compositions, this paper reflects my journey as I attempt to answer the question and make myself more well-rounded. By analyzing both my own compositions and the common characteristics that great musicians share, I can find my identity by identifying both my compositions and my strengths and weaknesses, allowing me to create an identity that acknowledges growth and fluidity.
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Bonding the Artistry of Performance and Pedagogy
Zhujun Ma
2018The purpose of my project is to build my artist identity as both an artist/vocalist and a vocal educator. I worked on my vocal technique, my melodic writing, and the promotional skill to market myself. I first worked on several vocal techniques I wanted to improved in my vocal lesson. Then I went into the studio and record my vocal for more close listening and worked on details in my voice afterwards. Based on my own learning process, I wrote my teaching philosophy. For Melodic writing, I wrote 3 songs progressively. I took what I learned from the previous song and used in the next one, while discovering new things to learn. For the promotional skill, I put together a Chinese New Year Carnival including performance, games and food. I was liaising with venues and sponsors, marketed the event online and offline, as well as put the band together. Besides event promoting, I also made online portfolio (ie. streaming, artist blog) to promote myself as an artist and vocal educator. The project helped me find a clear direction of my future career and got me more work in my portfolio.
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Musical Alchemy: Towards Production Mastery
Alasdair J. McLeod
2018The purpose of my project is to develop my skills as a music producer. Analysing what a great. producer does, and for what reasons, to turn music into gold, and practising the skills required, supports my professional aspirations of becoming a sought-after producer and studio musician. As well as conducting research on great producers, I recorded and produced twelve songs sung by seven different artists across a range of genres, and sought feedback from the artists and engineers I worked with. During the process of reflecting on each production experience and applying what I learned to the next one, I discovered that the role of the producer is varied and complex, requiring a wide range of skills over and above musicality and technical competence. As well as developing my own production skills and bringing original music from new artists to the profession, I hope that what I discovered during this early stage of my journey towards production mastery will help other aspiring producers better understand the nature and challenges of the role and the range of skills likely to be required to become a great producer.
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Contemporary today, Heritage tomorrow: A Learning Approach to Contemporary Middle Eastern & Arabic Music
Mohannad Nasser
2018Exploring world music has always been my motivation and my source of inspiration as a performer and as a composer. Making traditional music become contemporary again is one of my main goals as a musician, therefore, this direction in music makes me ask myself about the relationship between tradition and the present: how could we reuse, recreate and re-produce the traditional elements of music in a contemporary context? And what role do I play in this recontextualization? The main purpose of this project is to compose an educational strategy to share the Arabic music with students, musicians, performers, and composers from different backgrounds. I hope to shine a new light on the richness of traditional Arabic music, so that musicians can borrow those traditional musical elements and reuse them in a contemporary context while composing, improvising and building a repertoire.
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Beyond the Mediterranean: Influences of South-European and Middle-Eastern Music in the Contemporary Jazz Composition
Dario Piccioni
2018This is an analysis of the creative process behind the composition of a contemporary/jazz/mediterranean album. Upright bass can also be considered as an ethnic instrument such as a turkish oud or a cretan lyre? The answer is mainly in my music, but in these writings you can find a conceptual contribution at his primary stage which represents the starting point for my future artistic research in the mediterranean and modal music studies, about new musical vocabularies and techniques applied to the double bass in order to bring it at next level.
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UKIYO-E: A Study of Japanese Music & Its Utilization in the West
Edward Takumi Ruddick
2018This project incorporates Japanese musical sounds with a teachable method to create chords and compositions. It includes the collection of Japanese collection and the modal development I invoked, with analysis and comparison between the pentatonic scales of Japan and Greek modes. I used the concept of modal tonality in these scales to construct chords based on clustered and mixed spacing. Next using resources from authors and scholars in jazz improvisation, I installed a method to develop a regiment for soloing, whilst also discussing other methods to play ‘out’ of the tonality. And lastly, from the chord construction methodology, I used my findings to create one composition to showcase how new music could be created. Although it was my desire to mix these parts into one full showcase, and to create more compositions, this really became a thesis with guidelines to create from the music of my culture.
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“Dear Charlie”: A Collection of Songs for Marimba and Voice
Nathan Smith
2018At its core, Music can be described as a form of communication; of what we cannot achieve only through speech. By intertwining melody and the human voice, we are able to attain a level of personal expression that transcends gender, age, race, social class, and more. By contrast, music can also be meaningless; an exercise of learned muscle memory through repetition, void of emotion. The music in the marimba world has strayed dangerously close to the latter by creating a trend of music that is technically demanding, time consuming, and largely unpalatable for the audience, isolating the instrument to chamber halls and jury rooms. I have written a collection of six pieces for marimba and voice, drawing on techniques in the song writing tradition in an attempt to bring the marimba to a new genre. By using the marimba as a singer-songwriter tool, we can introduce the instrument to a mainstream market, helping create more performance and occupational opportunities, and shedding light on this wonderful instrument.
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The Golden Door: an American immigrant song cycle
Shaudi Bianca Vahdat
2018The goal of this project was to create a new song cycle in the contemporary musical theatre genre exploring the American immigrant experience. Over the course of the year, I interviewed American immigrants hailing from different countries of origin. I used the text from those interviews to write five original songs, each with its own story arc and from the point of view of a different character, all on the topic of immigration to the United States. With a band of five and an ensemble cast of four singers (which included myself), I rehearsed and developed the songs and added short monologues in between. The ensemble performed this twenty minute theatrical piece in a staged concert open to the public, and the songs were recorded in the studios on the Berklee Valencia campus. Beyond this year, my plan is to continue to build on the foundation of this version of the song cycle into a fully produced stage musical.
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Melting the Two Americas: Artist Identity
Eva Villalba Elena
2018This project is based on a compositional process where I am developing my identity as an artist through the fusion between Latin, Soul and Funk music. “Melting the Two Americas” talks about who I am as a person, what are my influences, why I chose that musical fusion and which are the steps that I followed to mix those styles in my original songs. I have 4 original compositions two of them are in their pure style: Salsa and the other one is a Blues, and the other two compositions have already the fusion: Soul and Son Cubano and the other is a Latin-Funk song. I expanded my knowledge of the production side, helping the engineer through the process of recording, editing, comping and mixing. This project is the result of a continuous effort, hard work and passion to music, shown in my music and in my way of expression.
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“Oro Oro” Modern Music, Indigenous Rhythms
Josh Wallace
2018This project introduces the instruments, rhythms, and beats of Tahitian drumming into various contemporary styles. This was done by a number of steps. Studying Tahitian drumming, its history, instrumentation, and various arrangements and songs was the first thing I needed. I then needed a basic understanding of certain genres and their history as well. In this project I focused on three distinct genres: Reggae, Son Cubano, and Hip Hop. I wrote an original composition for each genre and incorporated Tahitian percussions and rhythms in each. Lastly, I transcribed a song and made a percussion set-up designed to play the transcription as well as basic rhythms associated with each genre including Tahitian percussion and rhythms. It is the hope of this project to introduce this powerful percussion style a sure place in the music industry today. Words like Tōʻere, Faʻatete, and Pahu Tupai should be known and used just like other instruments from around the world.
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Huntress: from Dark to Light
Naomi Westwater Weekes
2018Huntress: from Dark to Light is a concept album with 8 original songs, music videos, and press photos, and includes an artist identity and a press and marketing plan all to help me establish myself in the music industry. Huntress is my second conceptual album and is heavily inspired by Diana, the Roman Goddess of the hunt and moon. It presents and explores the female archetype of the “huntress” through expressions of female empowerment, love, vulnerability, and primal desires. Through creating this project, I’ve learned how to record an album, create a release campaign, and become a more dynamic artist. This projected increased my technical skills in Pro Tools, recording, and editing; my music business skills in branding, marketing, creative concepts, and social media; and unleashed my creativity in a studio setting.
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Developing A Curriculum For A Contemporary Music (Jazz) Performance Undergraduate Program in Uganda
Chris Weigers
2018The stated goal of this Culminating Experience is to create a Contemporary Music (Jazz) Performance curriculum designed for Uganda and that such a program is relevant to the students who will be enrolled. This curriculum will outline and describe courses created for the program. It will give a sample course load by term over a three-year bachelor’s degree program. This will be accompanied a description of expected outcomes for all students completing the program. Emphasis is given to the integration of traditional African music and instruments with Western styles and instruments. This is a technical reason why the program must be designed for use specifically in Uganda and East Africa in general. Another factor in creating such a program will be explored in the justification area. Here we will see how Western approaches do not always do justice to an African reality and an indigenous approach is one whose time has come.
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100 Days of Jams
Davis West
2018This project is an intensive compositional, collaborative, and artist identity project which focuses on developing methods to create music, and how to publicize content in an entertaining, interesting, or otherwise publicly accessible manner. For one hundred days, I composed original music, paired it to video, and uploaded to social media. Half were done solo, half were “jams” or collaborations with others. Along the way, all the data were collected and analyzed to formulate musical decisions. Certain examples are explained theoretically to identify personal musical habits, which then shaped later compositions; some worked and were used as models, others were not so smooth, so I learned what to avoid. Technology like Ableton was implemented to make each individual jam look and sound nicely produced, as well as look unique and entertaining. Social media analytics were taken from Facebook and Instagram, with focus on followers, views, likes, and comments. This data also formulated artistic decisions in the creative process. I hope this project may inspire future musicians to try their hand at creating original content and shed a light on how to keep the creative process intriguing for the creator and the audience.
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Creating A Modern Musician
Lorin Xavier Rivers
2018The purpose of this project is to incorporate the aspects of different facets of musicians into my own musicality. To create in my perception a modern musician. Musicality in today’s world isn’t only being proficient on your instrument, but being versatile. To be able to perform, compose, produce, record only enhances your musicality as a whole. In this project, I have analyzed and researched the styles of three different aspects of performance, composition, and production in three different artists. To see what they did and find concrete ways of incorporating them. I hope this project can be useful to any musician that is looking to expand their understanding.
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From Classical to Contemporary Violin: Intro to Improvisation
Yeji Yoon
2018The purpose of my CE was to write a textbook introducing improvisation to classically trained string players with contemporary music. Back in Korea, I went through a hard time because there is no material written in Korean that explains how to improvise on strings. Also, since I started improvisation, I have been faced many specific issues due to by my classical music background. This project was based on my own learning and teaching experiences and research. Overall this project, I tried to make a balance to combine the characteristics of Koreans and classically trained players. I took the weakness of Koreans and classical string players and applied it to suggest efficient training methods. Throughout the year, I was able to organize my teaching method with my educational philosophy and also find new training methods that work very well for string players. I strongly believe this. project eventually will be very helpful to classically trained Koreans who want to learn contemporary music and improvisation.
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Experiment in Folktional Song Form
Samuel Amos
2017I am proposing an experiment in songwriting. I will select five existing songs from the broader folk genre with unique song forms. For each tune, I will analyze the influence and/or effectiveness that the form has on the emotional impact of the song, including the form's influence on any elements that contribute towards the overall emotional impact.
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Brazilian Symphonic Phantasy
Rodrigo Andreiuk
2017Brazilian Symphonic Phantasy is an orchestral piece, divided into three movements named as "moods": introspection, serenity, and extroversion.
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Modern Drummer Artistry
Johann Audiffren
2017A portfolio/body of work demonstrating my work as a session musician as well as my composing experiences in order to define my artistic identity.
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The Way Forward
Michael Bester
2017My project consists of a portfolio of works that represent me as a composer, jazz artist, and as a producer.
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Harmonic and Compositional Tendencies in Contemporary Gospel Music
Clifford Bond
2017For my Culminating Experience I decided I wanted to delve deeper into the music of five Contemporary Gospel artists/composers – Kirk Franklin, Donnie McClurklin, Marvin Sapp, Fred Hammond, and Hezekiah Walker. These five artists have all had continuous success on the Gospel Billboard charts for the past 25-30 years and are all still releasing new music today; therefore, I believe they encompass the embodiment of the Contemporary Gospel sound.
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Ragas and the rasika
Rasika Chandrashekar
2017An exploration of Indian ragas and Western harmony through composition and extension of the Indian bamboo flute playing technique.
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Music Production and Self-Producing: A Case Study
Darro Chea
2017To explore the differences between being produced by a producer via the traditional studio method in comparison to self-producing without a producer.
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Raíz Mestiza
Lili del Sol Atehortúa
2017I want to create a unique concept with the uniqueness of myself. Original Latin American Music recordings in which I am able to describe traditonal customs in the best way possible.