On this page, you can find the Culminating Experience (CE) Projects for all graduate students from the Berklee College of Music master’s program Global Jazz 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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Pura Bulla
Nicolas Guerrero
2019PURA BULLA, consists of original as well as traditional compositions rooted in music called Bullerengue. This style comes from the Colombian Caribbean coast in the north of the country and it originated from the musical tradition of African slaves. It was later influenced by Indigenous and Spanish culture. Similar to the Jazz tradition, Bullerengue has roots in several different musical cultures, and It is elaborated on this aspect of the music through my compositional and instrumentation choices. For the recording I chose different instruments that come from other musical traditions around the world such as the Arabic Flute, Mandolin, and Greek Laouto.
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Tripolarity
Faris Ishaq
2019“Tripolarity” is an interconnective approach and an alternative way of experiencing three aspects that represents me. These are my Arabic flute “Nay”, poetry and music therapy background which I studied as my Bachelor degree in Heidelberg/Germany. The name “Tripolarity” derives from a third neutral pole, which is not associated with any extreme, traditional thinking, for example, stigmas that can limit infinite possibilities and creativity. It’s a place of non-judgment and a starting point for people to redefine their experiences and discover their own truth. That said, I applied this to the way I think about the nay, poetry and music therapy and was able to find the hidden potential in them.
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Born Coloured: not 'Born-free'
Benjamin Jephta
2019I to delve into my experience as a so-called ‘Coloured’ in post- Apartheid, democratic South Africa. I dissect my experience and created music centred around important themes. These themes included ‘transformation’, ‘the coloured identity’, ‘the coloured and black relationship’ and ‘the coloured mentality’. My aim is to inspire and create a sense of hope, empowerment and unity in the South African experience, rather than alienating with a radical political approach. The compositions draws musically from traditional South African styles such as the Ghoema/Cape Jazz and Marabi music as well as modern African music idioms such as Gqom (a style of ‘house’ music), kwaito and hip-hop.
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Multi-track Mind: Connections in social music, art and anarchy
Jacob Jezioro
2019A creative project that emphasizes the rejection of absolute schemes and concepts. It affirms the unlimited development toward higher forms of social arrangements with no fixed goal or definite terminus. Original work is represented by the presentation, which is its own form of expression. Exploitations include poetic language and incorporating recordings to combine the musical and philosophical elements, and using free association as a tangible form of anarchism.
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The Transformative Effects of Education: How my experience at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute has affected me as musician and educator, and inspired me to become more socially active
Alexander Johnson
2019The title of my Culminating Experience Project is "The Transformative Effects of Education". This project is a reflection on how my educational experience at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute has affected me as a musician and educator, and how this experience has motivated me to become more socially active. The compositions that I wrote and recorded were all directly influenced from different lessons I've learned throughout the year at the BGJI, both musical and personal. This paradigm shift for me is a direct result of my education here, and the time I spent in the Music and Social Activism class. That class really got me thinking about what difference I could make in my community back home in Los Angeles, and this propelled me into the other component of my project. I had the idea to create my own non- profit organization, which I'm naming "The Norwalk Jazz All Stars". The mission of my organization is to expose middle school band students in the Norwalk/La Mirada school districts to jazz through free private lessons with professional musicians, playing in a jazz ensemble, and having performance opportunities in the community and area.
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The Unique Perspective of Drummers in the Art of Composition
Connor Kent
2019The goal of my Culminating Experience was to study the music composed by drummers, and to use this study to inspire my own compositions. This project documents my personal journey into learning composition and developing my voice as a drummer composer. I studied the process, inspiration, and techniques used by drummers to write music because I believe that drummers have a unique perspective to share in their work; and as a drummer, I would be able to relate more closely to their process than that of another instrumentalist composer. I researched drummer composers by interviewing them, analyzing scores and lead sheets, and listening to many records. After figuring out what compositional devices I thought were. particularly drummer-like, I used those techniques to help me compose four original pieces.
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Tęcza nut (an interconnective approach to early music education through jazz in Poland)
Malwina Masternak
2019My final project, Tęcza nut which is Polish for (Rainbow of notes): an interconnective approach to early music education through Jazz in Poland is an educational initiative directed for kids ages 6 - 8. The goal of the project is to teach through music, meaning that music is the vehicle through which kids learn lessons about other subjects such as math, geography, language, and values, as well as to introduce children to jazz. The process of creating this project has involved research on the influence of music in the development of childhood, selecting songs from the Polish tradition, creating innovative, jazz-influenced arrangements, writing new lyrics with an educational perspective, and finally performing and recording a selection of these songs. By introducing children to the melodies of their country in a way that is informative, interesting, and reflective of the jazz aesthetic, they will not only be internalizing elements of their national culture, they will also be exposed to important intellectual and musical concepts that will help enrich their lives.
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Global Mandolin Project: A Search for Identity
Jacob Means
2019The Global Mandolin Project: A Search for Identity, is a project that attempts to answer a simple question: Where did the mandolin come from, and where is it going? My mission with this project, is to contribute to propelling the mandolin forward and expanding the scope of mandolin music. In order to do this, I examined significant historical contributions to music that is played on the mandolin to better understand the cross-cultural influences that shape the instrument and its music. After this initial research of the mandolin and the social and economic conditions which led to its development, I internalized and reinterpreted musical characteristics from four cultures: Africa, Italy, Scotland, & Brazil. Each of these cultures impacted the development of mandolin music in a significant way. I then worked compositionally and improvisationally to synthesize this information through my artistic process, materializing musical influences I've experienced in a personal way. In completing this process, I sense a deeper connection to a global community and to myself. My hope is for my audience to share this increased understanding, and help bring teamwork, perseverance, accountability, equality, and social responsibility to each other's lives.
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Middle Eastern rhythms and the democratisation of gender roles
Jodie Michael
2019Using well known and beloved Lebanese folk tunes, an original composition and arrangement as metaphors toward the dialogue of gender equality and artistic expression in the Middle East. Through interpreting Middle Eastern musical traditions through a jazz sensibility, I wish to explore the potential of increased democracy within a musical ensemble setting, using this metaphorically to open the conversation of female inclusion in the arts community and canon in the Arab world.
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Character Studies: New Third Stream Music For Winds
Luke Norris
2019A study and analysis of 20th century classical music resulting in new music for winds, from sextet to dectet. My project also addresses how a 'Third Stream' way of thinking can help us write music for the 21st century and beyond.
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A'HAZEEJ
Tareq Rantisi
2019“A'hazeej” - meaning songs or the songs they sing in Arabic - is a study of musics from the Arabian Peninsula. The project documents these rich musical styles, never commercialized outside the Persian Gulf and, using Jazz idioms, works to create a unique experiment in new Arabic Music, enriched by the Jazz tradition and approach. A'hazeej simultaneously seeks to create accessible information about these sparsely-researched musical styles, making important material available to a broad audience. The project as presented here is a case study based on five songs: three from the “Sea Arts,” one a mix of Bedouin music and music brought to the Gulf by slaves from East Africa and one an Urban Art. I approached the work as a performer, educator and composer, not as an ethnomusicologist nor theorist. First listening, transcribing, and internalizing the melodies and complex polyrhythms, I then arranged and composed two songs and three instrumentals for a ten-piece jazz ensemble. Moving forward, A’hazeej will focus on women musicians and women’s “art forms” in order to highlight their buried contribution to this old tradition.
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The Generation Of Resistance
Alonzo Demetrius Ryan Jr.
2019The Generation of Resistance Project is a music education program designed to teach students how to bridge jazz with the contemporary music of today with the inclusion of social activism and outreach in order to prepare the next generation for social-political issues.
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Roots across Continents
Tomer Sadot
2019My project, named "Roots Across Continents”, deals with the exploration of my musical identity and background. I went back to my parents’ and their parents’ origins, Morocco, Poland and Romania which serve as a beacon for Eastern European Jewish music, France which serves as a beacon for Western European classical music and Israel. I researched these musical cultures inte to my and composed/arranged a piece for each. Exploring each of these cultures I deepen my knowledge about my ancestry, learn about the rich musical cultures of my origins and transform that material through my personal scope into musical compositions. This project is the first step of a much longer process of self development and enrichment as a musician and composer.
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The Ancestral Call
Jose Soto
2019The “Ancestral Call” is the name of the project. I think of this project as a movement to supporting the rescue of the Bribri culture in Costa Rica through music inspired by my journey of its spiritual, and philosophical life perspective. Bribris are the first Costa Ricans. They are one of the most prominent indigenous communities in the country, and the majority of them live in the city of Talamanca, in the south of this country. I found that this community didn’t have the word music. The closest word in Bribri to these words is "Tt.́k." This word means talking in the ritual language, and thus Bribris speak with their gods and spirits who live in the underworld (nature) to create a spiritual connection with nature (underworld). The closest resemblance of how "Ttok" can be understood in our society is the act of singing. For this reason, this was a unique experience for me. I decided that my artistic representation of the Bribri culture has to focus on a personal, spiritual, and abstract reinterpretation of what I understood about the Bribri culture translated to music.
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The Wake-Up Call: Sacred music in a Secular World
Grzegorz Wlodarczyk
2019The project "The Wake-Up Call. Sacred Music in a Secular World" is my attempt to answer the questions "Can I reconcile my calling as a musician with my calling as a man of faith? Can these two become one vocation?" The project consists of six compositions based on the early 18th-century church music from my home country Poland called "Gorzkie Zale". This historical source provided melodies that I arranged for a quartet consisting of the piano, the bass, the trumpet, and the percussion. In the recording studio, the band was set up in a circle, which created an intimate, meditative environment and allowed freedom of individual expression while maintaining an element of collective prayer. The goal of the project was to bring awareness of the historical and cultural value of Gorzkie Zale to an international audience, as well as to include my faith in the music I create and to redirect my purpose, from executing the notes towards creating a unified, spiritual experience.
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The Synesthesia chronicle: An exploration of my musical identity
Noé Zagroun
2019My project consisted in composing and recording 5 songs, getting inspiration from non- musical pieces of art (poems and paintings), using my synesthesia. Synesthesia is a neurological condition that creates links between sensorial pathways. For synesthetes -people who have synesthesia, regions of the brain that interpret different types of stimulations cross-activate involuntarily. For some of them, textures might have flavors, timbres might have shapes and letters might have colors associated to them.
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An exploration of west African music and its synthesis with contemporary western musical elements
Nerya Zidon
2019This project is a beginning of a journey born due to my fascination with west African musical and culture. Combining it with my love of different African-American musical styles (Jazz, Gospel, Funk etc) I set out to create a harmonious synthesis of these two worlds, allowing them to coexist and inform one another. I have conducted a deep research which included months of extensive listening to music, reading books and watching documentaries, investing in the ethnomusicology aspect of the research just as much as the musical one. I have pushed myself to the edge of my abilities as a performer, composer, arranger and producer, as I explored a variety of composition & arrangement concepts found in a long list of references and inspiration sources. As I look to the future, I intend to dive even deeper into the various cultures of west Africa, exploring concepts in education and philosophy which are common in the region. After exploring more areas of the region, as well as assembling the required budget in order to bring in west African musicians to record, I intend to release a full-length album, accompanied by a booklet with information about this amazing culture.
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The Bond: Chants of the Political Prisoner
Clarence Tyrone Allen II
2018I set 4 different scenarios/ experiences related to information I gathered on the social/ political climate of the prison systems of the USA. Specifically within minority groups and based on events from the early 1970s in California.
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The Composition Project
Henry Beal
2018This project is a study in the process of music composition. I interviewed six productive composers on their writing processes and learned about their habits, challenges and advice as related to writing music. I then took their ideas and applied them to my own writing and journaled every day about my experience. All of the music I wrote was consciously inspired by these suggestions. I also made a point to share my personal journey in writing music. I wanted to emphasize that the work it takes to become a more creative individual can only by done with a sense of self-knowledge.
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Music Beyond Bars
Cosimo Boni
2018The project is made of music that advocated for the abolition of the prison system.
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Sketches of She
Chloe Louise Brisson
2018Sketches of She is and interdisciplinary body of work that features the collaboration of various female artists.
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The Dominican Journey in the United States: A life story
Vlade Guigni
2018A six-movement series of original compositions based on short stories from my life since I left the Dominican Republic for the US. These compositions represent my first original material ever and it pursues to apply concepts and philosophies learned during my Master's at the BGJI.
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Threads of Being: If all we have is now
Keira Harman
2018Threads of Being is a cultivation of experimental works in the form of poetry, photography, composition, storywriting, sketching; the final product for this presentation being a film of 16 minutes.
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Two Minutes to Midnight
Samuel Hart
2018I composed a four movement suite that was inspired by issues that have come out of tensions in the political and social climates in the world, particularly in the United States. I used the symbol of The Doomsday Clock, which was created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, as an overarching theme for my suite. This theme being the impeding threat of global nuclear war. In the suite I wanted to highlight the atrocities of war and gun violence through the tone of the music. Each movement was paired with either a painting or photography depicting the powerful imagery of war and gun violence. I used paintings by Goya and Picasso in my first and third movement. My second movement was inspired by photos taken on the day of the school shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School. I used a collection of photos by Wim Wenders for the fourth movement of the suite. The purpose of the suite was to highlight these very powerful issues but also to inspire and unify people. I decided to end the suite on a more positive note to instill the idea of hope in the listener.
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Tasting Notes: Coffee and Music
Aaron Holthus
2018I composed 4 original pieces of music based on 4 different coffees from around the world. I set out to do this to recognize the attention to quality and sustainable craft/business practices in the speciality coffee industry, as the work of modern roasters and baristas inspires me. In this project I explored subjects like cross-modal association and the link between taste and sound as well as the musical traditions of the region the coffee was grown in, all to create new music that was reflective of and paired with a unique flavor and history.