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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Old and New Dreams
Daniel Elbert
2020‘Old and New Dreams’ is a brief, mixed-media essay on the state of modern America. With it, the artist hopes to provide an honest reflection of our many challenges, and propose that only in solidarity can we move forward. The suite has three movements. The first, ‘Vigil’, is comprised of three pieces, and deals with issues of violence, pain, and division in our country. ‘I Want a President’ presents an alternative: a world governed by very different values, and by very different people. Finally, ‘Old and New Dreams’ closes with the hope that this future can become a reality, if we demand it. Critically, the suite uses existing works of art, literature, photography, and film as a vehicle for the artist to make his own comments on the culture. These works serve as both an inspiration for, and in many cases, are integrated into the suite.
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Reclaiming A Stolen Future: A Musical Exploration of the Intersection of Climate Change and Racial Inequality in the Modern World
Eli Heath
2020Reclaiming A Stolen Future: A Musical Exploration of the Intersection of Climate Change and Racial Inequality in the Modern World uses music as a framing tool in order to raise awareness and generate emotional connections to the pressing issues of climate change and racial inequality. The suite consists of five distinct movements; each focuses on a different facet of these interconnected issues, and together they form a cohesive narrative arc. The first movement, “Calm Before the Storm,” is inspired by the beauty and natural biodiversity of our planet. Movement two, titled “Addicted To Risk,” deals with corporate greed and exploitation, unsustainable business practices and policies, and their inevitable consequences. The third movement, “Turning Point,” looks at the real people who are affected most by these irresponsible actions, with a special focus on patterns of racial inequality. In "Reflection,” the listener is invited to imagine what it would take to achieve a sustainable future and how we will need to fundamentally reshape our relationship both with the environment and each other in order to achieve this. And finally "Rise," the fifth movement, is a call to action in order to demand and implement these changes.
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The Greatest of These: Fighting for Freedom
Tyson Jackson
2020Throughout out my development as a young man I’ve noticed that every successful individual that I’ve ever encountered whose left a strong impression on me all have shared a common characteristic. What is that you might ask? Well, that’s faith. Given that it requires much maturity, and a constant choosing of consistency it is a topic that is touchy and rarely talked about. The purpose of my culminating experience project is to shed light/share how my faith in Jesus Christ has been the very thing that has fueled everything that I’ve ever done as well as everything I’ve ever attained throughout my life. In addition, I ultimately plan to use this presentation in an effort to help others clearly understand that in many of the battles that we face, we never face them alone. With God’s love as center, and with the consistent accountability and support of each other, we will be able to be more victorious in our longstanding daily fight for freedom.
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Avian Voices: Inspired by Imperiled Soundscapes, Advocating for Nature's Musicians
Minnie Jordan
2020This Culminating Experience project consists of five recorded compositions, inspired by birdsongs and natural soundscapes: “The Myrtle Warblers,” “Summer Song,” “May-Day Morning,” “May-Day Mid-Day,” and “May-Day Frogsong”. I was inspired by many disparate musical styles, as well as the croaking of frogs and the singing of birds, when writing these compositions. These five pieces were originally intended to be performed in a live concert organized to raise awareness of environmental issues and to benefit avian conservation, but due to COVID-19 those plans are on hold. In the interim the music will be a part of a video released to promote an online fundraising effort for the same cause. It is my intention to develop the connection between nature, and birdsongs in particular, and my own compositions and musical voice, and to use my music to practically benefit avian populations.
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Resonance as an act of Resistance
Yessaï Karapetian
2020Resonance as an act of Resistance is an exploration of the philosophies of Gilles Deleuze and Hartmut Rosa through my personal prism on the crucial role of art and artists in our societies. How can art help us develop the tools to deal with the biggest issues the world is facing right now? In this presentation I navigate through the relationship of figures like Etty Hillesum and Primo Levi with what they experienced during Holocaust, as well as Rodolpho Mendoza Denton’s studies on cognitive sciences and racism. We will observe how human beings are victim in some contexts and persecutor in other contexts. How we are all part of the problem and part of the solution at the same time. How to transform poison into medicine through art, religion and nature (vertical resonance).
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Temple Beyond Sanctuary: A personal study of hybridizing Indian music and Jazz
Kavyesh Kaviraj Chirayil
2020Temple Beyond Sanctuary is a suite of compositions written to utilize Carnatic music and its' hybridization in a modern jazz context. This project studies the requisite devices that characterize Carnatic music, and explores the central attributes to its performance. These devices are then expanded upon by combining concepts from the jazz genre, adding upon like elements like improvisation, motivic development, and rhythmic complexity, but carefully contextualizing elements as authentic to each genre that are absent in one another, such as harmony or dissonance. Theses compositions are derived from personal stories of immigration, that the author has collected from his family, or personal experiences as an immigrant.
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The Power Of Us
Nathan Kay
2020The Power Of Us explores collaborating beyond the barriers that we perceive as genre. It is a musical project that involves people from very different backgrounds working together to create a personal and relevant small body of work. The Power Of Us represents the humanity in individuals while also building bridges as a collective to further create a sense of community at a time dominated by a world pandemic and social injustice.
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Connections: creating bonds and building bridges in music and society
Gregory Loughman
2020For my culminating experience I chose to record a musical suite and to start an organization. Both of these endeavors were focused on the ideas of connection and disconnection in the US today. For the musical suite I wrote 7 pieces that, taken together, have an arc that starts by addressing issues we face of division and isolation, then moves toward a possible solution. The second aspect of my culminating experience was to put these ideas into action. In the fall of 2020 I created and organization called New England Jazz Connections (NEJC). The goal of the organization is to put on jazz concerts in unique spaces to raise money for worthy causes. In the future I plan to release this music and continue with the work of this organization.
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Ndombe: The musical landscapes of Argentina and its African origins
Rosina Scampino
2020I started this project driven by the strong desire to know more about the music of my home country, Argentina. As a drummer, I have spent most of my formative years playing and studying jazz and Brazilian music; but I have always felt that I needed to research the music of my home country in order to broaden my musicality and to explore my musical identity. This project was a first attempt for me to incorporate some of these rhythms and musical elements of Argentinean music to my playing, in an honest and respectful way.
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The Taboo of a Woman's Tragedy
Matthew Stubbs
2020This project sought to musically represent unspoken tragedies befallen specifically to women around the world in an effort to begin the healing process for their victims, and educate a community complicit in allowing such anguish to go unrecognized by our governments failing systems. First person accounts and testimonials were used as research instruments to create cinematic compositions both from the perspective of the victims, and the composer coming to understand the harsh apathy to women’s pain. This study showed that music is a vital tool for the supplemental emotional education of these issues, yet what still remains unclear is if a listener is compelled to adapt their perspective off of the music alone. This project recommends that an artist fully realize their intentions before sharing socially active music. At the cost of spreading ideology, omitting the inspiration for a piece in presentation can allow for the listener to use their imagination to draw meaning, and thus has potential to affect a larger audience. Inspirations can always be made available upon request.
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Sicily: The Mediterranean Melting Pot of Cultures and the Arab Connection
Giacomo Tagliavia
2020Sicily has been home to dozens of cultures that have brought different traditions and music styles to the island. My goal was to dive into these traditions and understand how they influenced Sicilian folklore that was very active until the 1950s. Learning about these music styles made me realize how broad the topic was and I decided to focus on the Arab musical tradition, which I recognized as the most prominent in the recordings I was able to discover.
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Hiding Underneath - Our Oppression, Identity and Gender
Wenjun Wu
2020The Project "Hiding Underneath - Our Oppression, Identity and Gender ” aims to explore the themes of awakening society to respect gender and identity issues. Through the interviews, compositions, story/ poem, paintings and visual, based on self-therapy, rediscover who I am, and awaken from a part of my life spent hiding and covering my gender identity as a result of gender-related physical and mental abuse. I want to make society aware of mistreatment because of gender identity and inspire people to respect and learn it.
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ahon: explorations of a global Filipina artist
Hosanna Jireh Calo
2019Explorations of a global Filipina artist who, in search for her cultural and ancestral roots, ultimately finds a deeper connection to the inner self and to the world.
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Polish culture as a means of preserving nationality and identity during the partition 1795-1918
Agnieszka Derlak
2019Project about the influence of the Polish artists on regaining the independence of Poland combined with a compositional work based on Polish classical music from XIX century conveying the idea of social change through art.
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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.