Berklee College of Music

Bruce Randall Hornsby is an American singer, pianist, accordion player, and songwriter. Known for the spontaneity and creativity of his live... performances, Hornsby draws frequently from classical, jazz, bluegrass, folk, Motown, rock, blues, and jam band musical traditions with his songwriting and the seamless improvisations contained within. Hornsby's recordings have been recognised on a number of occasions with industry awards, including the Best New Artist Grammy in 1987 with Bruce Hornsby and the Range, the Best Bluegrass Recording Grammy in 1990, and the Best Pop Instrumental Grammy in 1993. Hornsby has also achieved recognition for his solo albums and performances, his current live act Bruce Hornsby & the Noise Makers, his bluegrass project with Ricky Skaggs, his jazz act The Bruce Hornsby Trio, and his appearances as a session- and guest-musician. He also collaborated with the Grateful Dead and was a member of the band from September 1990 to March 1992, playing at every show during this period in their history.
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Alan Anthony Silvestri is an American film composer and conductor. Silvestri is best known for his collaborations with director Robert Zemeckis,... having scored Romancing the Stone , the Back to the Future trilogy , Who Framed Roger Rabbit , Death Becomes Her , Forrest Gump , Contact , Cast Away , The Polar Express , Beowulf and A Christmas Carol . Silvestri is also known for his work on Predator and Predator 2 , both of which are considered preeminent examples of action/science fiction film scores. He has also begun a collaboration with director Stephen Sommers, scoring the films The Mummy Returns in 2001, Van Helsing in 2004 and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra in 2009. Silvestri has also composed music for television shows, including TJ Hooker , Starsky & Hutch , CHiPs, and Manimal . Silvestri was 21 years old when he started his film/television composing career. His early style is marked by a strong use of the octatonic scale, as well as an eclectic use of different notes and instruments. Silvestri was born in New York City.
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Melissa Lou Etheridge is an American rock singer-songwriter and musician. Etheridge is known for her mixture of confessional lyrics, pop-based... folk-rock, and raspy, smoky vocals. She has also been an iconic gay and lesbian activist since her public coming out in January 1993. Etheridge was born in Leavenworth, Kansas, the younger of two girls, to John Etheridge, a psychology teacher at Leavenworth High School, and Elizabeth Williamson, a computer consultant. She attended David Brewer School, which is still located at 17th and Osage Streets. She graduated in 1979 from Leavenworth High School , 10th Avenue and Halderman. Etheridge was a member of the first "Power and Life" musical/dance group at LHS which is still active today. Her childhood home was at 1902 Miami Street. Etheridge's interest in music began early; she picked up up her first guitar at 8. She began to play in all-men country music groups throughout her teenage years, until she moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music. While in Berklee, Etheridge played the club circuit around Boston.
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Diana Jean Krall, OC, OBC is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer, known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 6 million albums in the US... and over 15 million worldwide. On December 11, 2009, Billboard magazine named her the second Jazz artist of the 2000–09 decade, establishing her as one of the best-selling artists of her time. She is the only jazz singer to have eight albums debuting at the top of the Billboard Jazz Albums. To date, she has won three Grammy Awards and eight Juno Awards. She also has earned nine gold, three platinum, and seven multi-platinum albums. In 1993, Krall released her first album, Stepping Out, which she recorded with John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton. It caught the attention of producer Tommy LiPuma, who produced her second album, Only Trust Your Heart . Her third album, All for You: A Dedication to the Nat King Cole Trio , was nominated for a Grammy and continued for 70 weeks in the Billboard jazz charts. Love Scenes quickly became a hit record with the trio of Krall, Russell Malone and Christian McBride . In August 2000, Krall was paired on a 20-city tour with Tony Bennett.
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Joseph Salvatore "Joe" Lovano is a post bop jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. Since the late 1980s, Lovano has been one of... the world's premiere tenor saxophone players, earning a Grammy award and several nods on Down Beat magazine's critics' and readers' polls. He is married to jazz singer Judi Silvano. Lovano was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Sicilian-American parents. His father's family came from the town of Alcara Li Fusi in Sicily, and his mother's family came from Cesarò, also in Sicily. In Cleveland, Ohio, Lovano was exposed throughout his early life to jazz by his father, Tony "Big T" Lovano. John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, and Sonny Stitt were among his earlier influences. He developed further at Berklee College of Music where he studied under Herb Pomeroy and Gary Burton, then served a big band apprenticeship with Woody Herman's Thundering Herd and the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. Cleveland tenorman "Big T" Lovano was his son's first inspiration, teaching him all the standards, how to lead a gig, pace a set, and be versatile enough to always find work. Joe started on alto at age six and switched to tenor five years later.
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Gary Burton is an American jazz vibraphonist. A true original on the vibraphone, Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an... alternative to the usual two-mallets. This approach caused Burton to be heralded as an innovator and his sound and technique are widely imitated. He is also known for pioneering fusion jazz and popularizing the duet format in jazz, as well as being a major figure in jazz education. Beginning music at six years old, Burton for the most part taught himself to play marimba and vibraphone. He also began studying piano at age sixteen as he finished high school in Princeton, Indiana . Burton has cited jazz pianist Bill Evans as a main inspiration for his approach toward the vibraphone. Burton attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1960-61. He studied with Herb Pomeroy and soon befriended the composer and arranger Michael Gibbs. After establishing his career during the 1960s, he returned to join the staff of Berklee from 1971–2004, serving first as Professor, then Dean and finally as Executive Vice President during his last decade at the college.
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