Berklee Blogs

First-hand accounts of the Berklee experience

Concerts (Page 1 of 45)

Concerts

Famed Keyboardist Greg Phillinganes Puts It All in Perspective

At a recent master class cosponsored by Red Bull, keyboardist Greg Phillinganes worked with students in real time to help their performance skills and musicianship, as well as offer career advice. Berklee blogger Chandler Dalton shares her reflections about this special event.

Greg Phillinganes (center) poses with the student performers who participated in his Red Bull master class.

Greg Phillinganes (front, center) poses with the student performers who participated in his Red Bull master class.

Before anyone even stepped out onto the stage, there was an air of childlike excitement in the David Friend Recital Hall. Greg Phillinganes, the charismatic Toto keyboardist with a history of working with household names such as Stevie Wonder and Bill Withers, was about to impart knowledge onto an audience of hopeful composers and performers, and play in a full band of Berklee students. I couldn’t help but feel the pure thrill from some of my classmates that were about to watch their hero play alongside their peers, and it was yet another reminder of the symbiotic relationship between performers and their audience.

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Concert venue prior to a Flamenco Legends performance

Tali Rubinstein on Touring with ‘Flamenco Legends’

This past fall, Israeli recorder player and composer Tali Rubinstein B.M. ’14 was invited to fill harmonica virtuoso Antonio Serrano’s spot with Flamenco Legends, the late Paco de Lucia’s band, now led by Javier Limón, artistic director of the Mediterranean Music Institute. Here are a few selections from a travel journal she kept over the course of the tour. You can also read the full travel journal.

By Tali Rubinstein B.M. ’14

Tali Rubinstein and Flamenco Legends in the touring vanTuesday, October 31, 2017

Being on an airplane is one of the strangest situations. It is as if time has paused, someone put the hourglass sideways. You are obliged to wonder, to doubt and ponder. I am on my way from TLV to Sacramento, to join the late Paco de Lucia’s band, “Flamenco Legends,” led by Javier Limón. Indeed, what a legendary moment I’ve been waiting anxiously for, for so long! Only one hour left for this flight in this crowded cabin, and then time starts rushing again, towards our first show out of four, tomorrow. Just as a typical musician, I had close to zero time to practice, and the music is probably the most challenging repertoire I’ve faced as a professional musician.

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Lampedusa Benefit Concert Inspires Response of Hope

lampedusa-bostonA few weeks ago, I had the honor of attending a benefit concert at the Berklee Performance Center, which featured a multi-star Americana cast comprised of Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Robert Plant, Buddy Miller, and the Milk Carton Kids. The concert, titled Lampedusa, aimed to raise awareness for the current worldwide refugee crisis. Previous to the concert, I had no idea that 65 million people worldwide have been displaced. As I left the concert, I challenged with a choice—will I allow myself to react in despair, or will I choose to respond with hope?

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Singing My Way to Montreux

Fabio Giacolone singing at the Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition

Image credit: Damien Richard

by Fabio Giacalone ’16

My first day at the 2016 Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition in Switzerland was quite an eventful one. It flew by pretty quickly and included a lot of travel logistics, but I was also able to rehearse with the house trio as well as meet and bond with my fellow vocal contestants. That afternoon, not far from the conference site, there were a few workshops led by famous artists, a highlight of which for me was meeting Patty Austin and singing with her. 

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Insider’s Scoop Backstage at Electric Daisy Carnival

By Edward Ma

more EDCLast month, I had the amazing opportunity to attend Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) in New York with my classmate Kim Barbosa as Heavy Rotation Records (BPMI) representatives for our artist Glow Team. Heavy Rotations Records is an on-campus record label that signs a select group of Berklee artists each year and helps the signed artists build a solid fanbase until festival season. I learned so much about the live concert industry from working as the point person for Glow Team at EDC, and I’ll be giving the insider scoop on how logistics run in an event as such!

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