As an employee of Berklee College of Music I was able to apply, and was graciously selected, for the Gracenotes volunteer committee’s annual trip. This year we went to New Mexico to help build houses with Sante Fe’s Habitat for Humanity. These are a few things I learned along the way…
Student Experience (Page 6 of 183)
Student Experience
Performing the song “Space” for John Mayer.
Musician/songwriter John Mayer stopped by Berklee on June 16, 2017, to workshop songs from six students in front of a 500-strong crowd. One of those songwriting students, Charlotte Lessin, shares her experience below.
By Charlotte Lessin
Getting the chance to meet and perform for John Mayer is a rare and incredible opportunity. I have been a fan of his music for a long time and to be in his company, let alone have the chance to play my own song for him, was actually a little nerve racking. Until three weeks ago I had never imagined that this could happen.
Teague (right) attended college in my small hometown.
Back from the Berklee Gracenotes journey to Santa Fe for week or so, we’ve had some time to reflect on our experiences there. One, among many, values reinforced through our work there is the cultivation of community, with clear reminders that the distance that separates humans in this country (and beyond) is much less than the miles of physical space. In this modern world, it is easier than ever to collaborate with those all over the world to build positive energy and put it to a meaningful result.
At Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument
From the moment my colleague who traveled with Gracenotes to New Orleans told me ‘if you have the chance, GO’, I knew I wanted to take part in the 2017 Berklee Gracenotes Sponsorship trip. As the sole Boston Conservatory at Berklee member, I still was unfamiliar with Berklee staff and faculty outside my own department, and to work closely with new faces in a way and in a place far removed from our usual interactions and settings was definitely appealing.
By Abby Anastasio
When the students going on the 2017 Berklee Nashville Trip boarded the bus in Boston, none of us anticipated that our 25-hour journey would include a breakdown and subsequent pit stop at a secluded Waffle House franchise in the small town of Lexington, VA. Even more surprised than all of us were the employees at that location, who were given no warning that 120 hungry, tired college students were about to touch down and make their day interesting. Within minutes, the tiny restaurant filled with deafening chatter, one student had queued up “All Star” by Smash Mouth on the jukebox, and the hashbrowns were flying from the first order until the bus was finally fixed. As funny as it is to look back on all of us invading that Waffle House, the week in Nashville that followed was far less stressfully spontaneous. Having gone on the trip the year prior, I had a vague idea of what I was getting into, but this trip proved to be a very fresh experience in many ways.
