World Percussion & Mallet Keyboard Festival, Vineyard Vibes 2003, and 'Berklee in Puerto Rico' Awards $61K

All concerts are open to the public. Concerts in the Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Ave., are $5 for general admission, $2 for senior citizens. Concerts in the David Friend Recital Hall, 921 Boylston St., are free.

For a complete schedule of World Percussion and Mallet Keyboard Festival concerts, go to: www.berklee.edu/events

Berklee and B/R Creative are pleased to announce the return of their annual summer music celebration, Vineyard Vibes, for 2003. This year's event takes place Thursday, July 24, at 9 p.m. at the famous Vineyard club, the Hot Tin Roof, and will be hosted by Berklee Professor and Vineyard resident Livingston Taylor.

Vineyard Vibes 2003 will present The John Scofield Band, featuring Grammy nominee and Berklee alumnus John Scofield ’73 , with Avi Bortnick on rhythm guitar and sampling, Andy Hess on bass, and Berklee alum Adam Deitch ’98 on drums.

Opening the concert will be the Berklee-based Spectrums. Led by Berklee student Ian Rapien, the quartet plays self-described "electronica-meets-jam-band" jazz, the perfect complement to the Scofield group.

Tickets for Vineyard Vibes 2003 are $25 per person and can be purchased at several locations on Martha's Vineyard — Conroy Apothecary in West Tisbury, Oak Bluffs; Above Ground Records in Edgartown; and the Chilmark Store in Chilmark — or by calling 508-693-0305.

For the second consecutive year, there will be a Berklee alumni reception prior to Vineyard Vibes 2003. The reception will be held at Mansion House in Vineyard Haven, with a chartered boat leaving from Falmouth at 5:00 p.m. and returning at 11:30 p.m. For alumni wishing to visit the island in the morning, a separate boat shuttle will be available at 10:30 a.m. Price package for alumni is $35 per person, which includes a buffet dinner, live music and giveaways, and one ticket to the concert. Alumni wishing to attend should contact Adrian Ross at 617-747-2449, or [email protected]

A portion of the concert’s net proceeds go to the Berklee College of Music Scholarship Fund, which each year awards a deserving Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School student with a partial tuition scholarship to Berklee.

Fourteen talented young Puerto Rican musicians received scholarships to attend Berklee during the "Berklee in Puerto Rico" graduation ceremony on Sunday, June 1, at Escuela Libre de Música in Hato Rey. Berklee awarded $61,000 among the fourteen students, while Mendez & Company, Inc. has pledged $10,000 to be awarded to the program's top students, for a total of $71,000 in scholarship funds. The winners may use the awards to pursue study at Berklee in Boston, the world's largest and most culturally diverse music school.

The "Berklee in Puerto Rico" program, which is held annually in conjunction with the Puerto Rico Heineken JazzFest, is a weeklong, intensive course in the Berklee method of performance and instrumental instruction, taught by members of Berklee's outstanding faculty. Since beginning the "Berklee in Puerto Rico" program eight years ago, Berklee has awarded more than $450,000 in tuition assistance to participants of the program, and 20 scholarship winners have gone on to attend Berklee in Boston. Over the years, nearly 150 students from Puerto Rico have gone to Boston to study at Berklee full-time or in the college’s five-week summer program.

Eleven students received scholarships for full-time study at the college. They are: Alex Monserrate, piano, San Juan; Nannette Vélez, flute, San Juan; Ariel Robles, bass, Bayamón ; Elias Santos, bass, Carolina; Rafael Lebrón, trumpet, Humacao; Mayra Gutiérrez, voice, Bayamón; Carlos Colón, piano, San Juan; José Gonzalez, baritone sax, Mayaguez; Luis Ramirez, tenor sax, Caguas; Angel Merced, tenor sax, Juana Díaz; and Noelia Cruz, violin, Humacao.

In addition, three students received scholarships to attend Berklee's five-week summer program for high school students. They are: Hugo Johnson, piano, Vega Baja; Raquel Borges, voice, Mayaguez; and Enrique Trinidad, flute, Santana.

"Berklee in Puerto Rico" is made possible with generous support from alumnus and Trustee Luis Alvarez '83, vice president of Mendez & Company and producer of the Puerto Rico Heineken JazzFest. Alvarez's company donated $10,000 for the Mendez & Company Puerto Rico Heineken JazzFest Scholarship to further assist students in attending Berklee.

Alvarez dedicated the evening of Friday, May 30th to Berklee President Lee Eliot Berk, in appreciation for his contribution to the development of Latin musicians. The event was the first of many commemorating Berk's retirement next May after 25 years at the helm of Berklee College of Music, which was founded by his father Lawrence Berk in 1945. That evening, saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera received an honorary doctor of music degree from Berklee and was joined on stage for the ceremony by Berklee Herb Alpert Visiting Professor Michel Camilo H'00, who received his honorary doctorate at the Puerto Rico Heineken JazzFest in 2000 as part of "Berklee in Puerto Rico," and Chick Corea H'97, to whom this year's JazzFest was dedicated.

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