BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSIC RETURNS TO UMBRIA FOR 15th ANNIVERSARY OF JAZZ SUMMER SCHOOL

BOSTON, MA (USA) June 30, 2000 -- Berklee College of Music faculty are packing up their instruments and lessons and heading for Perugia, Italy, to teach a 10-day jazz workshop, July 11 - 23, for young musicians. Berklee Summer School at Umbria Jazz Clinics -- celebrating its 15th year -- is unique, offering a contemporary jazz education not easily found in traditional European conservatories. Summer School takes place throughout the Umbria Jazz Festival, giving participants an important homework assignment each night: watching and hearing some of the most influential performers in jazz. At the end of the program, up to $60,000 in Berklee scholarships will be awarded to outstanding student musicians.

2000 is the 15th year that Berklee has conducted the Umbria Jazz Clinics, and for this anniversary Festival Artistic Director Carlo Pagnotta and Berklee Associate Vice President for International Programs Larry Monroe decided to do something very special. The college will bestow Honorary Doctorates of Music to two venerated figures who have made lasting contributions to contemporary music: Dave Holland, and James Moody. The Honorary Doctoral Ceremony will take place at 11:00 on July 22nd at the Sala dei Notari, in Perugia. World-renowned vibraphonist and Berklee Executive Vice President Gary Burton will preside at the ceremony.

Another special event to mark the 15th anniversary of the Umbria-Berklee relationship will be the performance of a top Berklee student Octet, led by Berklee Woodwind Department Chair and Tony Williams/Art Blakey tenorman Bill Pierce. The Octet will perform each day on their own stage in the Piazza della Repubblica, at the midpoint of the famed Corso Vannucci. The hand-picked group, which performed two, sold-out shows in May at the famed Blue Note club in New York, will be joined in nine days of performances by several other festival performers, including vibraphonist Gary Burton, saxophonist Donald Harrison, and pianist Eric Reed.

Berklee Summer School in Umbria closely resembles the experience of studying at Berklee