Berklee College of Music

Berklee College began as the Schillinger House in 1945, which was the only college-level school in the United States in which jazz acted the basis of the curriculum. As the university continued to expand it’s curriculum, Schillinger House was renamed Berklee School of Music after the son of President Berk. Throughout the 1950s, Berklee’s population grew, and it received a fair amount of international students. Berklee would further expand its curriculum in 1962 as faculty crafted the first-ever college courses offered in rock and pop music. Berklee’s first bachelor’s degrees were distributed to sixteen students in 1966 (13 in music education and 3 in composition). In 1970, to honor it’s 25th anniversary and to fully capture the scope of its educational program, the name of the university was officially changed to Berklee College of Music. To further expand the curriculum, Berklee established an undergraduate degree in film scoring. Notable alumni with the degree are Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings), Alan Silvestri (Back to the Future), and Ramin Djawadi (Game of Thrones).

In the 1980s, Berklee embraced the popularity of electronic instruments, and developed a major in electronic production and design (formerly known as music synthesis). In the next few decades, Berklee would add majors in songwriting, music business/management, and music therapy. In 1993, Berklee partnered with international music schools to form the Berklee International Network, in order to promote music education globally. Berklee became even more accessible in 2002 when it created Berklee Online, allowing the curriculum to be taught from anywhere in the world. This program has currently taught more than 30,000 students from over 144 different countries. As Berklee entered the 2000s, it offered turntablism, Africana studies, video game scoring, and audio design. To increase the depth of the education offered, Berklee introduced academic minors to pair with majors. Berklee merged with Boston Conservatory in 2016, and created a dual degree program with Harvard in 2017. Berklee currently has 6,282 undergraduate students enrolled, and has 283 alumni who are Grammy award winners.