Dear members of the Berklee community,
On June 8, William “Bill” Gitt, former faculty member and chief engineer at Berklee, passed away at age 86.
Born in Hanover, Pennsylvania, Bill got his start at Dartmouth College in the early 1950s, as a student building electronics for the college’s radio station. He joined the U.S. Army after college, where he expanded his knowledge of electronics. Bill contracted at RCA for the army on the first silicone-based computer in Camden, New Jersey.
Dear members of the Berklee community,
This week Berklee lost a longtime colleague, mentor, collaborator, and educator, John Marasco, who passed away after a long illness on September 11, 2018, at the age of 65. John was a faculty member in the Guitar Department for more than 30 years, and his loss is felt deeply by all who knew him throughout his long career as a musician and a teacher.
Dear Members of the Berklee Community,
On July 10, Mike Denneen, an esteemed faculty member, accomplished producer and engineer, and strong presence in the Boston music community, passed away at age 54 from cancer at his home in Watertown, Massachusetts, surrounded by family and good friends.
An associate professor in the Music Production and Engineering Department since 2011, Mike was a successful producer, engineer, and keyboardist whose credits include recordings with venerable musicians Aimee Mann B.M. ’80, Patty Larkin ’74 ‘02H, Letters to Cleo, Kay Hanley, the Click Five, Guster, Howie Day, Fountains of Wayne, and Morphine. He also has credits on movie soundtracks such as Magnolia, and national branding campaigns for L.L. Bean, Dr Pepper, and the National Football League.
Continuing Berklee’s commitment to giving back to the community at large, the college’s Gracenotes Volunteer Committee sponsored its second annual trip to New Mexico. A group of nine staff and faculty members from the College and Conservatory traveled to Santa Fe to work in the Oshara Village, an ongoing Habitat for Humanity project to promote affordable home ownership for Santa Fe area residents by constructing simple, adequate, and safe houses through the efforts of volunteers, partner families, donors, and staff.
Staff, Berklee College of Music“By trusting each other, being vulnerable, and sharing from our strengths, each of our group allowed for all the others to learn, contribute, and be contributed to.“
Image source: fusion.tv/show/big-papi-needs-a-job/
For the first episode of the new Fusion television program Big Papi Needs a Job, the recently retired Boston Red Sox power hitter David Ortiz (Big Papi) visits Berklee to try his hand at percussion. In the episode, Ortiz gets lessons from percussion faculty member Eguie Castrillo and jams with students, all while reflecting on his deep connection to the music and rhythms of his home country, the Dominican Republic.
Below, a few of the students involved share their thoughts on the experience making tunes with the global legend.
“As a Dominican musician, having the opportunity to make music with Big Papi was incredible and unexpected. I would have never imagined that I would make music with the three times World Series winner. It was a reminder for me of how powerful music can be. Once we started singing ‘Compadre Pedro Juan,’ one of the most popular merengue songs in our country, he knew exactly how to play the güira without a rehearsal. Meeting him in person and learning his wonderful personality showed me that no matter how big you get, there’s always something new to learn.”
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