Ray Santisi, a cherished member of Berklee’s Piano Department, passed away unexpectedly Tuesday night. Ray was an accomplished pianist who strived for authenticity and spontaneity in his music, and encouraged his students to do the same. Piano Department faculty and staff remembered their colleague this week:
Tag: Faculty (Page 1 of 4)
Faculty
Alexandre Perrin teaches Music Business Finance, Project Management for Artists, Economics of Global Entertainment, and Global Leadership and Management at the Valencia campus.
After eight years of teaching, researching and managing program in several European business schools, I joined Berklee’s Valencia campus to help students decode and anticipate the evolution of the Entertainment industry. When it comes to music biz, our students compete with a global workforce of young or experienced graduates. My job is to prepare them to hit this highly competitve job market or to ignite their passion for entrepreneurship or management.
1. Music biz: a Go game !
Go game is a board game originated in China whose objective is to occupy a specific territory. This business is not anymore a chess game. The objective is to control the digital playground and attract the attention of consumers. The Economics of Attention is an interesting concept related to Go game. It states that human attention is now becoming a scarce resource. When you sell music, you compete with other medias (video, video games, movies, newspapers, kindle…). As content has grown increasingly abundant and immediately available, attention becomes the limiting factor in the consumption of cultural goods.
2. Management of music biz: improvise !
Music and management has always been compared altogether. The jazz metaphor is regularly employed to talk about the future of management. Last century the metaphor was more centered on classical music: management was compared to conducting an orchestra. The manager was a conductor and the collaborators the musicians. An interesting shift has occurred in the last 20 years in management science. Management theorists like Karl Weick suggested the jazz band was a better image for organizations in a world that demanded rapid response and adaptability around some core business competencies. For maximizing learning and innovation, managers need to be ambidextrous: use the partition (process) and create new notes (innovation). This is exactly what we intend to do at Berklee in music business: know the business fundamentals to reinvent the future and create new ventures.
3. Working at Berklee’s Valencia campus: Harder Better Faster Stronger !
Daft Punk’s song depicts pretty well the expectations students have about the classes at a Masteŕs level. As a new faculty member, I can tell you that you are being pushed to innovate and find new ideas. This process is driven by the business itself, your colleagues and the students. This semester I have added an additional dynamic dimension to my Economics of Entertainment module: by using #ecotainment on Twitter I share articles, thoughts and comments on different topics covered in that module such as the macroeconomics of the music industry, the evolution of the value chain or the relationships with video game and movie industries.
Hoje venho falar de alguns eventos que acontecerão no Berklee Performance Center por estes dias.
The following was written by Prince Charles Alexander, associate professor of music production and engineering.
Part One and Part Two, for your reading pleasure.
Hello everyone. This is my third, and last, blog about my trip to the International College of Music (ICOM) in beautiful Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After a prolonged journey to get to Malaysia because of a typhoon, followed by four incredible days of seminar lectures, great food, and great company at ICOM, our job was done. Jeanine Cowen, Cecil Adderley, Susan Lindsay, and I were through with our Music Development Workshop mission for Berklee College of Music. It was time to relax and enjoy some of the beautiful landmarks and surrounding culture offered by Malaysia. We began our last day with an early morning rise to visit the Petronas Towers, which were the tallest structures in the world from 1998 to 2004. Of course, this presented me with a great opportunity to try out my newly purchased Nikkor 70-300mm lens on the stunning views of the Kuala Lumpur cityscape. The towers have a skybridge on the 42nd floor that we were able to take pictures from.

Jeanine Cowen, Prince Charles, Sue Lindsay, and Cecil Adderley visit the Petronas Towers.

Garden District Home
Earlier this spring, I applied to be one of the volunteers in this year’s Gracenotes Rebuilding the Birthplace of Jazz trip to New Orleans to assist through Habitat for Humanity in the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I was delighted and honoured to join this year’s team. I imagined that the week would consist of hard work building on the Habitat site followed by evenings exploring the city and listening to music in a city that was pretty much back on its feet after the devastating storm of August, 2005. The city is exciting and vibrant; it is lauded as one of the most unique cities in the United States and I agree wholeheartedly. Live music pulsed out of every restaurant, bar and café and on every street corner of the French Quarter, Bywater, Marigny, and Treme that I passed.