Berklee Blogs

First-hand accounts of the Berklee experience

Tag: Jim Odgren

Jim Odgren

Partner College in Malaysia: This School Rocks!

Annie Grunwald, an 8th semester guitarist and music technology major and Jason Camelio, director of international programs, write about the BIN program in Malaysia.

Okay, it is a college, not a school.  Regardless, our Berklee International Network (BIN) partner institutions in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia the International College of Music (ICOM) has very much ROCKED this week. And, the students and faculty along with a number of important sponsors demonstrated their prowess at the ICOM Celebration Series event held at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Center (KLPAC) on Friday and Saturday evening. 

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The Business of Music in Cape Town

The applause roared from the closed doors of The Fugard Theater on Friday morning as Mike Stern and Dave Weckl wrapped up their clinic as part of the Training and Development program at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival.  Participants streamed out in the theater lobby for a brief recess, but just as quickly returned when the announcement for the music business lecture was announced.

Throughout the week, we have spoken with everyone from music promoters, ministry of arts and culture and education officials to interns assisting with the festival to musicians traveling from as far away as Kenya, Mozambique and Nigeria.  There is a general recognition of the high level of musical talent in Cape Town, South Africa and Africa as a whole.  There is also a desire for careers in music to be seen a viable pathways for these musicians.  It is with this understanding that director of training and development Craig Parks choose to have a focus on the business of music.  And this is why we asked founder and chair of music business and management Don Gorder to make the trip to Cape Town with us this year.

Business Clinic 2012 CTIJF

Don Gorder sets the historical stage during his music business lecture in Cape Town.

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Our Week in Brazil Concludes…

Read the first post from Brazil.

Berklee's Bruno Raberg (bass) and Jim Odgren (sax) entertain the crowd.

Berklee's Bruno Raberg (bass) and Jim Odgren (sax) entertain the crowd.

We’ve had a full week in São Paulo in conjunction with our partner school Souza Lima. The agenda included clinics from our extraordinary faculty team (Jim Odgren, Bruno Raberg and Matt Glaser), auditions and interviews for admission applicants, visits to local schools and government organizations, interviews for radio and television and a lot of opportunity for all of us to learn more about Brazil and its music.

As I reflect on the week, the word that continuously comes to mind is joy. Every experience, from our interactions with students, teachers, local musicians, and the Brazilian people themselves, is engulfed by a kind of joyous exuberance for life, and especially for music.

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