Berklee to Hold Auditions in Kenya

Berklee to Hold Auditions in Kenya

Africa Scholars Program brings outreach and opportunity to the world beyond Boston

 

By Elena Gooray

Eight thousands miles away from its Boston home base, Berklee College is looking to expand its influence on the contemporary music scene. Between June 28 and July 5, representatives of the school will be in Nairobi, Kenya auditioning and conducting workshops with regional musicians for its Africa Scholars Program, one component of Berklee’s ongoing outreach in the East African nation.

 

For the program, musicians across the continent are invited to demonstrate skill in their principal instrument — which can be vocals — to a team of Berklee faculty. The faculty then selects the best candidates for the program and forwards their evaluations to the scholarship office, where the final selections are made. Although the majority of applicants will receive partial tuition awards, one applicant will be named the 2010 Africa Scholar and have full tuition and housing covered for all four years at Berklee.

 

ASP qualifies as one of the Berklee’s auditioning and interviewing programs, otherwise known as A&I, which targets a wide range of both American and international locations such as India, Finland and Ecuador. However, while typical A&I is open only to students who have already applied to Berklee, ASP aims to attract musicians who may not have seriously considered the school because of financial constraints, according to Sam Skau, assistant director of Educational Outreach for International Programs. In evaluating ASP applicants, Skau said, Berklee faculty considers both “musical merit and financial need.”

Skau emphasized that ASP’s reach goes beyond the awarding of financial scholarships, extending further to the development of locally run music education in Kenya. During the Nairobi trip, Berklee is hosting a forum with 30 to 35 local music educators to discuss some of the most pressing issues facing arts programs, as well as how Berklee addresses music education in general. The college has also been selecting faculty members to send to Nairobi’s Brookhouse School, which in the past year launched its B-Tech music curriculum, a program parallel to Berklee’s own contemporary writing and production major.
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