Berklee in Dublin: personal notes

Matt Glaser (photo by John Fitzgerald)

Following our original post on the Dublin mission by Berklee College of Music of Boston, Mass., pioneering institution for education in jazz and other contemporary music, we called in last week at DIT, Rathmines, at the kind invitation of Nick Balkin, publicist for Berklee.

We were brought into the improvisation seminars being conducted by the two most bluegrass-oriented of the Berklee faculty members: Matt Glaser and John McGann. Players of a wide range of instruments were taking active part, the atmosphere in both groups was highly positive and stimulating, and your editor regretted only having left his banjo at home (though he is not, frankly, in the target age-bracket for the Berklee project).

The same atmosphere continued through the evening symposium in which all the Berklee faculty members - whose openness, accessibility, and communicativeness were as impressive as their musicianship - outlined their own musical backgrounds and careers, and presented individual angles on the main theme of improvisational music: one of Matt Glaser's musical examples was a recording of Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper playing 'The old Brown County barn'.

The best idea of the evening can be gained from Nick Balkin's blog entry. The BIB thanks everyone we met; many young Irish musicians should benefit from this welcome contact with Berklee.

Above right: John McGann (MySpace)