Lee Eliot Berk

Lee Eliot Berk (born 1942)[1](p12) was President and namesake of the Berklee College of Music (founded as Schillinger House in 1945 by his father, Lawrence Berk, who renamed the school after Lee in 1954) from 1979[1](p169) to 2004.[2] Under the younger Berk’s leadership, the college underwent significant changes. Berklee expanded its curriculum to create new majors, including Film Scoring, Music Production and Engineering, Music Synthesis, Songwriting, Music Business/Management, and Music Therapy.[1](p216) Educational applications of music technology expanded, the college administration was reorganized, more student services were added, and non-music academic offerings increased.[1](pp169,170) In 1992, he established the Berklee International Network that includes music schools with a shared mission around the globe.[1](p267)

Berk graduated from Brown University in 1964 and earned his law degree from Boston University in 1967.[3] He began working at Berklee College of Music in 1966, serving first as bursar and supervisor of the Private Study Division.[1](p100) In 1969, he founded the first New England High School Stage Band Festival, later known as the Berklee High School Jazz Festival. In 2010, its 42nd year, it was the largest event of its kind in the United States.[4] He served as a vice president from 1971 to 1979.[1](p100) He is the author of Legal Protection for the Creative Musician, which won an ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award in 1971.[5]

Awards
  • Upon his retirement in 2004, Berk was awarded an honorary doctorate from Berklee.
  • 2004: Awarded the Order of the Rising Sun from the Emperor of Japan for his contributions to strengthening cultural ties between the U.S. and Japan.[6]
  • Received the President’s Merit Award for Outstanding Educational Achievement from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
  • 2004: Received the NAMM Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Music Products Industry.[3]
  • 2014: Received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Brown University.[7]
gollark: What do you mean "fake"?
gollark: Which is why we should build some sort of text adventure maze game into the Organization website's links.
gollark: Of course.
gollark: We should also have a website which is like a normal corporate one, but even more vague and with Organization logos.
gollark: Yes, this is also a good idea.

References
  1. Hazell, Ed (1995). Berklee: The First 50 Years. Berklee Press.
  2. Anderman, Joan (7 Feb 2004). "Berklee Names Entrepreneur Roger Brown New President". The Boston Globe. p. C1.
  3. "BU Law Alumni Across the United States". Boston University School of Law. Retrieved 1 April 2010. (click on New Mexico on the map)
  4. "High School Jazz Festival". Berklee College of Music Website. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
  5. "4th Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor Award Recipients". ASCAP. Retrieved 10 March 2010.
  6. "Lee Eliot Berk, President of Berklee College of Music, decorated by the Emperor of Japan". Consulate General of Japan in Boston. Archived from the original on August 7, 2007. Retrieved 1 April 2010.
  7. "Brown confers nine honorary degrees". Brown University. 25 May 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014.

Further reading
  • Small, Mark, "All the Right Moves - Lee Eliot Berk", Berklee Today, Vol. 15, Issue 3, Spring 2004. Interview with Lee Eliot Berk, the then retiring second president of Berklee College of Music.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.