The Berklee Performance Center is a 1,215-seat theatre located on Massachusetts Ave. in the Back Bay area of
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
.
[Hazell, Ed, ''Berklee: The First 50 Years'' (Berklee Press Publications, 1995), p.155] It is the largest theatre space on the
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern American music, it also offers college-level cours ...
campus and is used primarily for college-affiliated activities. Presenters from outside the Berklee community also rent it for performances of all kinds. In 2009, the Berklee Performance Center hosted a total of 200 events.
History
In 1972, Berklee purchased the
Fenway Theatre at 136 Massachusetts Avenue.
[ The 1915 movie palace, designed by Thomas Lamb, was renovated and reopened as the Berklee Performance Center in 1976.
]
Venue uses
The college uses the facility to present its most popular and heavily produced student concert events, such as the Singers Showcase and the International Folk Festival. It is also the home of major faculty concerts such as Fall Together, the annual concert by the Jazz Composition Department faculty. Other Berklee-affiliated public events such as ticketed concerts during the Beantown Jazz Festival, produced by the college since 2006, and the Music Series at Berklee, which pairs professional musicians such as Issac Delgado
Issac Delgado (born Isaac Felipe Delgado-Ramirez on April 11, 1962 in Marianao, Habana, Cuba) is one of the founders of the band NG La Banda and is a popular Salsa music, salsa and timba performer.
Early life and family
His father, Luis Delgad ...
, Don Was
Don Edward Fagenson (born September 13, 1952), known professionally as Don Was, is an American musician, record producer and record executive. Primarily a bass player, Was co-founded the funk-rock band Was (Not Was). In later years he produced s ...
, and Gary Burton
Gary Burton (born January 23, 1943) is an American jazz vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused him to be he ...
with student ensembles, are also presented at the Berklee Performance Center. Besides being used extensively by student performers, students enrolled in Music Production and Engineering courses use the theatre's recording studios and video taping facilities in classroom projects.
The Berklee Performance Center is also a popular rental venue for presenters of music and performances of all types. Since it opened, a wide range of artists, including Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.[Talkin ...](_blank)
, Thomas Dolby
Thomas Morgan Robertson (born 14 October 1958), known by the stage name Thomas Dolby, is an English musician, producer, composer, entrepreneur and teacher.
Dolby came to prominence in the 1980s, releasing hit singles including "She Blinded Me ...
, Melissa Ferrick
Melissa Ferrick (born September 21, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter. Her song "Drive" (2000) is considered a lesbian anthem. She is a music professor at Northeastern University and at Berklee College of Music.
Early life
Ferrick was ra ...
, Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American jazz composer, pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain", " 500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba", and ...
, Bill Frisell
William Richard Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist, composer and arranger. Frisell first came to prominence at ECM Records in the 1980s, as both a session player and a leader. He went on to work in a variety of contexts ...
, Sonny Rollins
Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, he has recorded over sixty albums as a ...
, and comedians Bill Maher
William Maher (; born January 20, 1956) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is known for the HBO political talk show ''Real Time with Bill Maher'' (2003–present) and the similar la ...
and Louis C.K.
Louis Alfred Székely (; born September 12, 1967), known professionally as Louis C.K. (), is an American stand-up comedian, screenwriter, actor, and filmmaker. C.K. won three Peabody Awards, three Grammy Awards, six Primetime Emmy Awards, and a ...
have recorded there.
For the Fall 2012 season, the headliners include Rockapella
Rockapella is an American a cappella musical group formed in 1986 in New York City. The group's name is an amalgam of "rock" and "a cappella". Rockapella sings original vocal music and a cappella covers of pop and rock songs; and over time, their ...
, Franco Corso, Pentatonix
Pentatonix (abbreviated PTX) is an American a cappella group from Arlington, Texas, currently consisting of vocalists Mitch Grassi, Scott Hoying, Kirstin Maldonado, Kevin Olusola, and Matt Sallee. Characterized by their pop-style arrangements ...
, Glen Hansard
Glen Hansard (born 21 April 1970) is an Irish singer-songwriter, musician and actor. Since 1990, he has been the frontman of the Irish rock band The Frames, with whom he has released six studio albums, four of which have charted in the top ten ...
, Melody Gardot
Melody Gardot (; born February 2, 1985) is an American jazz singer.
At the age of 19, Gardot was involved in a bicycle accident and sustained a head injury. Music played a critical role in her recovery. She became an advocate of music therapy, ...
, Béla Fleck
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck (born July 10, 1958) is an American banjo player. An acclaimed virtuoso, he is an innovative and technically proficient pioneer and ambassador of the banjo, bringing the instrument from its bluegrass roots to jazz, classi ...
, Snarky Puppy
Snarky Puppy is an American instrumental band led by bassist Michael League. Founded in 2004, Snarky Puppy combines a variety of jazz idioms, rock, world music, and funk and has won four Grammy Awards. Although the band has worked with vocalist ...
, Clannad
Clannad () is an Irish band formed in 1970 in Gweedore, County Donegal by siblings Ciarán, Pól, and Moya Brennan and their twin uncles Noel and Pádraig Duggan. They have adopted various musical styles throughout their history, including f ...
, Zoë Keating
Zoë Clare Keating (born February 2, 1972) is a Canadian-American cellist and composer once based in San Francisco, California, now based in Vermont.
Music career
Keating performed from 2002 to 2006 as second chair cellist in the cello rock band ...
, Alfie Boe
Alfred Giovanni Roncalli Boe (born 29 September 1973) is an English tenor and actor, notably performing in musical theatre.
He is best known for his performances as Jean Valjean in the musical ''Les Misérables'' at the Queen's Theatre in Lo ...
, Henry Rollins
Henry Lawrence Garfield (born February 13, 1961), known professionally as Henry Rollins, is an American singer, writer, spoken word artist, actor, and presenter. After performing in the short-lived hardcore punk band State of Alert in 1980, Rolli ...
, Aimee Mann
Aimee Elizabeth Mann (born September 8, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter. Over the course of four decades, she has released more than a dozen albums as a solo artist and with other musicians. She is noted for her sardonic and literate lyr ...
, and Mary Black
Mary Black (born 23 May 1955) is an Irish folk singer. She is well known as an interpreter of both traditional folk and modern material which has made her a major recording artist in her native Ireland.
Background
Mary Black was born into a m ...
."Berklee Performance Center Events"
accessed 8/12/12
Notes
{{Coord, 42, 20, 49.26, N, 71, 5, 15.26, W, type:landmark_region:US-MA, display=title
Theatres in Boston
1972 establishments in Massachusetts