Culminating Experience Project Abstracts

Houston is known for hosting some of America’s most brilliant artists, but somehow BIPOC women are left out of this narrative. My goal is to put BIPOC women back into the narrative through music. This project pays homage to 3 BIPOC women artists of Houston and their influence on both me personally and their influence on Houston’s arts community. Each woman comes from a different art discipline: music, theater, and dance. The women are Helen Sung (music), Eileen J Morris (theater) and Lauren Anderson (dance). The music explores a relationship between music and the art medium that each woman is a part of. Additionally, the goal of the music is to create a relationship between the listener and the woman being honored by bringing them into the narrative of the woman the song is about.

This project had several goals: first is to increase the visibility of these women in hopes of inspiring other BIPOC women artists, giving these women credit where credit has been long overdue, and last to express my gratitude to these women and how their lives and art has shaped me into the artist I am. My ultimate hope is that by honoring these women, other women feel validated in the space they deserve to take up, especially those who have felt otherwise.

My culminating experience project explores and emphasizes music as a vehicle for storytelling. The project features a 20 minute long composition for a 5 piece chamber ensemble plus jazz quartet that follows the narration of a Cherokee folktale “Atagahi,” which both evokes a sense of wonder, mystery, and respect towards nature, and warns us what might happen if we abandon this respect. The narration simply guides the listeners’ imaginations in the right direction, allowing the music to do a majority of the storytelling. Music has the ability to evoke a nuanced sense of setting, atmosphere, and character, and can immerse any listener in an abstract, but uniquely vivid journey. Using narration as an accompaniment to the music will allow this storytelling capability of music to be fully realized, as the narration will simply guide the listener, providing a bit of concrete imagery to the abstract musical story. The unique instrumentation reflects the oral nature of folktales; the chamber ensemble can play complex, arranged passages, and the jazz quartet can replicate the improvisational aspects of oral storytelling. I hope that this project will help to reintroduce music as a storytelling medium and make challenging music more digestible to modern audiences.

Keywords: chamber music, jazz, storytelling, Cherokee, folktale.

“In Clave - Composing in odd meters from a clave perspective” documents my compositional process during the last six months of the Berklee Global Jazz Master’s Program. I studied the function of “clave” within Cuban music as a backbone of the rhythmic and orchestral organization and then applied similar relationships using odd meters. As result, I wrote four compositions featuring this kind of behaviors: “Sonera” (in 7/4); “Zapateo en 15” (in 15/8 and 5/4); “Buleria de Noviembre” (in 11/4); and “Canción de cuna para despertar a un negrito” (in 13/4 and 12/8). This creative research served me to reflect on my music identity while finding new strategies for future academic applications on this interesting topic.

Matria is the name of project, that intends through indigenous Ecuadorian folklore and jazz, to explore the importance of recognizing oneself in the source, in the mother. The idea of accepting myself within a medium as competitive as music, and understanding that only by honoring my history, I could generate sincere artistic pieces, linked to my perspective as an individual and even discovering myself within jazz as a fresh voice, which does not try to rescue any tradition but to rescue myself from the uncertainty of knowing who I am.

Keywords: Indigenous Ecuadorian Folklore, Matria, mother Land, history. new perspectives.

The purpose of my project is to dismantle stigmas and raise awareness around mental health struggles. As a recovering addict who’s now 10 years sober, I’ve had my share of mental health issues, the biggest one being crippling anxiety along with other issues at play. Mental health awareness hasn’t caught up yet in relationship to the collective rapid health decline, specially, post- covid. My goal is to bring visibility to this community from a personal point of view. By bringing the topic into light we would make a significant advance on these issues. Thorough research will strengthen the points I’m trying to convey with my compositions. If the conversation is not de-stigmatized, as you would talk about Type II diabetes, misinformation and ignorance could continue doing a lot of harm. People need to know its ok not to be ok as well as actively trying to understand our emotions better and seek help when needed. Whenever we write music that addresses a social and/or political issue we are opening the door for future business endeavors and collaborations. We don't really know the extent of these stigmas impact, but I'm willing to spend my life figuring it out.

I have had many opportunities to collaborate with western-trained musicians over my last eight years living in Boston. Coming from a Korean traditional music background, I believe that exchange between different musical traditions can create deep synergistic music with unique possibilities. The purpose of my thesis project is to explore this space, and develop methods for playing global music that move beyond the “fusion” paradigm, which often results in selective and contrived combinations of different musical traditions. With this in mind, I developed an approach for collaboration between Korean traditional instruments and contemporary composition that focuses on rhythm, melody, and harmony. Specific outcomes include: (1) ways to avoid playing third intervals (major and minor) in chord voicings, which enables a harmonic space compatible with the note ornamentations and microtones essential to the Korean tradition; and (2) a combination of time signature and polyrhythms that approximate the Korean breathing cycle concept for western musicians. Generally speaking, this work serves as an example template for collaborative world music.

The title of my culminating experience project is “Path to Freedom” I wanted to explore how music has contributed to my journey both as a musician and person. I wanted to convey on a deeper level how my time in the US and how music throughout my life has shaped my current self and future self. I chose to delve into four specific different topics that are important to me personally; topics that that have allowed me to grow into the person I am today. These specific topics are, “Equality, Street Harassment, Identity and lastly Freedom.” The ultimate aim of my culminating experience is to express all my personal experiences, everything I’ve learned, and the values and social issues that I believe through music. And to be able to do so applying all the musical and life knowledge skills I’ve learned from my time at Global Jazz.

My culminating experience project is a 5 song tribute to the many people and places that shaped Washington DC’s unique musical identity. Each song is dedicated to a location or person that is significant to the city’s musical history. Initially, I wanted to discuss the effects of black American music on Washington DC’s political and social culture. However, over the course of my research it became clear that I was discussing the effect of the political and social structures on the music. Themes of development, protest, liberation, courage, grief and struggle are expressed through the music. I talked to educators, musicians, historians, advocates for the arts and residents of the city during my research to help develop a holistic sense of how the city’s music scene had changed from the 1950’s to now. The project was inspired by the continued closing of jazz clubs such as Bohemian Caverns, SOTTO, and Twins Jazz. Venues I had aspired to headline that closed due to increased property values and taxes. I’m hoping the project will serve as a reminder to the world of how culturally rich the city of DC is despite the many challenges faced by artists.

This project aims to develop a different approach to the flamenco music composition based on the mix and integration of different concepts and ideas from European post-impressionstic composers like Lili Boulanger, Olivier Messiaen or Béla Bartók. Flamenco and classical and contemporary music have had a huge influence on me all my musical academic years and I wanted to explore the possibilities that the fusion of these two worlds could provide.
First I started by analyzing the seven modes of limited transposition by Olivier Messiaen and some of the work by Lili Boulanger, pieces such as ""D’un Matin de Printemps” (1917) or “D’un vieux jardin” (1914). I discovered that some of Messiaen’s modes, specially the 3rd and 4th mode, share similarities with the Phrygian Spanish Scale, scale that is used to give the flamenco flavour or color, as it contains the same kind of intervallic pattern but 3 times, generating a 3 tonic system that allows to move in major thirds. Lili’s Pedal concept also served as a drone idea sometimes used in flamenco music. I picked 3 different flamenco palos (flamenco sub-styles): Buleria de Cadiz, Buleria de Jerez and Tientos and applied some of this ideas to create 4 different tunes.

This project set out to find advice for young artists who were about to go into this chaotic world. I wanted to do this because I am one of these young artists about to make this step in my life and I needed guidance from the Berklee faculty. I chose the faculty members I thought would fit best for this project and then recorded interviews with them. I then used the recordings as compositional tools in order to get the words of wisdom to my peers. In conclusion I went through this year looking for answers, and although I would find them I quickly realized that with each answer came a great responsibility for a better question . As I learned about mindset, spirituality and the importance of family I found that learning about them was just half the battle. Now I am going to apply what I've learned and ultimately find better questions through life experiences I have can't wait to meet.

The goal of this project is to explore the use of music in video games and how music can be used to enhance common gaming mechanics such as low health, item collection, and progression indicators. This is not intended to be a full “music game” like Guitar Hero or Parappa the Rapper; rather, the intent is to find the medium between music as a background element and music as the main mechanic. With that goal in mind I used Unity to create a few small games and took examples from some current games to compare how these mechanics are currently handled musically and provide examples of how they might be enhanced. Additionally, I employed the use of a jazz sextet because I believe the improvisational elements of jazz would be essential. Furthermore, generally small jazz ensembles aren’t used in game music so I wish to explore that as well. During this process I learned a few things about why the current design of game music and sound effects work well. Sometimes my changes were very subtle and the effectiveness was questionable. However, I found places where the design was changed that I think could be useful to the industry overall.

This project, “Reflection of Another Self”, is an art suite that combines music and poetry and portrays my process of accepting, understanding and overcoming trauma. The purpose of this project is to find ways of freeing ourselves; of understanding who we are and how we want the world to be. Through extensive research on music, poetry, and psychology, as well as diving into problems such as racism, sexism, and inequality in the world, I created an art suite divided into three movements or steps - Acceptance, Understanding & Overcoming. Each movement is composed of two music compositions accompanied by a poem or samples that describe the different feelings and emotions I felt while diving into my personal trauma. My hope is that by portraying my process of self-discovery and self-acceptance, I can help and inspire others to overcome their trauma, the same way the music and poetry have helped me.

Keywords: trauma research, racism, sexism, art, music composition, poetry, visual arts.

This project is an online and in-person educational course centered around the EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument), called The EWI Academy. This project is significant for me because the EWI isn’t that popular of an instrument (compared to a Saxophone, Flute, or Clarinet), and I feel like the instrument has so much to offer musically. This idea came together because there are not many resources surrounding the topic of wind synthesis. I wanted to create a platform for people to come together, learn, and immerse themselves in the world of wind synthesis. The course will include plenty of lesson videos, self-produced backing tracks, interviews, and tons of demonstrations and insight, allowing the students to understand the importance and potential of the EWI fully. In the future, I will develop an in-person camp that will bring people together from all over the world. There are many misconceptions surrounding the topic of wind synthesizers that can sometimes draw people away from the subject in general, but with The EWI Academy, I hope to introduce a new world of possibilities that can hopefully excite the students as much as it excites me.

Keywords: educational platform, wind synthesis, EWI, electronic wind instrument, lesson series.

“We Should Care” is a multidisciplinary project that explores the use of music as a tool that will highlight the communal struggles of different oppressed groups throughout the globe. It consists of music written for different socio-political issues. The purpose is to highlight the interconnections between different social justice issues including: racism and white supremacy, imperialism, repressive systems in the context of military dictatorships, patriarchy and sexism, mental health and stigma. Hopefully the listener will look at identity politics through the lens of
intersectionality in order to understand the communal struggles, the need to show solidarity to movements outside of their own political identity, and realize that the communal struggle we share is caused from the unequal system our society is based on, that benefits the few. The music is based on the ”Jazz” (Black American Music) genre and draws influences from the blues, avant garde, free jazz, contemporary pop, and classical (western) idioms, reflecting the interconnection of the socio-political issues with different music forms of expression.

My project ‘Catabolic Collapse’ investigates the theory and causes for the potential collapse of western society and democracy, within the next two decades. The central idea of catabolic collapse, is that a dynamic system (such as globalized society) must require an ever-increasing supply of resources to sustain it’s growth. If the system was ever to outgrow the availability of resources, growth would begin to slow, eventually stop, and begin a process of collapse. The system must also be resilient to crises, which it has shown that it often isn’t, proved time and time again by market volatility and more recently a bottle neck in the global supply chain. These crises can lead to conflicts and political aggressions related to the need for access to resources, for example fossil fuels, water, food security, or land mass. Climate change in the meantime, is predicted to place enormous stress on the procurement of all of these resources, and while the demand for these resources only increase as the human population continually grows, and all parts of the system having huge emissions footprints, the only possibly outcome for our current societal trajectory is a huge decline in living standards by the mid century (2050).

The only way of salvaging this situation, comes from very urgent societal transformation, initiated by rapid grassroots action. The government establishments of the world and the fossil fuel industry at large have been proven to have had immense mutual support, and currently cannot be completely trusted to tackle the immense scale of the problem, as doing so would be completely anti-capitalistic. The reason why the industry puts up such resistance to changing their business model, such as the creation of climate-denial think tanks like the Cato Institute or NIPCC, is because seriously tackling climate change on a united front is a complete 180 reversal of their entire existence to society. The movement for action on climate change asks the question of the fossil fuel industries relevance to future society, and hence their position as the power brokers of the world. Only through a united front of average citizens do we stand a chance of seeing any change to our system, one which is currently designed to bring about the end of an era of human technological power.

The Escape is based on a journey by a Cuban Rafter, rowing to America in search of freedom and the pursuit of their dreams. This Rafter happens to be my father. In Cuba, He felt trapped. He felt that he couldn't aspire to much, and he felt that he was wasting away. In 1993 he made the decision to end his chapter of life in Cuba and sought to create a new start for himself, for his future children and grandchildren. The only obstacles were the Cuban Government and 90 miles of open sea. The Escape will inform you of the four waves of exodus pertaining to why Cubans fled and how, an interview from my father on how hard the journey he endured was with music and artworks amplifying his voyage, and lastly ending on the rafters that perished at sea. Their stories ended short. Their dreams of freedom, stolen away.

My research starts from a personal journey. Our society creates models of happiness, that sometimes is just ephemeral. This goes to create continue expectations, one after the other, that could keep us away from living in the present and it could lead to stress, anxiety, panic attacks and depression. And personally talking, in a situation of struggle, as the lockdown due to the pandemic, if we just live of expectations, we could lose the orientation. Music could be one of the solutions to this: it could be lived with no expectations, music engages all of the areas of the brain, music stimulates the production of positive hormones, that helps the relaxation of our body. In my research I show how composing music could be a personal solution to the life struggles, and how they could be translated in music, and I also investigate in how music could be transmitted, so as not to lose its beneficial powers: communicating without expectations, and the meditational power or the music that can relax our body and soul. This is a seed for the future and a point of reflections in how music could be transmitted in an alternative way.

My CE project “Home Is a River” is a recording project exploring the metamorphosis of home and belonging in the aftermath of immigration, consisting of four pieces:
1. Home Is a River
2. Conversations under Water
3. Land of a Thousand and One Smiles
4. The Sea is Calling

Together, these pieces form a personal/collective narrative, based on interviews I had with five Iranian artists in the diaspora and my own personal experience.
9 years ago, to pursue my passion for music and singing, I “chose” to leave my country Iran. Throughout these years, I have often wondered: “How is leaving a “choice” if staying entails you having to silence or suppress a part of yourself? Is staying a “choice” if it compromises your freedom? And where or what is my home, if I don’t fit into the one I was given?”
The title of this project is my latest answer to these questions, explored through research, poetry, storytelling, and music.
I originally intended this project to be a story about the Iranian artists in the diaspora, as I often found myself frustrated with the misrepresentation and the negatively loaded narrative about my homeland in the western media. However, the result turned out to be a story relevant to all the nomadic people in the hyper-globalized world we live in today.
Doing the research for this project, I spoke five Iranian artists and these beautiful souls shared their life stories with me. We discussed the concept of home and belonging, and I started finding similarities between the stories. This fascinated me. These interviews and my personal story became the primary source for the structure of the narrative and inspired me to craft the poetry for this project.
I chose water as the main element of my project, as I found the “Home of the Immigrant” to be a fluid state of the heart and the mind, constantly flowing, just like a river; During my creative research I found “gravity” in belonging, and I noticed that water reacted differently to gravity. These “fluid” thoughts resonated with me intensively, and it naturally flowed into the music.
The music that flourished out of this concept is a fusion of everything that I carry with me to this day; my Persian roots, jazz, and contemporary music, all coming together through a strange gravity.

My project is about the therapeutic role of music in supporting suicide survivors, and it is based on my healing process after the suicide of a loved one. The purpose is, through my music and artistic collaboration, to reinforce healing by opening my story to others, to support those who are in grief by this motive, and to let them know that they are not alone. Also, through this project, I would like to break the silence about suicide and stand up to the stigma that surrounds suicide and mental illness. I composed and recorded six pieces as one suite. Each piece is related to different stages of my healing process. I have explored comprovisation. Comprovisation means composing in the moment. This has been my first experience of application of what I have learned at the Global Jazz Institute. I used also blues, tetra chords, through composing, lyrics, Illustration, improvisation, in the context of Jazz, and a poem by Walt Whitman.

The present culminating experience is a combination of research on the theme of homelessness, humanity, empowerment through music, and using music as a means of raising awareness of social issues and creating monetary support of humanitarian goals.

This project is about my personal journey through different stages, and how these stages affected me as musician and a human. I will be presenting different aspects of collectivity and how does it evolved in last century. Presentation is consisting of my original compositions, their music examples, scores, interviews , historic background, tradition in music and significance of mentorship. Each part will be describing different elements of music and it's own purpose.

My culminating experience project “Between Two Worlds” was inspired by the on-going stereotyping against immigrants, based on their origins, religions and skin color. As a Cypriot immigrant myself residing in the United States for the past 22 years, I have personally experienced stereotyping and can recall several unpleasant experiences. Even though I have not experienced stereotyping or racism to the extent that other communities keep experiencing, because of my own experiences I am able to relate to this issue.

My project is a work of self-discovery and metamorphosis. Throughout my life, I have been mostly reactionary. I honestly haven’t thought very deeply about my identity as a musician and human being and about all the communities and musical traditions that have led me on this path. This project is a type of self-discovery and introspection for me to connect with my multi-dimensional past and has helped lead me to where I am at now: My project delves into the life of non-else than myself. It is a work of self-discovery and metamorphosis. Throughout my life, I have been mostly reactionary. I haven’t thought deeply about my identity as a musician and human being. I haven’t thought deeply about all the communities and musical traditions that have led me on this path. This project is a type of self-discovery and introspection for me to connect with my multi-dimensional past. This project has helped me deepen my understanding of myself, my background, and what I care about — Through music, I can change the world. I can unite cultures, I can heal broken hearts. Yes, through music I can become an agent of positive change.

The idea for my project started with a deep questioning of my roots as a Chilean musician. I’ve always been interested in the music and culture of my country. One of the aspects of my project was to further research the by government manipulated changes to the culture, especially the systemic oppression of the culture of African descendants. These forced changes have produced different versions of how our history was developed which sometimes clash with each other, not only in music, but also in other aspects of our culture and identity. There have even been versions of our history that deny the whole existence of both African cultural influence and the Afro- descendant community. For these reasons I decided to do a deep research about the origins of Chilean music and its history particularly about two different styles called “Cueca” and “Túmbe”. A profound understanding of these music styles was crucial to my project, not only the musical codes but also how the lyrics work and how this music relates to the dance. All these aspects were fundamental for putting together my project, in terms of the compositions and putting together the presentation where I exposed some of these historic and political issues.

My culminating experience project, The Bridge, is a musical synthesis between writers of African Descent and diasporic music. I studied the writing of 5 different women: Amina Gautier, Maya Angelou, Ijeoma Umebinyuo, Toni Morrison, and Donna Kate Rushin. I treated the music of each writer differently, connecting the music directly to either their writings or personal history. The project was completed in the form of 5 compositions and a twenty-minute lecture-style presentation.

This master's thesis explores the topics of legacy, identity, and gender justice through Global jazz musical compositions and interconnected education. After conducting scholarly research on the political, social, and cultural history of Catalonia and Spain during the 20th century and connecting it with the works and contributions of Catalan and Spanish female social activists and female composers of the period, the author presents five new musical pieces. The compositions emanate from Global jazz aesthetics blended with reminiscences of Catalan and Spanish choral music, protest song, tradition, and folklore. The resulting musical works showcase the stories of three generations of the author's female ancestors, illustrated with informative video footage. The research conducted, together with the music presented, are used as a framework to develop the curriculum of a new non-profit educational program called Global Jazz For Change. The initiative aims to work with women at risk of exclusion in Catalonia, and later internationally, to foster self-expression through the creation of new Global jazz music with identity. The program's ultimate goal is to empower the participants to create awareness and become agents of change towards gender justice in their communities.

Keywords: legacy, identity, gender justice, interconnected education, Global jazz, music, social change.

My culminating experience project is to make a recording that is expressing certain experiences that have happened in my life. The music is an expression of experiences from my upbringing, my musical identity, and any events that have deeply inspired me. As Mr. Joe Lovano told me “Jazz is self-expression”, I pursued how to express my feelings and to be able to create a message with my music. I identified which events, experiences, and time periods in my life and what specific emotions, feelings, sensations, and moments have given me. I worked on learning how to express them in my music. For example, memories from my childhood, the gratitude to people who have influenced me, nostalgia for my hometown being away from Japan, meetings and partings, and the hopeful vision of my future. I created five songs and an improvisational solo piece. Each song has a theme for different time periods of my life and is based on my experiences and emotions.

Turning Within is a project that explores the idea of interlacing Jungian psychology with the creative process. The suite of music utilized tools such as Active Imagination, Word Association, analysis of archetypes, and symbols to confront and process Trans-Generational Trauma within the Collective Unconscious. The musical element incorporated was tetrachord theory taught by The Artistic Director of Berklee Global Jazz Institute, Danilo Perez. The outcome of incorporating Jungian psychology with composition includes creating a sonic art piece that integrates visual and expressive art forms such as graphic scores, voice acting, and sound design. The intention is to create an immersive aural experience that is therapeutic for the composer and the audience and leads the composer towards a path to individuation within their personal and creative life. With further study and research, the goal is to create a technique to share with other creatives seeking personal and artistic growth.

My Culminating Experience project entitled This Is Art School, examines the experiences of intersectional women who have attended Canadian art institutions in post secondary institutions. I interview five different women from different parts of Canada who work in different mediums of artistic expression; trombone, piano, voice, painting, while I contribute my upright bass playing. After each interview, I write a musical portrait based on the discussion I have with each woman, and she contributes her skill to the piece. The final result of this presentation is an in-depth look into the conditions oppressed groups face in institutions, with each woman bringing to light a new subject: female representation in institutions, the physical and emotional stress lived in an institutional environment, oppression manifested through gendered instruments, and the continuation of colonial oppression. Through clips of the video interviews, and a sample of the pieces recorded, audiences are able to experience a snapshot into the lives of these artists during their post-secondary studies in Canada.

This Culminating Experience paper explores the causes of mankind’s actions on the environment. Through original compositions and poems inspired by scientific research, the artist intends to bring awareness to the listener. Through his music, the artist describes four possible catastrophic scenarios that we might encounter in the near future. The music is presented visually with sand art and animation videos. This paper also examines the causes and the possible solutions for the environmental problem.

The current global environment demands an arts education that uses music to make children go beyond acquiring science and math skills, and embraces their full imaginative potential to think creatively. My mission is to use music as an interconnective medium for creative learning and cultural immersion in early education. My educational approach, called Music for Creative Learning, uses music as a medium for creative learning, featuring cumulative working modules catered to children ages four through twelve in schools and music programs across the United States. Children work at their own pace and form their own learning before moving on. I developed this because we don’t have systems currently that account for the fact that every learner process information differently. I also wanted this approach to simulate cognitive development, foster creativity, and develop global civics. I wrote four compositions in English, Spanish, French and Greek to represent how a child completes this curriculum, step by step, like a playthrough. Each piece combines academic subjects with musical sounds, tools, and rhythms, using interconnective learning and the sound before symbol method.

Music and Abolition explores music’s role in imagination, experimentation, and collectivity in creating a world without policing. Through abolition violent systems that maintain hierarchy will be replaced with sustainable, non violent systems. Total liberation will only come if the police are abolished. No amount of reform can change them when the root is tied into colonialism. In order to do this imagination and dreams are key in envisioning the world we want to see. For this project I used five books as the basis for my research: “We do this Til We Free us” by Mariame Kaba, “Carceral Capitalism” by Jackie Wang, “Are Prisons Obsolete?” by Angela Davis, “Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination” by Robin D. G. Kelley, and “The End of Policing” by Alex S. Vitale. Through music we can explore these ideas with experimentation and collectivity. The music for this project was written in a way that fostered non hierarchical band structures and free improvisation.

This project celebrates the history of Jazz, the evolution of Black American Music, and its West African and Caribbean origins. Using the art of traditional storytelling, each chapter weaves historical narration together with live-in-studio performances of an original score. This project aims to present the history of Jazz in an accessible way that will hopefully awaken a curiosity in audiences of all ages and inspire viewers to learn more on their own.

Hear Me Speak is a multidisciplinary, sonic portrait consisting of five original poems and compositions each drawing from my personal experiences as a queer, femme, and Asian-American musician. It is accompanied with a short film by videographer, Olivia Blaisdell, whose work focuses on the queer community of color in Boston. Hear Me Speak examines America’s Anti-Asian Immigration Policies and Eastern Asia’s traditional patriarchal system, both of which facilitated an aggressive culture of stereotyping and racialized sexism towards the Asian diaspora. It is an artistic statement that redefines how musicians dismantle monolithic, racial stereotypes against Asian Americans with the intent to radicalize the femme identity outside the construct of “whiteness,” thus creating more visibility for all women of color and BIPOC artists.

My project, “What You See From Here” is a four-part suite that discusses different issues and topics revolving around Israel and Palestine. It is the story of the region I was born and raised in, and it is my expression and call to action for new generations to start asking questions, and to seek communication and interest in listening to one another. With musical influences ranging from Shostakovich to Brad Mehldau, the instruments involved are piano, acoustic bass, electric bass, drums, Moroccan percussion, a string quartet, tenor saxophone, and flugelhorn.

“Our Neighbors Without Shelter” combines my original compositions, video, and audio clips from interviews to share the stories of people who are houseless and raises awareness about the issues they face. The five compositions I wrote are based off the responses I got to five questions I asked when interviewing houseless people over the past year. For the video, I edited each song to around two minutes and included interview clips in the music and as transitions, to create a narrative. The video I shot, both of people being interviewed and other scenes, serve to support the music and people’s voices. The other objective of my presentation was to educate people on services that exist in Boston to help the houseless community, and to emphasize what more needs to be done to end houselessness. I researched different initiatives the city of Boston is taking to end houselessness in partnership with non-profit organizations. My extra committee member, Dwayne Brown, is the volunteer services coordinator for the Boston Public Health Commission Homeless Services. He provided me with a deeper understanding of the issues facing the houseless community, and what the city of Boston is doing to help. The long-term goal of my project is to create a music outreach program for the houseless community. I hope to bring regular live music to shelters, soup kitchens, and/or transitional housing as a form of therapy for people who are going through all the difficulties surrounding houselessness.

The main purpose of this work was to realize a research of some musical elements typical of particular genres, aimed at discovering a new aesthetic and musical identity, through the writing of original pieces. This journey through the various musical styles has been conducted mainly following my personal musical and life influences, starting from Italy, the nation where I was born and which was the first to have influenced me musically and humanly, up to my last experience in Senegal and America. The main aim was to find and discover new sounds that can bring together totally different and apparently distant expressive worlds. My goal was to analyse and compose music with elements that mix European impressionistic music (Debussy, Ravel, Scriabin) with Italian Music (Puccini aria’s Opera Melody) with Mandingo music originating from Mali, Guinea and Senegal, through the lens of the jazz Harmonic tradition. Some of the compositions has been designed for a classical string quartet combined with a jazz quartet composed of piano, double bass, drums and guitar. A variety of research has been conducted in order to helped me expand my knowledge in the musical and artistic field.

“A Bird, A Landscape, the Sun, My Mother, Whichever Branch: The Poetry of Samuel Feijóo - Creativity and Identity in Motion”, explores the intersections of poetry and music, language and improvisation, and the processes of translation between English and Spanish and between words and music. By translating four poems by Cuban artist and writer Samuel Feijóo from Spanish to English and setting these texts to music, Ricardo Guerra hopes to gain a deeper understanding for his own identity as a Cuban American immigrant and the duality this identity comes with in both language and music. By merging these translations with music that encompassed both Cuban folklore and contemporary improvisation within Black American music, Guerra seeks to represent bilingualism in speech and music as one work of art - a reflection of a bi-cultural mind, background, and community.

There are extinct or nearly extinct dances and rhythms in Chile. This CE Project consists of the creation of six compositions that mix rhythms of Chilean traditional music that are disappearing with global jazz, with the goal of rescuing these traditional rhythms and safeguard the culture and history of Chile. Many of these rhythms were part of the folklore in Chile during the 19th century. There were previous attempts to revitalize these rhythms especially with the research of Chilean folklorists during the 1950s and the compositions made by Chilean artists in the context of three music styles called Neofolclore, La Nueva Canción, and El Canto Nuevo, during the 1960s and early 1970s. These attempts were undermined by the censorship during the Agusto Pinochet’s dictatorship between 1973 and 1990. Many of the artists who composed this music were persecuted, kidnaped, tortured, exiled, or even executed during the dictatorship.

The project was to present the four seasons I have been through, dealing with the Sewol Ferry disaster, the sinking of a ship that caused massive casualties, and Jung-in case, a child’s death as a result of abuse, and the process of overcoming Corona Blue. I chose chord-less quartet. This configuration, excluding polyphonic instruments, looks like a spacious space, but in fact, there is a lot of communication in it. When listening to Don Cherry’s Old And New Dreams with Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell, I come to the realization that in the end, they become a mass and a film, and an attitude of listening is necessary for good communication. I blended with the counterpoint, an element of my favorite music genre, classical, and a chord-less quartet, a composition of four monophonic instruments. I referenced a lot of works by my favorite composers, and Bach's invention works were very good examples. The counterpoint he used keeps the main melody memorable even after the song ends due to the repetitive minority motif. When two or more motifs were played separately or simultaneously with the left and right hands, I took two saxophones as the center of exchange.

When I was young, I had many opportunities to visit and hike in the forest and mountains with my parents but when I got older most of the places I’ve been have disappeared and reconstructed to apartments, buildings and other form of facilities. This made me to think more about the nature and started to get interest in the environmental issues. Ever since I started music my interest always leaned towards containing messages in my compositions, so I wanted to express my thoughts through this wonderful medium. As music can be a good form of giving awareness, I want to educate how Global Warming can give a negative impact on earth to the youths. This will be accomplished by writing lyrics on composition. Since global warming is major problem around the world, I want to tell the people that every small action will be helpful to the earth. Moreover, many countries have different methods and thoughts to the global warming issue but since I am in Korea, I want to deliver my music to the youth through social media and educate with music.

Public music education faces one of its most challenging eras yet. School administrators and local/federal governments make cuts to music budgets nationwide. This state of public music education is even more worrisome due to COVID-19, which contributes to the loss of educators jobs, programs, and livelihoods. Through a series of musical compositions and interviews, “A Note To My Mentors” comments on the state of music education. It explores the importance of having a music program, and the overall importance and advantageous impact that music has on young children, throughout their lives. Through interviews with figures of the Massachusetts educational community, the creative collaboration aims to highlight the importance of mentors and teachers, who have a tremendous impact on the worldview of a young, impressionable student. The findings and results shone a light on the difficulties of the job of a music teacher or administrator, but also the trials and tribulations a teacher faces. There is also an element of triumph and gratification when successfully changing the life of a student for the better. Music education is undoubtedly crucial to the development of children in the United States (and everywhere), and teachers hold the power to shape their future.

The Journey of Venezuelan Cuatro is the representation of my research based on my life experience as gratitude been able to bring the tradition into the academic perspective and developing a new path for the future.

‘Old and New Dreams’ is a brief, mixed-media essay on the state of modern America. With it, the artist hopes to provide an honest reflection of our many challenges, and propose that only in solidarity can we move forward. The suite has three movements. The first, ‘Vigil’, is comprised of three pieces, and deals with issues of violence, pain, and division in our country. ‘I Want a President’ presents an alternative: a world governed by very different values, and by very different people. Finally, ‘Old and New Dreams’ closes with the hope that this future can become a reality, if we demand it. Critically, the suite uses existing works of art, literature, photography, and film as a vehicle for the artist to make his own comments on the culture. These works serve as both an inspiration for, and in many cases, are integrated into the suite.

"Reclaiming A Stolen Future: A Musical Exploration of the Intersection of Climate Change and Racial Inequality in the Modern World" uses music as a framing tool in order to raise awareness and generate emotional connections to the pressing issues of climate change and racial inequality. The suite consists of five distinct movements; each focuses on a different facet of these interconnected issues, and together they form a cohesive narrative arc. The first movement, “Calm Before the Storm,” is inspired by the beauty and natural biodiversity of our planet. Movement two, titled “Addicted To Risk,” deals with corporate greed and exploitation, unsustainable business practices and policies, and their inevitable consequences. The third movement, “Turning Point,” looks at the real people who are affected most by these irresponsible actions, with a special focus on patterns of racial inequality. In "Reflection,” the listener is invited to imagine what it would take to achieve a sustainable future and how we will need to fundamentally reshape our relationship both with the environment and each other in order to achieve this. And finally "Rise," the fifth movement, is a call to action in order to demand and implement these changes.

Sicily has been home to dozens of cultures that have brought different traditions and music styles to the island. My goal was to dive into these traditions and understand how they influenced Sicilian folklore that was very active until the 1950s. Learning about these music styles made me realize how broad the topic was and I decided to focus on the Arab musical tradition, which I recognized as the most prominent in the recordings I was able to discover.

For my culminating experience I chose to record a musical suite and to start an organization. Both of these endeavors were focused on the ideas of connection and disconnection in the US today. For the musical suite I wrote 7 pieces that, taken together, have an arc that starts by addressing issues we face of division and isolation, then moves toward a possible solution. The second aspect of my culminating experience was to put these ideas into action. In the fall of 2020 I created and organization called New England Jazz Connections (NEJC). The goal of the organization is to put on jazz concerts in unique spaces to raise money for worthy causes. In the future I plan to release this music and continue with the work of this organization.

Temple Beyond Sanctuary is a suite of compositions written to utilize Carnatic music and its' hybridization in a modern jazz context. This project studies the requisite devices that characterize Carnatic music, and explores the central attributes to its performance. These devices are then expanded upon by combining concepts from the jazz genre, adding upon like elements like improvisation, motivic development, and rhythmic complexity, but carefully contextualizing elements as authentic to each genre that are absent in one another, such as harmony or dissonance. Theses compositions are derived from personal stories of immigration, that the author has collected from his family, or personal experiences as an immigrant.

This project sought to musically represent unspoken tragedies befallen specifically to women around the world in an effort to begin the healing process for their victims, and educate a community complicit in allowing such anguish to go unrecognized by our governments failing systems. First person accounts and testimonials were used as research instruments to create cinematic compositions both from the perspective of the victims, and the composer coming to understand the harsh apathy to women’s pain. This study showed that music is a vital tool for the supplemental emotional education of these issues, yet what still remains unclear is if a listener is compelled to adapt their perspective off of the music alone. This project recommends that an artist fully realize their intentions before sharing socially active music. At the cost of spreading ideology, omitting the inspiration for a piece in presentation can allow for the listener to use their imagination to draw meaning, and thus has potential to affect a larger audience. Inspirations can always be made available upon request.

This Culminating Experience project consists of five recorded compositions, inspired by birdsongs and natural soundscapes: “The Myrtle Warblers,” “Summer Song,” “May-Day Morning,” “May-Day Mid-Day,” and “May-Day Frogsong”. I was inspired by many disparate musical styles, as well as the croaking of frogs and the singing of birds, when writing these compositions. These five pieces were originally intended to be performed in a live concert organized to raise awareness of environmental issues and to benefit avian conservation, but due to COVID-19 those plans are on hold. In the interim the music will be a part of a video released to promote an online fundraising effort for the same cause. It is my intention to develop the connection between nature, and birdsongs in particular, and my own compositions and musical voice, and to use my music to practically benefit avian populations.

"The Power Of Us" explores collaborating beyond the barriers that we perceive as genre. It is a musical project that involves people from very different backgrounds working together to create a personal and relevant small body of work. The Power Of Us represents the humanity in individuals while also building bridges as a collective to further create a sense of community at a time dominated by a world pandemic and social injustice.

I started this project driven by the strong desire to know more about the music of my home country, Argentina. As a drummer, I have spent most of my formative years playing and studying jazz and Brazilian music; but I have always felt that I needed to research the music of my home country in order to broaden my musicality and to explore my musical identity. This project was a first attempt for me to incorporate some of these rhythms and musical elements of Argentinean music to my playing, in an honest and respectful way.

This project entailed the composition, recording and production of 8 pieces of music centred around addressing social issues in my home country of Australia through the use of musical narratives. These issues included Australia’s mistreatment of Indigenous Australians and inaction in combating environmental degradation and climate change. Throughout my research in these two areas, the intersectionality of these issues became more clear to me as I delved deeper into the history behind their manifestation in Australia. Throughout my research and composition process, I drew inspiration from a wide range of Australian artistic works including music, literature, photography and visual art, with the goal of creating an interconnected body of work that served the ultimate purpose of inspiring positive social change with regards to systemic racism and environmental degradation in Australia, as well as contributing to the global fight against these forces.

Throughout out my development as a young man I’ve noticed that every successful individual that I’ve ever encountered whose left a strong impression on me all have shared a common characteristic. What is that you might ask? Well, that’s faith. Given that it requires much maturity, and a constant choosing of consistency it is a topic that is touchy and rarely talked about. The purpose of my culminating experience project is to shed light/share how my faith in Jesus Christ has been the very thing that has fueled everything that I’ve ever done as well as everything I’ve ever attained throughout my life. In addition, I ultimately plan to use this presentation in an effort to help others clearly understand that in many of the battles that we face, we never face them alone. With God’s love as center, and with the consistent accountability and support of each other, we will be able to be more victorious in our longstanding daily fight for freedom.

The Project "Hiding Underneath - Our Oppression, Identity and Gender ” aims to explore the themes of awakening society to respect gender and identity issues. Through the interviews, compositions, story/ poem, paintings and visual, based on self-therapy, rediscover who I am, and awaken from a part of my life spent hiding and covering my gender identity as a result of gender-related physical and mental abuse. I want to make society aware of mistreatment because of gender identity and inspire people to respect and learn it.

Resonance as an act of Resistance is an exploration of the philosophies of Gilles Deleuze and Hartmut Rosa through my personal prism on the crucial role of art and artists in our societies. How can art help us develop the tools to deal with the biggest issues the world is facing right now? In this presentation I navigate through the relationship of figures like Etty Hillesum and Primo Levi with what they experienced during Holocaust, as well as Rodolpho Mendoza Denton’s studies on cognitive sciences and racism. We will observe how human beings are victim in some contexts and persecutor in other contexts. How we are all part of the problem and part of the solution at the same time. How to transform poison into medicine through art, religion and nature (vertical resonance).

Project about the influence of the Polish artists on regaining the independence of Poland combined with a compositional work based on Polish classical music from XIX century conveying the idea of social change through art.

The title of my Culminating Experience Project is "The Transformative Effects of Education". This project is a reflection on how my educational experience at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute has affected me as a musician and educator, and how this experience has motivated me to become more socially active. The compositions that I wrote and recorded were all directly influenced from different lessons I've learned throughout the year at the BGJI, both musical and personal. This paradigm shift for me is a direct result of my education here, and the time I spent in the Music and Social Activism class. That class really got me thinking about what difference I could make in my community back home in Los Angeles, and this propelled me into the other component of my project. I had the idea to create my own non- profit organization, which I'm naming "The Norwalk Jazz All Stars". The mission of my organization is to expose middle school band students in the Norwalk/La Mirada school districts to jazz through free private lessons with professional musicians, playing in a jazz ensemble, and having performance opportunities in the community and area.

The Generation of Resistance Project is a music education program designed to teach students how to bridge jazz with the contemporary music of today with the inclusion of social activism and outreach in order to prepare the next generation for social-political issues.

I to delve into my experience as a so-called ‘Coloured’ in post- Apartheid, democratic South Africa. I dissect my experience and created music centred around important themes. These themes included ‘transformation’, ‘the coloured identity’, ‘the coloured and black relationship’ and ‘the coloured mentality’. My aim is to inspire and create a sense of hope, empowerment and unity in the South African experience, rather than alienating with a radical political approach. The compositions draws musically from traditional South African styles such as the Ghoema/Cape Jazz and Marabi music as well as modern African music idioms such as Gqom (a style of ‘house’ music), kwaito and hip-hop.

The goal of my Culminating Experience was to study the music composed by drummers, and to use this study to inspire my own compositions. This project documents my personal journey into learning composition and developing my voice as a drummer composer. I studied the process, inspiration, and techniques used by drummers to write music because I believe that drummers have a unique perspective to share in their work; and as a drummer, I would be able to relate more closely to their process than that of another instrumentalist composer. I researched drummer composers by interviewing them, analyzing scores and lead sheets, and listening to many records. After figuring out what compositional devices I thought were. particularly drummer-like, I used those techniques to help me compose four original pieces.

“Tripolarity” is an interconnective approach and an alternative way of experiencing three aspects that represents me. These are my Arabic flute “Nay”, poetry and music therapy background which I studied as my Bachelor degree in Heidelberg/Germany. The name “Tripolarity” derives from a third neutral pole, which is not associated with any extreme, traditional thinking, for example, stigmas that can limit infinite possibilities and creativity. It’s a place of non-judgment and a starting point for people to redefine their experiences and discover their own truth. That said, I applied this to the way I think about the nay, poetry and music therapy and was able to find the hidden potential in them.

The project "The Wake-Up Call. Sacred Music in a Secular World" is my attempt to answer the questions "Can I reconcile my calling as a musician with my calling as a man of faith? Can these two become one vocation?" The project consists of six compositions based on the early 18th-century church music from my home country Poland called "Gorzkie Zale". This historical source provided melodies that I arranged for a quartet consisting of the piano, the bass, the trumpet, and the percussion. In the recording studio, the band was set up in a circle, which created an intimate, meditative environment and allowed freedom of individual expression while maintaining an element of collective prayer. The goal of the project was to bring awareness of the historical and cultural value of Gorzkie Zale to an international audience, as well as to include my faith in the music I create and to redirect my purpose, from executing the notes towards creating a unified, spiritual experience.

Explorations of a global Filipina artist who, in search for her cultural and ancestral roots, ultimately finds a deeper connection to the inner self and to the world.

A creative project that emphasizes the rejection of absolute schemes and concepts. It affirms the unlimited development toward higher forms of social arrangements with no fixed goal or definite terminus. Original work is represented by the presentation, which is its own form of expression. Exploitations include poetic language and incorporating recordings to combine the musical and philosophical elements, and using free association as a tangible form of anarchism.

The Global Mandolin Project: A Search for Identity, is a project that attempts to answer a simple question: Where did the mandolin come from, and where is it going? My mission with this project, is to contribute to propelling the mandolin forward and expanding the scope of mandolin music. In order to do this, I examined significant historical contributions to music that is played on the mandolin to better understand the cross-cultural influences that shape the instrument and its music. After this initial research of the mandolin and the social and economic conditions which led to its development, I internalized and reinterpreted musical characteristics from four cultures: Africa, Italy, Scotland, & Brazil. Each of these cultures impacted the development of mandolin music in a significant way. I then worked compositionally and improvisationally to synthesize this information through my artistic process, materializing musical influences I've experienced in a personal way. In completing this process, I sense a deeper connection to a global community and to myself. My hope is for my audience to share this increased understanding, and help bring teamwork, perseverance, accountability, equality, and social responsibility to each other's lives.

Using well known and beloved Lebanese folk tunes, an original composition and arrangement as metaphors toward the dialogue of gender equality and artistic expression in the Middle East. Through interpreting Middle Eastern musical traditions through a jazz sensibility, I wish to explore the potential of increased democracy within a musical ensemble setting, using this metaphorically to open the conversation of female inclusion in the arts community and canon in the Arab world.

The “Ancestral Call” is the name of the project. I think of this project as a movement to supporting the rescue of the Bribri culture in Costa Rica through music inspired by my journey of its spiritual, and philosophical life perspective. Bribris are the first Costa Ricans. They are one of the most prominent indigenous communities in the country, and the majority of them live in the city of Talamanca, in the south of this country. I found that this community didn’t have the word music. The closest word in Bribri to these words is "Tt.́k." This word means talking in the ritual language, and thus Bribris speak with their gods and spirits who live in the underworld (nature) to create a spiritual connection with nature (underworld). The closest resemblance of how "Ttok" can be understood in our society is the act of singing. For this reason, this was a unique experience for me. I decided that my artistic representation of the Bribri culture has to focus on a personal, spiritual, and abstract reinterpretation of what I understood about the Bribri culture translated to music.

A study and analysis of 20th century classical music resulting in new music for winds, from sextet to dectet. My project also addresses how a 'Third Stream' way of thinking can help us write music for the 21st century and beyond.

My final project, Tęcza nut which is Polish for (Rainbow of notes): an interconnective approach to early music education through Jazz in Poland is an educational initiative directed for kids ages 6 - 8. The goal of the project is to teach through music, meaning that music is the vehicle through which kids learn lessons about other subjects such as math, geography, language, and values, as well as to introduce children to jazz. The process of creating this project has involved research on the influence of music in the development of childhood, selecting songs from the Polish tradition, creating innovative, jazz-influenced arrangements, writing new lyrics with an educational perspective, and finally performing and recording a selection of these songs. By introducing children to the melodies of their country in a way that is informative, interesting, and reflective of the jazz aesthetic, they will not only be internalizing elements of their national culture, they will also be exposed to important intellectual and musical concepts that will help enrich their lives.

This project is a beginning of a journey born due to my fascination with west African musical and culture. Combining it with my love of different African-American musical styles (Jazz, Gospel, Funk etc) I set out to create a harmonious synthesis of these two worlds, allowing them to coexist and inform one another. I have conducted a deep research which included months of extensive listening to music, reading books and watching documentaries, investing in the ethnomusicology aspect of the research just as much as the musical one. I have pushed myself to the edge of my abilities as a performer, composer, arranger and producer, as I explored a variety of composition & arrangement concepts found in a long list of references and inspiration sources. As I look to the future, I intend to dive even deeper into the various cultures of west Africa, exploring concepts in education and philosophy which are common in the region. After exploring more areas of the region, as well as assembling the required budget in order to bring in west African musicians to record, I intend to release a full-length album, accompanied by a booklet with information about this amazing culture.

PURA BULLA, consists of original as well as traditional compositions rooted in music called Bullerengue. This style comes from the Colombian Caribbean coast in the north of the country and it originated from the musical tradition of African slaves. It was later influenced by Indigenous and Spanish culture. Similar to the Jazz tradition, Bullerengue has roots in several different musical cultures, and It is elaborated on this aspect of the music through my compositional and instrumentation choices. For the recording I chose different instruments that come from other musical traditions around the world such as the Arabic Flute, Mandolin, and Greek Laouto.

Key Words: Jazz, Global, Bullerengue, Percussion, Africa, Colombia, Syncretism

My project consisted in composing and recording 5 songs, getting inspiration from non- musical pieces of art (poems and paintings), using my synesthesia. Synesthesia is a neurological condition that creates links between sensorial pathways. For synesthetes -people who have synesthesia, regions of the brain that interpret different types of stimulations cross-activate involuntarily. For some of them, textures might have flavors, timbres might have shapes and letters might have colors associated to them.

“A'hazeej” - meaning songs or the songs they sing in Arabic - is a study of musics from the Arabian Peninsula. The project documents these rich musical styles, never commercialized outside the Persian Gulf and, using Jazz idioms, works to create a unique experiment in new Arabic Music, enriched by the Jazz tradition and approach. A'hazeej simultaneously seeks to create accessible information about these sparsely-researched musical styles, making important material available to a broad audience. The project as presented here is a case study based on five songs: three from the “Sea Arts,” one a mix of Bedouin music and music brought to the Gulf by slaves from East Africa and one an Urban Art. I approached the work as a performer, educator and composer, not as an ethnomusicologist nor theorist. First listening, transcribing, and internalizing the melodies and complex polyrhythms, I then arranged and composed two songs and three instrumentals for a ten-piece jazz ensemble. Moving forward, A’hazeej will focus on women musicians and women’s “art forms” in order to highlight their buried contribution to this old tradition.

My project, named "Roots Across Continents”, deals with the exploration of my musical identity and background. I went back to my parents’ and their parents’ origins, Morocco, Poland and Romania which serve as a beacon for Eastern European Jewish music, France which serves as a beacon for Western European classical music and Israel. I researched these musical cultures inte to my and composed/arranged a piece for each. Exploring each of these cultures I deepen my knowledge about my ancestry, learn about the rich musical cultures of my origins and transform that material through my personal scope into musical compositions. This project is the first step of a much longer process of self development and enrichment as a musician and composer.

I composed 4 original pieces of music based on 4 different coffees from around the world. I set out to do this to recognize the attention to quality and sustainable craft/business practices in the speciality coffee industry, as the work of modern roasters and baristas inspires me. In this project I explored subjects like cross-modal association and the link between taste and sound as well as the musical traditions of the region the coffee was grown in, all to create new music that was reflective of and paired with a unique flavor and history.

Developing my Culminating Experience certainly challenged me as a trumpet player, improvisor, composer and bandleader. But most importantly, it forced me to honestly evaluate who I am as a person currently, who I want to be, and how I want my music to represent that/ what I want it to do for others. Over the course of this year it became clear to me that virtually everyone I know is dealing with crippling insecurity at all times. It sounds silly, but insecurity and shame is such a personal experience, and that insecurity informs peoples’ behavior in vastly different ways, so it is rarely discussed honestly, therefore it can be difficult to see and understand. I found comfort in the realization that what I have been dealing with is completely human and natural, but I also began to notice how personal insecurity fuels prejudice, assumptions, and misunderstanding. Most importantly, I saw how insecurity inhibits honest communication, which is at the diplomacy. I believe that this insecurity that we all share is the driving force of our thoughts, principles and actions, and I wanted my project to be an honest portrayal of how I am dealing with mine. More simply, wanted it to be and open confession of the fact that I have insecurities, in the hopes that it would become clear to everybody that we all do.

My project is an exploration of how getting to know people on a conversational level can influence my music and my understanding of the world around me. I interviewed four drummers who grew up in life circumstances that varied greatly from my own. I then used those conversations as inspiration to write a duo piece to play with each drummer. These compositions drew on various aspects of the conversations: shared inspirations, specific musical ideas, and the rhythmic quality of speech itself. I then used some of the duo compositions as a basis to produce two works for quartet, adding melody and harmony to the rhythms I wrote. This process was transformative: it helped me to address and work through my introverted and privileged identity, and it reaffirmed music's importance as a transcultural, borderless space where we can work through differences to produce something meaningful with one another.

Sketches of She is and interdisciplinary body of work that features the collaboration of various female artists.

I set 4 different scenarios/ experiences related to information I gathered on the social/ political climate of the prison systems of the USA. Specifically within minority groups and based on events from the early 1970s in California.

The project is made of music that advocated for the abolition of the prison system.

My project is a tribute to my great grandparents who were refugees. It also reflects on current crises and the issue of discrimination against immigrants and refugees.

My culminating experience project, entitled “Color Me Joy” was a concept album and performance project of seven compositions in which each song addressed a different issue that young women, especially women of color have to struggle through and overcome. The purpose of this project was to look beyond the terms racism and sexism, and address the underlying issues within both subjects, such as identity, body image issues, sexual assault and harassment, the fetishization and objectification of women of color, and how all of these issues negatively affect mental health. I wanted to write music that was uplifting, empowering and joyful, but also reflective, cathartic, and healing. I wanted to discuss the intersectionality of being female and a person of color, and the silencing that so many women like myself feel and have been fighting against for hundreds of years. To enhance this goal further, I wrote spoken word poetry for each composition to be presented between songs along with free improvisation. I wrote this material from the perspective of a biracial woman living in America, because that is what I am, but I wanted all women, especially women of color to be able to relate to this project in some way.

This project is a study in the process of music composition. I interviewed six productive composers on their writing processes and learned about their habits, challenges and advice as related to writing music. I then took their ideas and applied them to my own writing and journaled every day about my experience. All of the music I wrote was consciously inspired by these suggestions. I also made a point to share my personal journey in writing music. I wanted to emphasize that the work it takes to become a more creative individual can only by done with a sense of self-knowledge.

For the culminating experience my proposed area of study is to unlock the “unforced rhythms of grace.” I will be discovering and identifying the significance of rhythm to human beings. More specifically, I will be studying in depth the research of psychologists and neuroscientist’s expert in this field such as John Krakauer, Greg Cootsona, John Lamb and Mihaly Csikszentmihayi. I want to better understand the aspects of a musical experience, the importance of emotions and communications, being mediated by the human mirror neuron system. In this case I plan to cumulate my own philosophy on the impact of rhythm both musically and socially. This will then express the importance of a musician’s role in social change to improve our society.

My culminating experience project, New Songs of Resistance, consists of four chamber- jazz arrangements of politically salient and historically significant songs from the nueva canción and related Latin American musical and social movements. The project also includes three original compositions of my own addressing contemporary issues. The final work consisted of these seven recordings, plus three solo piano interludes, scores, and a multimedia presentation. The presentation outlines the history of nueva canción, the principal artists whose work I studied, and samples of the scores and recorded works to illustrate compositional tools, orchestration choices, and performance techniques used therein. I selected the four nueva canción songs—“Gracias a la vida” (Violeta Parra), “Aquí me quedo” (Victor Jara), “Cinco siglos igual” (León Gieco), and “Apesar de voce” (Chico Buarque)—based on extensive listening and research, choosing pieces by songwriters who were historically significant, and whose music touched me most deeply. I also considered the songs’ contrasting musical elements in the context of an album as criteria for their selection. In addition, I highlight particular Latin American folk rhythms and styles, such as cueca, merengue venezolano, and chacarera, which I studied and practiced during the year in the context of learning and adapting this repertoire.

Threads of Being is a cultivation of experimental works in the form of poetry, photography, composition, storywriting, sketching; the final product for this presentation being a film of 16 minutes.

My project was very challenging on a lot of levels, taking concepts from the past, the ancient world, concepts that are not exactly musical but involve sound and make a clear connection to today’s world using technology and production techniques as a vehicle for these ideas to bloom. I wanted to take a few symbols from ancient cultures – The Flower of Live, and the Staff of Asclepius. These shapes appear in many different parts of the world with no clear evidence that they are connected. It was my opportunity to showcase the connection. In the end I finished recording a whole album combining 3 long pieces : +,0,- that resembles the motion of a Sine Wave, purest form of sound in nature. Because I wanted to feature so many artists I had to use some recording skills and make everyone play on top of each other on a separate recording and align that later (overdubs). Although my intention was to create a very organic feeling like everyone is at the same room, I had to make some adjustments on a technical level.

My project was to write four new pieces of music for a large jazz ensemble including singers, horns, a typical jazz piano trio and a string quartet. I had the intention to analyze the classical repertoire of string quartets. I have been writing for strings since my first year of Masters at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels (Belgium). I am more and more passionate about writing and arranging, so this is the reason why I wanted to dig deep into the string writing process.

The project I was working on this year is named “Bridges” and it was focused on using Arabic music elements in jazz. This was done by enforcing jazz and European classical music theories over arabic scales (Maqams) and using arabic sounds in harmonic and melodic context while improvising and composing in jazz. Furthermore, I incorporated additional Arabic music concepts into jazz playing such as ornaments, improvisation concepts and microtones. Besides being a practical and technical research, this project also had a personal side to it; I grew up in Israel in a mixed culture where half of my family are German and half Egyptian so I tried to find this balance through a musical journey in search of my own unique voice and identity as a jazz musician. The title “Bridges” came from that idea of creating a bridge between this two identities I grew up in.

I composed a four movement suite that was inspired by issues that have come out of tensions in the political and social climates in the world, particularly in the United States. I used the symbol of The Doomsday Clock, which was created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, as an overarching theme for my suite. This theme being the impeding threat of global nuclear war. In the suite I wanted to highlight the atrocities of war and gun violence through the tone of the music. Each movement was paired with either a painting or photography depicting the powerful imagery of war and gun violence. I used paintings by Goya and Picasso in my first and third movement. My second movement was inspired by photos taken on the day of the school shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School. I used a collection of photos by Wim Wenders for the fourth movement of the suite. The purpose of the suite was to highlight these very powerful issues but also to inspire and unify people. I decided to end the suite on a more positive note to instill the idea of hope in the listener.

The objective of this project was to create music reflective of the process of overcoming addiction and mental illness, raise awareness of music's capacity to empower and heal those in recovery, and to establish a performance series where those attributes can be employed, providing spiritual nourishment and psycho-social integration for all present. The music includes compositional devices to express the searching, reaching, and yearning for resolution and spiritual wholeness that one in recovery experiences. The performance series will take place in various settings, the first of which is a composers' workshop to deepen contact between local creative musicians and the people of their community.

The goal of my final project was to create fresh unique music based on my different experiences including Polish National Dances. My plan was not to create music that will sound like polish folk but to compose music that will be included particular elements from polish music and sounds fresh referring to my other inspirations but still in some points similar to traditional polish folk music. In the same time, I did not want to create music which will be representative of my country. It wasn’t plan to make impression of Poland. It was plan to compose music with skillfully using particular elements come from music from my own country selected by me and and rearranged and hidden in the middle of the songs.

A six-movement series of original compositions based on short stories from my life since I left the Dominican Republic for the US. These compositions represent my first original material ever and it pursues to apply concepts and philosophies learned during my Master's at the BGJI.

The purpose of this project is to dedicate Thelonious Monk based on my compositions and arrangements inspired by him.

I would like to create a new musical concept linked with social and environmental values to raise awareness in my home place. It will be a tool to promote French Guiana. The long term idea is to be a able to travel and perform the music and share the social and environmental messages thru it. I will also get in touch with fellow cinematographer, choreographer, painters... to extend the movement to a much global experience.

My vision is to compose a 5 - part suite entitled "Music of the Great Lakes" where each lake hosts a different tribe.

A performance is therapeutic when two or more people have a common experience that involves emotional regulation. I plan to visit a couple of different music therapists in the Boston area. While there, I will conduct interviews about, improvisation, emotional regulation and effective repertoire. For my second visit with the group I will compose music that I will perform together with the participants. Each song will become a small game, where some information is given but many elements are open for improvisation. By involving communities that usually are not engaged by music, my project has the potential to reach further. Afterwards, I will arrange and record the ideas captured in the session for a band from Berklee. The CD will be a business card, promoting me as an artist as well as a teacher, and give an example of the findings of this project.

This project seeks to bring Classical and Jazz musicians together in the form of a Jazz quartet and Classical string quartet, teaching and documenting the process of collaboration and communication of ideologies.

By researching on finding correlations between music and dance in many different cultures, I would like to present both formats, a documentary and a performance/flash mob.

For my Culminating Experience I want to make a recording that features arrangements of Negro Spirituals as well as my own original compositions that are inspired by these Spirituals.

My project will be in two parts. The first part will be a composition based around the idea of the "anthropocene" and how humanity has affected and lives alongside the natural world around us looking at our past, our present and our future through music. The second part will be a business proposal for a non-profit artist collective that consumers will gain access to through proof of making a positive environmental change.

Freedom of the Wilderness is a 5 movement piece that I created in collaboration with choreographer Jayne Paley and videographer Ashli Bickford. The piece features 10 musicians and 4 dancers and is presented as a short film. The message behind the project is to promote awareness for environmental conservation. Each movement is inspired by a different landscape from my hometown in Sisters, Oregon.

Into the musical part of the 1st season in the Video Cultural Documentary series “EMBRACING”; An entertaining and educational series focused on learning, sharing, and documenting the treasures that certain parts of the world have in three specific categories: Gastronomy, Historic Monuments and of course Art. The 1st season of Embracing will be about the Dominican Republic, an integration of Afro-Dominican Folkloric Rhythms in a contemporary setting providing new interesting combinations and possibilities. A huge part of my roots and only the beginning of a life long journey.

For my final culminating experience project, I am planning to arrange and record the wonderful compositions of my mother and Berklee graduate, Lori Starr. Sadly, about three and a half years ago she passed away but left an incredible legacy for me to carry on. Starting in high school, she was an
extremely hard working musician who performed, taught, and then took on the
job as a full-time mom while continuing to pursue her passion for composing. I
remember very clearly hearing her visions for arrangements and instrumentation. Recording her original music was always her dream, but because of her competing responsibilities it never became reality.

This project will involve me bringing two of my greatest loves in life together, Music and Science Fiction. I will do this in three ways, the first being writing pieces based on some of my favorite Sci-Fi stories and authors. The second will be to put together a group using non-conventional instrumentation to create a sonic palate somewhat unfamiliar. This is to have an effect of the futuristic, treating this ensemble as if it’s a standard format but in another time period. Like a classical string quartet or a jazz quintet but in an age where we have evolved into another “standard” format, whatever this may be. This is only a creative projection, much like an author’s vision of a future to set a story in. This is not a prediction based on current trends in music. The third is going to be using certain effects (electronics/pedals) on acoustic instruments to bring in a “cyborg” element of having both the organic and the mechanic operating in the same organism. The obvious thing to do would be to use all electronics or programing but I really want to take it in a different direction and have everybody first and foremost playing an acoustic instrument before this electronic element is added.

This paper is a reflection paper on my culminating experience project. It summarizes the project. I will discuss how the project aligned with my expectations and how it didn’t. How I had to revise the project to meet the expectation. I will also discus future plans for the project and how to further develop it. I will discuss how the project contributes to the field and how the project impacted me.

This recording project will consist of compositions written in reflection of stages in my life that have brought me to where I am today.

This project is both a musical performance and an original album idea. My intention is to explore the trope of creating contrafacts from jazz standards (i.e. Tin Pan Alley, Great American Songbook). Inspired by the contrafacts I was required to submit of: “All the Things You Are,” “Inner Urge,” and Footprints”; which I submitted as: “All the Things Emmett Till Could have Been,” “Inner Outer Africa” and “Harriet Tubman’s Feet” respectively. My contrafacts both play on the wording of the standard and allude to a historical and racial significance replete with contradiction. They have relevance to both American history and current socio-political unrest in this country. The notion of relevance is essential here. I want to create jazz that is engaging and entertaining to my generation, and without relevance that becomes impossible.

I want to create a musical suite, with the lenguaje learned at the BGJI, specifically the rhythmic concept learned in "Danilo Perez Performance Lab", Choose in a concrete way, 6 musical tools, learned and compose, based on these tools, 4 movements, An estimated time 35H40 minutes, in jazz approach, in an orchestral format of approximately 12 musicians, including strings, horns and rhythm section. With the purpose that the performer identifies these tools in the movements and can learn to develop them consciously. For this we will recording the suite, and the musical scores will be edited with a manual of instruction, of how the Global Jazz tools have been used in the composition. With this to inspire other kind of orchestras, professional or students ensembles, for study and performance the jazz suite, and at the same time to integrate into their language these concepts.

My intention regarding the culminating experience/final project is to compose, perform, and record an album with original music that will be based on different and very important musical influences that made an impression on me during my childhood and adolescence.

I will compose music based on film. I have two possiblities now, first is having project with film director, and I will be music director of the film. But it might be hard to find someone. So second posible project will be compose music based on films that I got inspired by. Both project will be representing the film and I will play both music and the film for my final presentation.

My artistic project is an offering to revitalize into a contemporary context, the little-known, yet passionate and relevant , bhakti poetry from the Indian Subcontinent. Etymologically the word bhakti has atleast two levels to its meaning. The root bhaj means to share, to participate, to belong to. It also means, a state of being in ‘loving-devotion’, ‘absorption in love’, and ‘a spontaneous expression of love’.

My first final project will be a recording of an album which is my effort to bring to the fore the soloist side of the Greek Lute (Laouto).

This project aims to bring awareness to the unusual forms of improvisational techniques that I learned over the past 4 years in the Global Jazz institute. It will be shown in a video documentary format, and will also incorporate other forms of improvising, such as: dance, art, comedy, spoken word, etc.

This project, will attempt to raise awareness in the people of Puerto Rico through the use of an interdisciplinary work of art. This work starts from an idea of a musical piece for large orchestra that I began writing in the summer of 2015, which now has been expanded to many different forms and formats within music and other disciplines.

This project reflects the work and research done during the program length. Most of the concepts studied were performance related such as: voice-leading, jazz repertoire, improvisation, jazz traditions and folk traditions. The final product presented will be a recording of jazz repertoire (non-original) that showcase all the learning process, and can be used as future reference for teaching.

My culminating experience thesis subject is “finding my identity from Korean traditional music”. I researched about Korean traditional music and Korean Philosophy and I applied those elements into my compositions. I recorded five songs. The first 3 songs are based on Korean traditional music. Specially the third one “OHHO” is based on Korean traditional rhythm and I tried to describe diverse emotional ups and downs from our daily lives. And the rest of two songs are based on a story and poem that I wrote from my imagination. Korean music and philosophy is very related to each other. The music implies life, universe and even nature. I tried to put my life and philosophy into my composition like my ancestor did.

This project started with the idea of furthering my understanding of the compositional process while searching for harmonies that are not yet common in the modern jazz genre. Eternal Bliss is the culmination of influences from across an array of genres such as but not limited to, Classical, Chamber, Jazz, Cuban and various percussion based music from around the world. The instrumentation is relatively unusual and allowed for me to have the freedom to depict the influences of the piece with greater accuracy than if I had written for more traditional jazz instrumentation. The writing process took place over a three month period where I was constantly editing and revising a handful of core ideas. The recording took place in Mixx One studios in Boston over the course of two days followed by three weeks of post production. The final product will be released online accompanied by an EPK and an official release concert in Toronto, Canada.

In this Culminating Experience project, I set out to gain a much greater understanding of Conlon Nancarrow’s unusual compositional language, with the goal of having a recorded document of my interpretation of Nancarrow’s music as an end result. My goal was to synthesize the harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic language of American-born composer Conlon Nancarrow. I set out to record four of his compositions: Study No. 3B, Study No. 10, Study No. 12, and Study No. 20, with the addition of one jazz standard from the Great American Songbook.

My Culminating Experience is divided in two related areas: Research Area and Composition / Performance / Recording Area. I decided to structure the project this way in order to create a balance between the intuitive and the intelectual aspect of making music. This way of combining theory and practice is quite usual in Classical and Jazz music, but is not in Flamenco Music. For the research project I have written a book titled “Contemporary Studies in Spanish and Flamenco Music”. This book has been written during the 2015-2016 academic year at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, and the research process took me also to New England Conservatory, MIT and Harvard University. For the recording project I composed a 20 minutes concert for guitar and chamber group. The music was mainly composed with the piano and the guitar, for which I used five different tunings; the standard tuning, two Irish tunings and two original tunings of mine.

My Culminating Experience project is introducing four audio recordings of all original compositions. Throughout this Culminating Experience report I will reflect on the process I went through from the early stages of the project until the final product. I will discuss my plan of action, objectives and how I was able to achieve them and also what wasn’t accomplished during this timeframe. I will also discuss my goals for the near future and the impact this process has created in my life as an artist. Other topics include a reflection on what I consider potential contributions to my profession as a composer, arranger and performer.

The project will be a live Jazz orchestra performance. The concert will consist of original compositions, influenced by South African history. The music will function as accompaniment to narrated historic events of South Africa. The narration will consist of live speaking, speech, voice over, text reading and conversations. I will also use video interviews and pictures of historic figures and events, accompanied by the live Jazz orchestra. Compositional ideas will be based around the mood and message set by what the narrator is presenting. The music along with the narration will make up a total of 50 minutes performance. Presented to a live audience, or a live studio recording.

The premise of my culminating experience rests on the idea of life as a journey throughout which we learn to actualize our gifts. On this journey or the quest for being fully alive, we receive guidance, go through struggles and join forces with others. The process through which we evolve is not straight-forward but rather cyclical. We must ask questions and get lost at times, and the answers we receive are only the next plateau from which new questions emerge. However, with each answer, with each return, we evolve. Many of life’s experiences can be transformed through music. Where fiction and magic, politics and dreams, visions and struggles come together, music can become the lens through which to see the world, clear the path, and convey a message. The plan for this project was to create a super-hero graphic novel with each chapter of the novel to be interpreted by musical compositions and improvisation. My trajectory was to tell a story through music which follows the rites of passage of the main character. Each step he takes represents a stage on his journey and is interpreted musically.

The first part of the culminating experience is my first album of original music entitled ‘Son Of Tigris’. This musical suite will feature my original music, which comes from deep within my musical roots and is tied with all the other musical influences I have accumulated over the years, creating a new platform for the violin as well as a cultural and musical bridge between Arabic music and Jazz. The second part of the project is the vision of opening the ‘Amman Music Institute’ where I will bring years of musical training and a love for music education to the Jordanian community, in the hopes that it can unite Jordanian musicians of all genres but mainly work closely with refugees in and around the city and provide them with a chance to explore music and give them hope of leading their own lives.

The goal of this project is to find the ways to use elements of Japanese sound into jazz as a medium (Both in composition and performance) to share the moment with the others even from the other countries.

The world becomes smaller when music connects people; sounds, flavors, languages and makes cultures coexist, opening minds, borders and spirits. We are all part of this small world that yet is enormous. It is rich and full of opportunities that you could live if you are open to learn and to grow. Listening, observing, with honesty, love and respect. Having this spirit would contribute in making this world a place for creativity, bringing people together. Music is our precious vehicle to do so and we should not forget the power we have as artists. This year, at the Institute, has taught me this lesson. My Culminating Experience is the result of all these connections and experiences that live has brought to me, presented in a musical project. I look forward to share my music with the world for the first time.

Throughout history, music has always been a tool used to communicate with concepts bigger than the individual. We live in an infinite universe where nature is continuously evolving in mysterious ways. The duality of nature’s fragility and fierceness, it’s miracles of creation and spontaneous destructiveness has long been an inspiration, muse, and even at times intended audience of music and the arts. The goal of my culminating experience is to explore the many ways nature influences our ideas and the way we make music. Also discussed will be several projects in which musicians have used their medium to create social change in the realm of how our society values and protects nature.

The objective of this project is to dive into the Andalusian tradition, and the many other traditions of the Maghreb region. The Maghreb region is in Northwest Africa. It includes Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. The ultimate goal of this project is to find different ways to fuse elements from these
traditions with elements from Jazz, and vice versa.

The World Wanderer is a suite of music, accompanied by narration, that depicts the story of a boy driven by an unknown force that leads him through multiple cultural dimensions. His journey gives him the perspective he needs to deal with his own challenges at home. All in all, the complete suite will celebrate these diverse worlds for their musical and cultural beauty, promote cultural curiosity, and investigate storytelling as a form of accompaniment to musical composition. The narrative seeks to highlight real world conflicts and problems through storytelling.

In order to present the results of my studies, to reach my career goal and to spread Chinese culture through my music, my final project is to have a recital where I present my original compositions with Chinese culture elements.

An artist website that showcases my work as a musician and conservationist. A place online where the visitor will gain something as well as be exposed to my music. Including instructional videos, new music recorded during the Master's program at Berklee and interesting and entertaining information on nature. This will allow my career to have a place on the web with all my activities and help me organize my different interests in music and music education.

My Proposed Culminating Experience was creating an album that can introduce the culture of South Korea to the world. I want to be a music ambassador to the people around the world because I believe that South Korea has great philosophy towards all mankind from five thousand years ago. My goal for this project was to create pieces to express my thought towards this competitive society and give a better suggestion for human being to live coexistence.

My culminating Experience project, idea from like this ‘what I have my own specific shape as a musically, and personally. And then I look back upon the past of my Berklee life. Since I study at Berklee Global Jazz Institute, it has challenged me to grow and gain experience form new concepts, I formularized to find the ‘Shape’ of myself. From this word ‘Shape’ I have made my own definition of each letter from this word.
‘S’ is for ‘Spiritual’
‘H’ is for ‘Heart’
‘A’ is for ‘Ability’
‘P’ is for ‘Personality’
‘E’ is for ‘Experience’
And then try to gather my important experiences from my musical journey to each word.

I wanted to capture and share myself with my different kinds of emotions. Like Writing my diary. I liked this concept because there is nothing to fake myself and I can be honest with my meaningful moments. My goal was to present my own musical and human character like presenting my own microcosm to people who are listening to my music. Because I feel grateful when I give people joy, consolation, and encouragement through my words or actions, I wanted to make my music that give a good influence toward healing people. As time goes by while in this process I notice I have so much diverse feelings inside as a human being and as a musician I needed to share my diverse feelings and communicate with people as capturing my self through my composing and performance works. At the same time during this process I wanted to challenge myself through this project to make my musical level higher and also to develop my humanity.