Berklee's Annual International Folk Music Festival

[opi@berklee.edu]

Berklee’s Global Community Joins
for a Concert of World Music
Spanning the Middle East to Latin America
March 27, Berklee Performance Center

Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart to be honored
for supporting international music, education

Boston, MA, March 18, 2008 – Berklee College of Music presents the 22nd annual International Folk Music Festival on Thursday, March 27, at 8:15 p.m., at the Berklee Performance Center. Berklee’s international students comprise 22 percent of its population, proving that music is truly a cultural bridge. Tickets are $10.00, $5.00 for seniors, and on sale now the Performance Center box office, 136 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston. For more information, call 617-747-2261, or click berklee.edu/events. The Berklee Performance Center is wheelchair accessible.

Students and faculty from Mexico, Cuba, Bulgaria, Pakistan, Japan, Colombia, and the U.S. will perform, some wearing colorful clothing and playing rarely seen instruments that represent their home countries. They'll showcase a vast range of musical styles including salsa, klezmer, and bluegrass. Concert director and Berklee professor Ken Zambello is planning a stirring and emotional program, with songs of love, loss, tragedy, and triumph.

As part of the annual celebration of Berklee’s international culture and music, a community leader is honored for supporting international understanding, goodwill, and education, and for helping Berklee’s international students. The Berklee 2008 International Award recipient is world-renowned Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart.

“Keith Lockhart speaks from experience when he says that Berklee is one of the world's preeminent institutions for turning out jazz and pop musicians", said award presenter Larry Bethune, vice president for student affairs/dean of students. “Often, he’ll include international students, alumni, and faculty in Pops concerts and programs. He created the Berklee Jazz Café for the Pops Jazzfest as a way to book many international students to perform in Symphony Hall for exciting and intimate shows following the action on the main stage.”

Berklee College of Music was founded on the revolutionary principal that the best way to prepare students for careers in music was through the study and practice of contemporary music, be it hip-hop, rock, jazz, country, gospel, electronica, Latin, or funk. For 60 years, the college has evolved constantly to reflect the state of the art of music and the music business. With over a dozen performance and nonperformance majors, a diverse and talented student body representing over 70 countries, and a music industry "who's who" of alumni, Berklee is the world's premier learning lab for the music of today — and tomorrow.