Free, five-concert series starts September 22 to December 8 will include R&B, gospel, Latin, bebop, and jazz

BOSTON, August 12, 2005 - Berklee College of Music, the world's largest college for contemporary music education, and Bose Corporation, known for their groundbreaking audio products, are combining music and sound in a free, cutting-edge concert series called Great Music/Great Sound. The series will bring five outstanding acts from Berklee's Boston campus to the Bose Live Music Listening Room in Framingham for an exciting and diverse concert series spanning the gamut from gospel and R&B to jazz and Latin music. The series will spotlight Berklee's melting pot of culture and music and feature an entirely new and critically acclaimed Bose technology for amplifying live music.

The series begins on September 22 and ends on December 8. The shows are free and start at 7:30 p.m. The Bose Live Music Listening Room is located at the Bose Reservoir Building, on the company's Framingham campus at 145 Pennsylvania Ave. Parking is free. The public can reserve seats and find directions to the venue at www.bose.com/concerts .

The Berklee-Bose Great Music/Great Sound 2005 Concert Series schedule (all concerts are on Thursday):

Sept 22

Robin McKelle - R&B

Berklee alumna McKelle brings an exciting contemporary sound to the standards and originals that she sings on international concert stages and on CD. After McKelle performed with the Boston Pops, Keith Lockhart called her, "A star of tomorrow [with] a voice that compares with Sarah Vaughn and Ella Fitzgerald, although at times she sounds like a young Aretha Franklin."

From left: Dennis Montgomery and Robin Mckelle

Oct 13

Be-Bop Guitars - be bop

The Be-Bop Guitars are five guitar professors from Berklee, with four back-up musicians, and voice professor Maggie Scott. They perform new arrangements of jazz standards, blues, and sambas from masters like Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus, and Wes Montgomery, taking music to unexpected and exhilarating dimensions. Under the direction of John Baboian, the members of the Be-Bop Guitars are known internationally as leaders of guitar education and have influenced countless numbers of guitarists around the world.

Nov 3

Donna McElroy - jazz standards

Grammy-nominated vocalist and Berklee professor McElroy was the arranger/background vocalist on the gold and platinum releases "Why Haven't I Heard From You?" by Reba McIntyre; "We Shall Be Free," by Garth Brooks; "Addictive Love," by BeBe and CeCe Winans; and "House of Love," by Amy Grant. She received a Grammy nomination for "Bigger World" (Warner Brothers), a Dove Award for "Songs from the Loft" (Reunion). Since she joined the Berklee faculty in 1996, McElroy has represented the college at clinics and jazz festivals around the world, including the Italian Umbria Jazz Festival, and the Phoenix Festivals in Kobe, Japan, and Seoul, Korea. Pianist Jetro DaSilva, bassist Ron Mahdi, drummer Ron Savage, and saxophonist Bill Pierce complete a stellar line-up of faculty talent.

Be-Bop Guitars

Nov 17

Dennis Montgomery and Overjoyed - gospel

Dec 8

Victor Mendoza - Latin jazz

Considered by critics around the world to be one of today's finest Latin jazz artists, Mexican-born vibraphonist, composer, and Berklee professor Mendoza's career includes performances with his own group, and with artists such as Paquito D'Rivera, Danilo Pérez, Michel Camilo, Claudio Roditi, Giovanni Hidalgo, Horacio "El Negro" Hernández, and Antonio Sánchez.  Jazziz magazine calls him, "the genre's leading vibraphone practitioner . . . [and] one of today's most resourceful composers."

"We are honored and excited to be working with these great Berklee artists," remarked Ken Jacob, Director and Chief Engineer of the Bose Live Music Technology Group. "Our goal is to present the music of these exceptional artists with unprecedented clarity."

From left: Victor Mendoza and Donna McElroy

A unique component to the concert series for the audience will be hearing the sound amplified using an entirely new technology for live music developed by Bose, the product of more than 10 years of research and development. The new technology allows the artist to replace the conventional PA, monitor, and guitar speakers with a new kind of loudspeaker called a Cylindrical Radiator® loudspeaker, one placed unobtrusively behind each musician.

"Playing amplified music in a way that's satisfying and rewarding for musicians is not easy because there are so many technical hurdles and complications," said Thaddeus Hogarth, Berklee guitar professor and concert series producer. "What Bose has developed is just incredible because it allows us to play as if we were sitting around jamming at home. The musicians and the audience hear each instrument with startling clarity, and there's literally no sound equipment between the audience and us so the intimacy and connection set-up between artist and audience is truly amazing. This is a real breakthrough."

Berklee College of Music was founded on the revolutionary principle that the best way to prepare students for careers in music was through the study and practice of contemporary music. For over half a century, 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.