It’s about starting over . com

Yesterday in one of my classes, the teacher was taking attendance and he called the name of a guy named Liad (in Hebrew, it means “next to”). One of the students pointed out that he was the kid who recently died. The story is that (he’s not really a kid) Liad set out on his way to propose marriage to his girlfriend and got into a car accident that he didn’t make it out of. I think he was in his early twenties.

The energy level of the entire class dropped as if a collective “oh” of realization had been sighed–the teacher remained poised with his pen hovering over that place in the attendance sheet where Liad’s name was printed. Without looking up he said, “I can’t cross it off.” I told him to mark him as here because he most definitely was with us at that moment. Evidently someone in the main office felt the same way and that’s why Liad’s name still appears on our attendance printouts.

The attendance roster of life

How much time has to go by before we erase the memory of those who have passed on before us? I guess that depends on their closeness to us, or on the profundity of their passing. Who among those alive at the time will ever forget the death of John Kennedy? I’ll remember Liad because of that moment in our class.

Four years since…what?

On December 9th, I auditioned to attend The Berklee College of Music. I think that this is one of my more important milestones and the results will substantially influence the direction my life will take over the coming years. So it comes as no surprise that Continue Reading »

Those of you who know me know that I’ve been planning to audition to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston for some years. Actually, it was in my thoughts from the moment I learned about the articulation agreement that Berklee has with the Rimon School, which I’ve already attended for three years.

How does it work?

For the curious–it works like this. The Berklee College, not to be confused with any of the colleges or universities in Berkeley California, has an articulation agreement with what are called BIN schools around the world. The agreement works like this (in a nutshell): you take certain courses at the BIN school and, as long as you get a grade of B or better in each one, you can transfer those credits (and yourself) to Berklee. Once you’ve completed the required courses, you’re in. You don’t need to be accepted because, by virtue of the fact that you’ve completed these courses at the BIN school, you’re in.

What’s the catch? Really folks, there isn’t one. A word or two about studying at the Rimon School though–I’ll tell you right now that it’s pretty easy to get in, as long as you possess a modicum of talent, but it’s not at all easy to stay in. It’s hard work and the less educated you are in music theory, the harder it is. I came in with nothing behind me and it’s been a real uphill battle, but one I adore. I adore the challenge, the hard work, and most of all, the results.

Why did I audition?

So, back to the Berklee thing. Everyone who applies to attend Berklee, BIN transfer students included, must audition. The purpose of the audition is twofold. First, it’s for placement. They test you in various areas and your placement in classes at Berklee is based on the results. The second and, for me, more important purpose is for possible scholarships. Without a substantial scholarship, I cannot attend.

Is there much competition or is a scholarship a sure thing?

Hmmmm, well, the competition is pretty tough. Now, I think that Rimon is one of the smaller schools in which auditions are held. They were scheduled back-to-back, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. over a two-day period with a one-hour lunch break in the middle. Each audition was supposed to last only 15 minutes. So, that means 4 musicians per hour, 7 hours each day, two days: that’s 56 musicians auditioning at Rimon. Oh, and this is called, “The World Scholarship Tour.” They’ll be auditioning musicians at multiple locations around the world. That’s a lot of competition! And believe me, Berklee is one of the best music schools on the earth so a lot of people want to get in.

How many people will be granted full scholarships? Not many. I think it’s something like seven to ten. You can read about it here.

So, how’d it go already?

Okay, I’ve gotten so many emails asking how the audition went! I promised I would post about it, so here it goes. It was Continue Reading »