When Mark O’Connor performs at Berklee College of Music on Dec. 10 with a group of faculty and students, he’ll be celebrating more than the end of his week-long residency. He’ll introduce Berklee’s new American Roots Music Program, directed by Matt Glaser.
Reflecting violinist Glaser’s own eclectic tastes and journeys, the American Roots Music Program explores America’s musical and cultural heritage, and creates a focus on the styles from which all contemporary music originates. Students will delve into blues, gospel, folk, country, bluegrass, Cajun, Western swing, polka, Tex-Mex, and other sounds.
Glaser will design the curriculum, promote nontraditional improvisation, develop faculty programs, and host visiting artists, concerts and symposiums. Top contemporary performers, writers, and producers who are carrying on the American roots traditions constitute the board of advisors to the Roots Music Program: Ricky Skaggs, Bela Fleck, Leo Kottke, Charlie Haden, Edgar Meyer, David Grisman, Andy Statman, Don Rigsby, Lloyd Maines, Liz Carroll, John Blake, Geoff Muldaur, Bruce Molsky, Ted Gioia, Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, Darol Anger, Ray Benson, Doug Wamble, John Lawless, Fletcher Bright, Sara and Sean Watkins ,and Michael Doucet. (more…)
