Courtesy of Lee Berk

Courtesy of Berklee College of Music

Courtesy of Edward S. Davidson

Courtesy of Berklee College of Music

Courtsy of Lee Berk

Berklee School of Music

By the early 1950’s, Schillinger House’s curriculum had signifi-cantly expanded beyond Joseph Schillinger’s technique; it now included music education and more traditional music theory classes. In order to reflect the broader scope of instruction, Berk changed the name to Berklee School of Music, after his son Lee Eliot Berk. However, innovations in music education were only part of Berk’s success story.

Berk was not only a visionary teacher but he was an astute busi-nessman. He secured steady income by recruiting veterans eligi-ble for educational benefits under the GI Bill. Almost 50 percent of the students were on the GI Bill. He also established a part-time school that catered mostly to housewives and high school students. Quickly realizing that a full-time music school which taught only jazz and dance music could not support itself, Berk kept innovating.

As a musician influenced by Depression Era musical culture, Berk placed great emphasis on learning from music practitioners, as opposed to academics. He generally hired working musicians as faculty members, who were familiar with the challenges of the industry.

“I remember one summer Bob Share had to borrow $2,000 from his mother to meet the faculty payroll until we got to September and the tu-ition money started to come in. I remember Larry putting second mort-gages on his house. He had such courage, such vision.” - Herb Pome-roy, Berklee teacher

Another part of Berk’s business model was to recruit foreign stu-dents. He offered correspondence courses in the 1950s. In 1957, along with Robert Share, Berk created a series of LP recordings of student work, accompanied by scores called Jazz in the Class-room, which were produced until 1980. The albums are early examples of composing, arranging, and performing by students who went on to have successful jazz careers. Some of the students on these albums were Gary Burton, John Abercrombie, John Sco-field, Ernie Watts, Alan Broadbent, and Sadao Watanabe.