Berklee School of Music summer program – Week 3

One of our former students, Renee Masse, is taking a break from her studies at McGill to attend the Berklee School of Music summer program.　 She has shared her third week with us.

Berklee Music-Week 3

                Week 3 was quite similar class schedule wise, but Monday, I had an exciting addition to my day. In the afternoon, I went to the Vinx Recording Studio, and was able to record myself singing along with a track. The studio was very nice, and the equipment was of very high quality, but we didn’t have a lot of time individually as there were many people signed up, wanting a spot. Vinx was there himself, and he is a very talented musician as we heard him perform in the first week of classes. He teaches the Singers Drum Circle, which is an optional elective, and asked me to come check it out later that day. After a performance by Terri Lynn Carrington, a very accomplished drummer who now teaches at Berklee, I went to the Singers Drum Circle class. We basically sat in a room and looked at pictures and we would go around the circle expressing how the picture made us feel, what was the story behind the picture and exercising our creativity and lyric writing skills. It was very interesting and thought provoking.

                Tuesday and Wednesday were busy as always, we learnt a lot of the music that we will be performing in Musical Theatre class, and worked on background vocals for the song Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, which is a lot of fun to sing. In Rhythm and Grooves, I chose to sing the song Cry Me a River and it went really well and everyone loved it.

                On Thursday we had a quiz in theory, which I think went fairly well, and then afterwards I met my friend Gabrielle who was in my a cappella group in Montreal and is now graduated and working in Boston. We had a nice picnic lunch in the park and caught up on lost time. Later that evening I had my music business class where we focused on the importance of live performing, which was very interesting, and then after dinner headed home.

                Friday, I only had one class because my ensemble was cancelled, so I took the afternoon off and relaxed before my BIG exciting weekend! My friend and I were heading off to New York City for the weekend! We took the bus at 5:30, which was more like 7:00 because the bus got delayed. The bus was only 4 hours and cost $20 each way…we couldn’t NOT go! We arrived late in the evening, around 11pm and made our way to our hotel, The Paramount located in the middle of Times Square. The hotel wasamazing, and the location was perfect, but when we walked into the room we realized why we got such a good deal. The room was tiny, with a double bed for the both of us. We managed to fit and the bed was comfortable enough to make up for the lack of space, so in the end we were quite happy with the living situation.

                Early the next morning, we got on the subway headed for South Station, the very south tip of Manhattan. From there we took a ferry headed for Staten Island, that we thought was heading for the Statue of Liberty, but was quite enjoyable anyways. We got a lovely view of the city and it was free! Afterwards, we found the actual line-up, and it was ridiculously long, taking hours to get to a boat to take you to the Statue of Liberty. We decided not to waste our time and took a few pictures with the little statue in the far of distance, just to prove we were there. Then, we took the subway back and met up with my friend from university who lives in New York. We then went to Whole Foods and got some food to have a picnic in Central Park. We were extremely lucky that we had such wonderful weather, and it was such a relaxing time sitting on a blanket in the sun. We later went to get changed and had dinner at Blue Fin before seeing a Broadway show. The show was called Next To Normal and was about a dysfunctional family, with a mother struggling with anxiety and depression. Although it was depressing at parts, and I definitely heard some people sniffling in the back, the music was very beautiful and powerful, and I am very glad we chose to see it. By the time the show was over, it was quite late, but we decided to venture to the Empire State Building to see the 360 degree view from the 86^th floor. It was definitely the highlight of the trip and definitely worth the wait and money.

                Sunday morning we woke up early to try and catch the early service at a church in Harlem. We were hoping to hear the gospel music and experience the life and vivaciousness of the people. The subway unfortunately was not running train into Harlem that weekend and we ended up at the end of the line and off the map. We hoped into a cab and got to the church only a couple minutes after the service was scheduled to begin. Unfortunately for us “tourists” had to wait in a separate line, and it was too late for us to enter the early service, and we would have to wait two more hours. We had to check out of the hotel by noon, so we could not catch the later service, but we had an interesting time walking through Harlem and trying to get back home. After a wellneeded nap we went to SoHo and did some shopping and then returned to Time Square to collect our luggage and return to the bus. It was a really great trip and I’m so glad that we were able to fit it in with our busy schedules. Although I developed a bit of a cold while I was away, I’ll try and get some rest now that I’m back.

Miss you lots,

Renée Massé