Alison Plante Named Chair of Film Scoring at Berklee
Alison Plante, chair of Berklee's Film Scoring Department
Berklee announces that Alison Plante has been named the chair of the college’s Film Scoring Department. Plante, whose appointment makes her the first female chair of a collegiate film scoring department, is an award-winning composer whose scoring credits range from documentaries for PBS and the History Channel to national television ads, independent films, multimedia museum exhibits, and live theater. She is also the founder of her scoring business, Treble Cove Music.
Plante brings more than 16 years of experience as a composer, and 10 years as an educator to the job, having previously served as Berklee’s assistant and interim chair of film scoring from 2008 to 2015. She succeeds George S. Clinton, who had been the department’s chair since 2012.
Listen to Plante’s interview on the latest Inside Berklee podcast for her thoughts on the future of Berklee’s film scoring program, the importance of an adaptive mindset, her all-time favorite film score, and more:
In her new role, Plante looks to build on the 37-year legacy of Berklee’s film scoring program, while pursuing several long- and short-term goals and initiatives, including:
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implementing a more globally-focused curriculum to prepare students for successful careers in Hollywood, Bollywood, and other international hotspots;
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promoting gender equality at Berklee and throughout the film industry though her work with the student-run Women’s Film Initiative, and collaborations with Emerson College and the Alliance for Women Film Composers;
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launching a new course this fall with the GroundTruth Project that will pair film scoring majors with filmmakers to produce a series of short films promoting social and environmental justice;
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expanding Berklee’s video game scoring curriculum;
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exploring new collaborative projects both within and outside Berklee; and
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promoting the Berklee Silent Film Orchestra, which last year composed and performed a new score for Nosferatu performed by the Boston Pops Espanade Orchestra.
Plante's composition honors include the Janet Gates Peckham International Award for Excellence in the Arts and the Olga and Paul Menn Foundation Prize. Her scoring credits include seven educational television series for the Annenberg Channel; History Channel specials Bible Battles and Aftershock: Beyond the Civil War; documentary feature American Meat; and national TV spots, trailers, and corporate identity music for Duracell, W.B. Mason, Animal Planet, the National Geographic Channel, and the Pan Mass Challenge, among others. Her credits also include live action and animated shorts, theater, and multimedia museum installations for the Smithsonian Institution and the Harvard Museum of Natural History.
A native of Concord, Massachusetts, Plante studied at the University of Chicago and the University of Cambridge. She also plays keyboard and wind instruments; performed for three years in a gamelan, a traditional ensemble of Indonesia; and has conducted for both orchestra and choir.
Founded in 1979, Berklee’s Film Scoring Department offers the study of scoring for film, TV, video games, and other visual media. Berklee film scoring alumni include Howard Shore '69 (Lord of the Rings), Alan Silvestri '70 (Back to the Future, Marvel’s The Avengers), Alf Clausen '66 (The Simpsons), Ramin Djawadi '98 (Game of Thrones), and Lucas Vidal '06 (Fast & Furious 6). Students in the program engage in hands-on study of film music composition, editing, sequencing, and more in facilities that rival those used by commercial enterprises like Lucasfilm and major Hollywood studios.
Nick Balkin is a publicist in the Office of Media Relations. Media inquiries: nbalkin@berklee.edu.