Artists in Residence

Terence Blanchard is jazz royalty—trumpeter, bandleader, film score composer, and recording artist. His ties to Berklee revolve around teaching and mentoring rather than as an alumnus, but he has said that “coming to Berklee feels like I’m coming home,” remarking that he always learns so much while here. In 2015 he was named a visiting scholar in the Jazz Composition Department and also in the Film Scoring and Brass departments.

Suzanne Ciani is an early pioneer of electronic music in the United States. She earned a master's degree in composition at the University of California at Berkeley and collaborated with Stanford University's John Chowning and Max Matthews, two of the founders of electronic music.

Grammy-winning artst Paula Cole has released seven solo albums of original songs. Cole has performed with icons in many genres of music, from Peter Gabriel to Dolly Parton, Herbie Hancock to Emmylou Harris, and Amy Lee of Evanescence to Burt Bacharach. Cole’s emotionally deep performances and her poetic, intelligent writing makes her stand out from the masses of contemporary music. Her compositions have been covered by a diverse range of artists—including Hancock, Annie Lennox, Katherine McPhee, and JoJo—and she has sold approximately 3 million albums.

A creative force on the international jazz scene for the last two decades, drummer and composer Adam Cruz is best known for his work with Danilo Pérez, Steve Wilson, David Sanchez, and Edward Simon. Cruz was born in New York City. He worked extensively with saxophonist David Sanchez and the Mingus Big Band during the 1990s. He then toured with Chick Corea, recording Origin: A Week at the Blue Note, and spent the end of the '90s touring in a duo setting with guitarist Charlie Hunter.

Sharing her expertise with Berklee students is a way of giving back to the music community for songwriter, music executive, and publisher Kara DioGuardi.

Consider Nona Hendryx an ambassador for artistry at Berklee. If you know of this talented singer-songwriter, you probably know that she, along with Patti LaBelle and two other singers, gained fame as Patti LaBelle and the Bluebells in the '60s.

Suhail Yusuf Khan is an Indian sarangi player who joins the Berklee Indian Ensemble in concert on May 9, 2017. Known for his fusion of rock and Indian classical music, Khan sat down with Berklee Indian Ensemble member and student Amira Gill for an interview.

David Liebman’s career has spanned more than four decades, beginning with his "apprenticeship" period in the early 1970s, when he played with drummer Elvin Jones (Live at the Lighthouse) and Miles Davis (On the Corner). Since then, he has formed his own groups (Lookout Farm, Quest, the Dave Liebman Group) featuring musicians such as John Scofield, Richie Beirach, Billy Hart, Adam Nussbaum, Al Foster, John Abercrombie, and Vic Juris.

Trained as a classical pianist, Patrice Rushen gravitated to fusion, jazz, R&B, and pop in the ‘70s and '80s. Her musical life has been diverse as she added roles as a vocalist, jazz pianist, composer, producer, and educator to her classical career. With an honorary doctorate in music from Berklee in 2005, she is a frequent visiting artist and speaker at Berklee. Rushen has four Grammy nominations and has composed scores for movies and television.

Ben Street studied at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston with Miroslav Vitous and Dave Holland before moving to New York in 1991. He has performed and toured with many notable artists including Danilo Pérez, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Roswell Rudd, Lee Konitz, David Sanchez, James Moody, Mark Turner, Frank Foster, Clark Terry, Junior Cook, and Jimmy Scott, among many others.

Victor Wooten started playing bass before the age of 5, the story goes, because his four older brothers needed a bassist for their band. Soon he was touring with the Wooten Brothers Band, eventually opening concerts for Curtis Mayall and other greats. From that early start, Wooten, born in 1964, grew into a renowned bassist, sometimes called the top bass player in the world. One of the founders of the Flecktones and a five-time Grammy winner, Wooten is a performer, recording artist, and dedicated educator.