John Myung

John Myung ‘86 studied bass guitar at Berklee and is best known as the bassist for the wildly popular progressive metal band Dream Theater. He is undoubtedly one of the most respected living bass players, and he, along with his Dream Theater bandmates, has been nominated for multiple Grammys for Best Metal Performance.

Myung was born in Chicago and later moved to Long Island, New York. At the age of 5, he took up violin, but he switched to bass guitar at age 15 in order to join a local band. After high school, Myung and his friend, guitarist John Petrucci, enrolled at Berklee, where they met their future drummer, Mike Portnoy. They formed the group Majesty while attending Berklee, and later changed the name of the band to Dream Theater. Dream Theater has since become a multi-platinum selling act, and Myung has been inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame.

In 2014, Dream Theater donated a portion of the proceeds from the sale of their live DVD, Breaking the Fourth Wall, to Berklee’s Dream Theater Scholarship Fund.

Myung’s other projects include Platypus and the Jelly Jam, and he has appeared as a guest musician on numerous records.