Lee Eliot Berk

Lee Eliot Berk (1942 – October 21, 2023) was an American academic who was President and namesake of the Berklee College of Music (founded as Schillinger House in 1945 by his father, Lawrence Berk, who renamed the school after Lee in 1954) from 1979[1]: 169  to 2004.[2] Under the younger Berk’s leadership, the college underwent significant changes. Berklee expanded its curriculum to create new majors, including Film Scoring, Music Production and Engineering, Music Synthesis, Songwriting, Music Business/Management, and Music Therapy.[1]: 216  Educational applications of music technology expanded, the college administration was reorganized, more student services were added, and non-music academic offerings increased.[1]: 169, 170  In 1992, he established the Berklee International Network that includes music schools with a shared mission around the globe.[1]: 267 

Life and career

Lee Eliot Berk was born in 1942.[1]: 12  He graduated from Brown University in 1964 and earned his law degree from Boston University in 1967.[3] He began working at Berklee College of Music in 1966, serving first as bursar and supervisor of the Private Study Division.[1]: 100  In 1969, he founded the first New England High School Stage Band Festival, later known as the Berklee High School Jazz Festival. In 2010, its 42nd year, it was the largest event of its kind in the United States.[4] He served as a vice president from 1971 to 1979.[1]: 100  He is the author of Legal Protection for the Creative Musician, which won an ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award in 1971.[5]

Berk died on October 21, 2023, at the age of 81.[6][7]

Awards

• Upon his retirement in 2004, Berk was awarded an honorary doctorate from Berklee.
• 2004: Awarded the Order of the Rising Sun from the Emperor of Japan for his contributions to strengthening cultural ties between the U.S. and Japan.[8]
• Received the President’s Merit Award for Outstanding Educational Achievement from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
• 2004: Received the NAMM Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Music Products Industry.[3]
• 2014: Received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Brown University.[9]

References

1. Hazell, Ed (1995). Berklee: The First 50 Years. Berklee Press.
2. Anderman, Joan (7 Feb 2004). "Berklee Names Entrepreneur Roger Brown New President". The Boston Globe. p. C1.
3. "BU Law Alumni Across the United States". Boston University School of Law. Retrieved 1 April 2010. (click on New Mexico on the map)
4. "High School Jazz Festival". Berklee College of Music Website. Archived from the original on 13 April 2010. Retrieved 7 April 2010.
5. "4th Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor Award Recipients". ASCAP. Archived from the original on 24 July 2009. Retrieved 10 March 2010.
6. "Lee Berk, former Berklee president and college namesake, dies at 81". The Boston Globe. 22 October 2023. Archived from the original on 22 October 2023. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
7. "OBITUARY Lee Eliot Berk".
8. "Lee Eliot Berk, President of Berklee College of Music, decorated by the Emperor of Japan". Consulate General of Japan in Boston. Archived from the original on August 7, 2007. Retrieved 1 April 2010.
9. "Brown confers nine honorary degrees". Brown University. 25 May 2014. Archived from the original on 28 May 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014.

Further reading

• Small, Mark, "All the Right Moves - Lee Eliot Berk", Berklee Today, Vol. 15, Issue 3, Spring 2004. Interview with Lee Eliot Berk, the then retiring second president of Berklee College of Music.

External links

• Interview with Lee Berk NAMM Oral History Library (2004)