Berklee College of Music, Boston, Bezoekersgids & wat te doen in de buurt

Berklee College of Music is a private music college in Boston, Massachusetts, and the world's largest independent college of contemporary music. Founded in 1945, it has trained generations of performers, composers and producers, and its buildings are woven into the streets of Boston's Back Bay and Fenway area.

The story behind it

Berklee began in 1945 as Schillinger House, a small school started by Lawrence Berk. It was built around the idea that jazz and popular music deserved the same serious training as classical music. In 1954 it was renamed Berklee, after Berk's son Lee, and it grew from a modest school into a major college. In 2016 it joined with the Boston Conservatory, which now operates as the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

The school's reputation rests on its alumni. Quincy Jones, John Mayer, Juan Luis Guerra and Melissa Etheridge all studied here, as did members of bands such as Aerosmith and Imagine Dragons. Film composers Howard Shore and Alan Silvestri are graduates too, and so are comedians Trey Parker and Eric André, which shows how far the school's reach extends beyond the concert stage.

What to look for

• Students carrying guitar cases, cello cases and keyboards along Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street, which tells you quickly that this is a working campus and not a museum.
• The Berklee Performance Center on Massachusetts Avenue, where the posters and marquee show which concerts are coming up.
• The banners and signs that mark Berklee buildings, which let you see how the college is spread through ordinary city blocks instead of sitting behind one gate.
• The sounds drifting from practice rooms and open doors on a busy day, a reminder that the music is made here every day.

Tips for your visit

• Allow 15 to 30 minutes for the exteriors and the surrounding blocks. Longer makes sense if you add a concert or a nearby sight.
• Most academic buildings are for students and staff, so plan to enjoy the campus from the street. Check current event listings if you want to attend a concert.
• Weekday daytime is the liveliest, when students are moving between classes and the neighborhood has the most energy.
• Symphony Hall, the Christian Science Plaza and the Prudential Center are all within walking distance, so Berklee fits easily into a wider stroll through Back Bay.

See it on a quest

You can pass Berklee on Boston Strangler: A Detective’s Hunt, a detective-themed walk. You reach the college on foot as one stop of a longer route through the area, the app tells you about the place as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle right there in front of you. It is a paid quest, and one ticket covers the whole group. You can start whenever suits you, with no guide and no group to join.