The Concert
Perfect Pitch is a contest hosted by the Berklee Songwriters Club that gives students a chance to simulate the role of a songwriter signed to Sony, Universal, BMG, Warner Bros, etc. In the songwriting world, when a superstar artist (say, Faith Hill) records an album, she will put out a call to songwriters asking them to write songs for her to record. The songwriters do their best to fit Faith’s musical and lyrical style, and vocal range, and in the end Faith (and her producers) get to pick which song they think works the best.
And thus: Perfect Pitch. We’ve auditioned over 100 of Berklee’s best vocalists to give you the top 16 singers at the school. The songwriters then have a chance to flex their songwriting skills by writing a song to pitch to the winning vocalists! The singers and their producers choose the winning song, and then perform it at our concert at the Middle East Downstairs– with some of the best players at Berklee as our rhythm section, a live string quartet, and a horn section! The winning song, chosen by a panel of industry professionals, will be recorded by an MP&E student.
The history behind the show is rooted in our desire to foster a greater sense of community between the separate departments of Berklee who tend not to intermingle all that often. That’s how the idea came about to have songwriters ‘pitch’ their songs to ‘artists,’ use performance majors for our house band, business majors to help us organize and promote, and MP&E majors to record and produce the winners.
Spring 2012 WINNERS:
3rd Place: Dead Man Walking sung by Alexey Musatov, written by Ben Samama and Charlie Snyder
No Promises sung by Christina Pasqualone, written by Nicky Rood
2nd Place: Never Should Have Stayed sung by Sam Fischer, written by Dominic Florio
!st Place: The Best Thing sung by Jess Newham, written by April Bender
Scroll down for recordings and videos of previous concerts’ winners!
Download the official recording of the fall 2011 winning song Sweet Sweet Baby – Jaime Woods!
PRESS
Boston.com – The Next Great Generation: Berklee Students Aim For the ‘Perfect Pitch’