MEO.ROCKS

The Berklee Songwriting Degree:  Tom and fellow faculty member Pat Pattison (lyrist and member of the Academics Department) took the single Songwriting class and developed a program into the 4 year degree it is today...attracting over 300 enrolled students a year from around the globe.  It created a unique "tool box"of songwriting options that gave the writer the ability to take their initial creative point and put it into many different forms and styles.  

 

The first year of development had the fledgling "department" launching the first ever Berklee Songwriters Competition.  During the winners concert that spring in the Berklee Performance Center, ASCAP, BMI and SESAC all attended and gave significant scholarships for the program. That concert was the first ever interdepartmental co-op production ever at Berklee.  It involve the songwriters, arrangers from the Commercial Writing Department, vocalists from the Vocal Department and Tom's other love, his legendary Tower of Power Ensemble as backup band.  It created a real-world working environment that a professional would find in the contemporary music industry.