Honor Your Berklee Hero by

To: Jonathan Bricker

cescobar2_5 — 2025-01-21 20:40:51 UTC

He was incredibly helpful and inspirational. He really helped me figure out what I wanted to keep pursuing after Berklee.

Deni Vassileva '25

To: Mark Shilansky

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-02 17:23:05 UTC

Besides being a great teacher, I thought of Mark as a mentor even though I never mentioned it to him. He was someone I looked up to and also perceived as a wise person and I could apply his teachings in ear training in my everyday life as a musician and person.

Roy Jurado

To: Steve Rochinski

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-10 14:05:51 UTC

"Music is a sonic experience." - This sentence has simply changed my whole life; the way I compose, analyze, listen to and teach. If you are reading this and if you think you already knew it because it is very obvious, please read it again and think about the way you perform, write and listen to music. Steve Rochinski said those words to me, made me open my eyes and think about how I experience music as a musician and music lover from the first day I met him. I learned so many life changing things from him about composition, performance and harmony & theory too, but that statement has changed my life forever. I admire and respect him so much as a role model with his knowledge in many fields in this life. I always wanted to be like a "renaissance man" and never met anybody alive who fits that description until I met Steve Rochinski. I was lucky enough that this renaissance man was also a very generous teacher who spent hours and hours with me out of the classroom at his office, explaining concepts, discussing life, art, talking about people and his experiences... This simple and short text is not even close to enough to express my gratitude for having him as a mentor in my head. Every single musical step I take, I hear his words/suggestions and also encouragement in my head and then I take action. Professor Rochinski, you have simply changed my life in many ways and as not only my Berklee Hero but my hero in life, I send you all my respect and admiration and thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Best regards,

Rasih Ozturk, 2025

To: Gaby Cotter

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-11 20:08:47 UTC

Thank you for always being there for me in this Berklee journey and being part of my family in Boston.

Sara Duvel

To: Ariel Borujow

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-11 20:09:23 UTC

Ariel Burjow was one of the first professors to really push me with my music and inspired me to work harder and be a better musician/mixing engineer. He was always available outside of class to give advice on music or just talk about life. He was always very kind to everyone in class and was always open to questions, but he wasn’t afraid to tell you when you needed to improve on something. He is the first Professor/teacher I had that I looked up to and am inspired by. He gave me/the class looks at real sessions for real artists, etc., even though it wasn’t his intention; this made me feel like my dreams are within reach and that I can do what I love to do. Great guy. Amazing teacher.

Alfie Hohnen-Weber

To: Ross Ramsey

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-11 20:10:00 UTC

Ross has been one of the greatest influences during my time at Berklee, and is the person that made me finally feel like I belonged at this school. Ross has endlessly supported me far beyond classes by creating opportunities for us to perform together, making time to write music together, and always offering his advice and help on the projects I am working on. Aside from career help, Ross has really supported me through the mental health and life challenges I faced during my education, providing me with a space to talk and someone I can always look to for help. I know Ross will continue to be an important part of my career and life, and I can't wait for him to have an impact on more students in the future! I am forever grateful for how Ross has positively impacted my life.

Mica Giaconi

To: Nina Webb

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-14 14:13:38 UTC

You just know when a professor truly cares about you and your future. You can feel when someone genuinely wants you to grow into a better person, a better marketer and someone who can be adaptable in the music industry. In Nina’s class, through our semester-long projects, I made friendships that I believe could last a lifetime. I honestly can't put into words how lucky I feel to have met her. She’s brilliant, like brilliant in a way I’ve never seen before. Words don’t even come close to doing her justice. I hope one day I can become a great marketer like her, a guide and teacher for someone else like she’s been for me, and just a truly good person like her. She ignited my determination to pursue my future in New York, and I will never forget the opportunities and encouragement she gave me.

Edward Sun

To: Peter Eldridge

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-14 14:14:23 UTC

Even though it seemed like I wasn’t listening to all your great advice and encouragement, after having my come-to-Jesus/uppercut in the gut moment, I finally realized you truly meant every single word when you told me my voice was gift and that I’m talented.

Javier Camacho

To: Sheldon Mirowitz

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-15 13:30:18 UTC

Sheldon is a once-in-a-lifetime professor and mentor. Starting from Intro to Film classes, where he plants genuine enthusiasm in his students by being an exemplary enthusiast himself. Sheldon is true and non-apologetic, saying the hard truth out of genuine care and love. Following through Film electives and office hours where he truly takes his students and mentees to the next level. He has been my North Star throughout my Berklee experience, shining brighter than so many other stars in the Film Scoring faculty. Sheldon sets the bar for his students and peers in professionalism, industry-level results, education, care, demand, and knowledge. Among my close friends in the film scoring major, Sheldon is talked about and praised as one of the greatest music and film educators each and every one of us ever had the honor to converse with and absorb wisdom from. I am a new, more mature, and better musician, composer, and producer, thanks to Sheldon's high demand, high respect, and endless care.

Netta Ben Yair

To: Kevin Harris

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-25 17:23:44 UTC

Kevin,
You have been such an inspiring teacher for me throughout my time here. Your encouragement for students to find themselves and to seek their own inspiration goes a long way and we all really appreciate how much you care about us. Thank you so much.

Evan Fort

To: Sherry Li

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-25 20:11:01 UTC

Dear Sherry. You changed my life! I have learned so much from you, not only as a songwriting student, but also as an artist, and a human! You encourage and inspire me everyday! I am incredibly fortunate and grateful for all the time you have invested in me, your honesty and your love for all of us! Thank you for making my Berklee experience incredible!

Ella Plank

To: Greg Ogan

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-25 20:11:31 UTC

Dear Greg! Thank you so much for all your time, all your wisdom, all your honesty and everything that you gave me along the way of my graduation! i really appreciate your dedication and your hard work. you are an incredible educator!! Thank you!!

Ella Plank

To: Kevin Harris

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-28 15:48:06 UTC

Kevin was the first professor I ever had who helped me break out of a classical music mindset and into the jazz world. Getting to a place where I could play without thinking seemed impossible, but Kevin helped me see progress I never knew I could achieve. It was clear that he genuinely believed in me and my abilities, which was a beautiful boost of confidence for me, and through his belief, I began to truly believe in myself and my skills as a musician. It’s hard to be a woman instrumentalist in such a competitive and still very male-dominated field, and I can’t thank him enough for helping me to see my worth and for being a safe space for me to explore the wild world of Jazz. Kevin, not only are you a RIPPIN pianist and incredible musician, you are an incredible person; good to the bone. I am so grateful for the opportunity to study with you, and please don’t stop doing what you're doing.

Ariyanna Vellani

To: Greg Ogan

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-28 17:27:52 UTC

Greg is the humblest, most open professor I've had. Always looking to learn from his students, always willing to spend time helping us out or simply chatting, whether about assignments, music or the reading list he graciously shared with my class. Thank you for showing me that musicians are just humans like anyone else, and that the best also strive to be great people.

Pablo Castellanos Scherer

To: Andrew Mark and Matthew Marsit

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-28 18:47:49 UTC

Andy. Matthew. Two very important people to me. As a college student, I was excited to learn and be able to experience the conservatory life for the very first time, and while it came with a great amount of challenges throughout, it also gave me the motivation to realize how I can make my potential be realized as a musician. I wanted to thank you both for helping me and guiding me throughout this wonderful journey. You have helped place me on the right path of learning how I can be professional, you have guided and helped me throughout my darkest and toughest times, and most of all, you have both helped me give me the strength to keep going and to never give up. That alone is enough for you all to really help me understand why you two are not only my heroes, but also just like my parents in a way, as you have both knew me very well, had the potential to help me throughout my musical journey, and have supported me alongside the way. And I couldn't be more thankful for everything you have done. Later on, I might go for a graduate degree and who knows? Maybe I might see you two again. But I guess we will have to see what happens. Thank you very much, I love both of you a lot, and I wish the best for you two in the future. Thank you for everything. I promise to keep working hard. :)

Regards,
Arturo Romero

To: Brian Ellis

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-29 14:11:52 UTC

Thanks for being the best DJ mentor I could ask for! Every time I walked into the DJ lab for your class I felt like I was living out Mini Nikei's dream of being a DJ and evolving into a better artist whenever I played a set ^^ thank you for being my favorite professor that I've ever taken! I'll try to keep in touch when I can :D

Nikei Davies

To: Didi Stewart

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-29 19:38:31 UTC

Didi is an amazing teacher and musician, her ensemble and private instruction taught me so much about vocal technique, artistry, and genre bending. She is such a caring person who puts in the extra effort to connect with her students. In my 2 semesters studying with Didi I noticed huge improvements in my technique and style. Didi's musical guidance has been irreplaceable, thank you so much!

Abby McCally

To: James Bradford

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-30 13:19:03 UTC

I will always be grateful to James Bradford. He is the embodiment of a great teacher. Every class was so clearly thought out and relevant to both the course and to current matters. He approached unique world conflicts with the grace and intellect that we all need more of. All while teaching his multiple courses he had a clear interest in what his students we up to outside of the classroom whether it music, life, whatever. He is a great human and an excellent teacher.

Jonah Cuddy

To: Markus Placci

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-30 16:25:26 UTC

You are amazing! you're violin making skills are out of this world and you are a fantastic human being.

Celeste Di Meo

To: John Whynot

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-30 17:23:44 UTC

I’ve learned so much from you. Thank you!

Mingzhao Yang

To: William D Lucey

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-30 18:16:42 UTC

I enjoyed our classes a lot and liked the way the classes were taught. Thank you so much.

Juan Diego Bolanos

To: Cass McKinley

cescobar2_5 — 2025-04-30 20:40:47 UTC

Cass, you changed my life for the better. You are my hero and my inspiration both as a person and as a vocalist. Thank you so much for the last 4 years, words can’t even express how grateful I am to have you in my life.

Rebecca Soul

To: Eric Hamel

cescobar2_5 — 2025-05-01 13:07:39 UTC

You were so encouraging, and helped guide me through topics that I had always been interested in but could never grasp. You were patient, and pushed me to experiment when I wasn't sure how to do something, and entertained my wild questions. You helped me find something that I really enjoyed outside of music, that aligned with my values, and I will be forever grateful for that.

Josh Nicol

To: Nina Webb and Ralph Jaccodine

cescobar2_5 — 2025-05-01 17:13:13 UTC

Both have shared immense wisdom and courage. Beyond grateful for all of their knowledge and will miss them deeply. Thank you for helping me spread my wings.

Sophia Spero

To: Joe Mulholland

cescobar2_5 — 2025-05-01 19:18:10 UTC

Joe has been one of the most inspiring teachers of mine, I’ve taken 2 of his advanced harmony classes and they have both blown my mind…His positive demeanor always makes me look forward to attending his class and excited to learn from him. He also is so inspiring for my music writing and always gave amazing feedback on projects that really made me feel appreciated and proud of my work. He’s also just an amazing human being outside of being a musician, and it is always a pleasure to speak with him.

Riley Fitzgerald

To: Richard Boulanger

cescobar2_5 — 2025-05-01 19:18:51 UTC

Dr. B, I can’t thank you enough for being so kind, patient, and understanding. In addition to this, your knowledge and TRUE artistry is absolutely inspiring. You’ve inspired me to create beautiful art and to keep trying to be the best artist I can be.

Hunter Ryan

To: Patricia Peknik

cescobar2_5 — 2025-05-01 19:42:45 UTC

Easily the most engaging and captivating professor I’ve had and one that I’m lucky I had twice. While her area of expertise wouldn’t be considered directly relevant to my field, she kept me thinking critically across the classes I took with her, which in turn kept me engaged socially and politically with the Berklee community around me. I wish I could’ve had a class with her every semester.

Marco Tewlow

To: Marko Djordjevic

cescobar2_5 — 2025-05-05 15:00:01 UTC

Marko's approach to drumming as well as teaching is truly standout in the percussion department. His playing is instantly recognizable from down the hallway and endlessly inspiring to me, and even though I wish sometimes that I got to spend at least one my 60-minute PIs as his student, 10 minutes with Marko by itself inspires me to jump on the kit immediately afterwards. His love for music and the drums is contagious: I don't think I had a single lesson or class where he wasn't immediately smiling the minute he started playing. His lessons always stem from creativity and exploration, and never from from a place of chasing ambition or spectacle. He has been the kindest and most patient drum instructor I've taken at this school, and I always felt like my musical interests and preferred methods of learning were being prioritized, even for some of the more stale department-mandated requirements. Marko is an absolute joy and an incredible inspiration to me, so here's to many more years of 4-way polymeters and linear grooves! (And let me know when you release that song you showed us in the Polyrhythms lab!)

Hanna Faris

To: Daedelus

cescobar2_5 — 2025-05-05 15:01:08 UTC

During a time in my Berklee journey where I was convinced I was killing the part of me that could sit down and simply create in a sandbox without worrying about the outcome, I took my first class with Daedelus and had my entire perspective shifted. As a performer, composer, sound designer and teacher, Daedelus undoubtedly earns their mythological namesake. Every class with them was a breath of fresh air, and they've taught me methods of approaching composition and performance I had never even considered before. Their knowledge and appreciation for an extremely diverse range of musical styles and textures has encouraged me to dive deeper into so much more music, and their sincerity in everything they do and belief in their students has created some of the most comfortable and exploratory environments I've ever been in at this school. Their ability to also always include the philosophical and social aspects of music into the techniques we're learning has made their classes so much more enriching than a lot of the "Just Use This Plug-in"-type production advice that gets thrown around a lot, and the emphasis on chasing the effect of a sound vs the specifics of what is creating the sound has inspired me immensely in my creation process ever since.

(Also, as a nonbinary student, it has inspired me so much to have a nonbinary professor and to see you constantly advocate for yourself when students and even other faculty members have a tendency to misgender. I truly had no idea how much freer I could feel being in a class where I knew I wouldn't need to explain or justify my gender to my professor, and you have inspired me to make sure I'm no longer sitting back and allowing people to misgender me or my peers. It's of course nothing you've done consciously, but in a world that is becoming particularly scary, you have become one of my biggest reminders to not allow myself to sit back and be drowned into conformity. Musically and personally.)

Hanna Faris

To: Eguie Castrillo

cescobar2_5 — 2025-05-05 15:03:12 UTC

Hello Eguie, como tú ‘ta. Thank you for teaching me for the past 2 semesters. You resparked my passion for percussion in me that I didn’t realize I had.

Henry Lee

To: John Paterno

cescobar2_5 — 2025-05-05 15:03:56 UTC

Yoo, professor, what's popping!? Thank you for always being a dope mentor and person!

Damani Ben-Salahuddin

To: Anthony Burrell

cescobar2_5 — 2025-05-06 15:54:59 UTC

Thank you Anthony for everything you’ve done for me. You’ve shaped me into a better artist, dancer, and performer. You’ve shown me how to be my best self and strive for excellence! I couldn’t say thank you enough, I’m lucky to call to call you my professor!

Ariana Hart

To: Ned Rosenblatt

cescobar2_5 — 2025-05-07 13:21:22 UTC

Ned, thank you for 3 years of incredible experiences in the Vocal Jazz Ensemble and for everything you’ve taught me. You are so unique and capable in your ability to put together ensembles that seem to work effortlessly, where everyone is in step with each other from week 1. In rehearsals, we not only got through the “target practice” section incredibly efficiently, but we were able to come away from any piece you gave us with a new emotional impression, or a new idea to mull over, or a new chord voicing to steal for our writing. Above all else, I felt like I really found my family at Berklee through your ensemble, and college life would have been so different if not for the space you gave us to grow together and the guidance you constantly provided. I am so grateful and honored to have been a part of this incredible group during my time at Berklee.

Jerry Li

To: Eric Stern

cescobar2_5 — 2025-05-08 18:05:52 UTC

Eric is a font of insight into the musical theater world, but he is also a good person. It is a rare to find a teacher so wise and learned yet with so much care for his students. He loves what he does, and he loves giving other people the gift of doing it.

Asher Shectman

To: Ryan Page

cescobar2_5 — 2025-05-12 13:47:44 UTC

Thank you for the unparalleled movie recs.

Connor Madigan