SCHOLARSHIP TO BOSTON

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29240, 25 June 1960, Page 17

SCHOLARSHIP TO BOSTON

Award To City Musician

A Christchurch pianist and music teacher, Mr J. C. Fowler, has won a scholarship to the Berklee School of Music in Boston offered by the American magazine “Down Beat.”

The scholarship is one of five offered by the magazine. It is worth 200 dollars towards his expenses and tuition fees, and will allow him to attend some classes at the Boston Conservatory of Music. Mr Fowler, who is 24, will probably leave for America in May next year, and will arrive at Berklee in time for the special summer courses which begin in July. The Berklee curriculum offers professional courses in playing arranging, composition and harmony, and a bachelor of music course in education and comoosition. Mr Fowler will concentrate on composition and arranging, with special emphasis on jazz. The school claims to be “the only school in the world where a young musician can study all phases of jazz in a practical performance atmosphere.” Jazz has been Mr Fowler’s special interest for many years. He was president of the Christchurch Jazz Society and the leader of a bqnd which broadcasts from 3YA At Berklee his tutors will include several professional musicians, and he will attend special classes given by the trumpeter Herb Pomeroy. Pomeroy, whose records have been praised in jazz magazines, is the organiser of a big band at the school Mr Fowler is the first New Zealander to win the scholarship, and this is the first time it has come to the Southern Hemisphere.