"The magic of this relationship," Lucchese adds, "is driven by the people who have a vision to see this, and the shared vision and love of developing, identifying, mentoring, and then watching that young talent grow and develop on." "There are so many musicians around the world that can't get to us in Boston," explains Jason Camelio, assistant vice president of global programs and partnerships. "The concept of Berklee on the Road is we're gonna bring Berklee to you." And he sees that outreach having real effects on Berklee's community. "In recent years, we've seen an explosion in our enrollment from people that are coming from this program." All the while, the influence and impact of the program are expanding—"now we're seeing these grand-students [second-generation students] and great-grand-students." "The legacy is huge," says Limina. "It's global." And if, on the evening of July 10, you'd strolled from San Paolo up the hill (or through the hill, using the city's string of underground escalators) to the city's center, Piazza IV Noviembre, you'd find one of the world's great jazz festivals just about to kick off. It's hard to overstate the layers of history that converge at the site of the Umbria Jazz Festival's opening night of Berklee-led concerts. You could go way back, to the ancient Etruscan acropolis in the caverns beneath our feet. Or consider how that
ancient settlement mingles with the city's later Roman foundations, whose own ruins were repurposed into medieval structures and Renaissance fortifications, given Baroque touches, and at least partially modern- ized (the escalators, after all) over the 20th century. And on top of all that history: a stage, where multiple generations of alumni and educators—some who were present for the program's first year in 1985 and others here for the first time—came together to honor the legacy of a program that's served more than 7,000 students and awarded more than $60 million in scholarships over the past four decades. Among the performers that night were the Berklee clinic alumni: pianist Mathis Picard, sax- ophonist Marco Guidolotti, pianist Alessandro Lanzoni, guitarist Daniele Cordisco, drummer Roberto Giaquinto ’09, 15-year-old drummer Anto- nio Lo Conte, winner of the 2023 Tour Music Fest best junior drummer award, and Garrison, on bass. “In this beautiful old town, it’s new versus old,” says Garrison. Making music in Perugia surrounded by history both ancient and more recent—think of the jazz legends taking their afternoon espressos in the cafes, the students whose music bounced off these stone walls—"you start doing this little time travel thing between the various offshoots of creative expression. . . . This is almost like this paradise when all those things converge."
Rosaria Renna (Italian Radio and Television Host) welcoming the audience to the Berklee at Umbria Jazz Clinics 40 th Anniversary Concert held on the Piazza IV Novembre Stage
(Perugia, Italy, July 10, 2025).
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