Berklee Global Jazz Ambassadors Featuring Joe Lovano

Joe Lovano is a Grammy-winning saxophonist, composer, and arranger. Lovano was named Jazz Artist of the Year in both 1995 and 1996 by Down Beat magazine, and scored a prestigious trifecta in 1998: Musician of the Year, Improviser of the Year, and Best Tenor Saxophonist in the New York Jazz Awards. He also topped both the Down Beat readers and critics polls as Tenor Player of the Year in 2000. Lovano attended Berklee in the early 1970s and received an honorary doctor of music degree from the college in 1998. In the fall of 2001 he began a prestigious teaching residency in the Berklee Ensemble Department, known as the Gary Burton Chair in Jazz Performance. Since joining the Berklee faculty, the Blue Note artist has released eight albums as a leader and appeared on dozens of other recordings. He has collaborated with many legendary musicians, including McCoy Tyner, Hank Jones, Joshua Redman, Bill Frisell, Branford Marsalis, Jim Hall, and Paul Motian

Led by Grammy Award-winning pianist Danilo Pérez, the Berklee Global Jazz Institute represents the next generation of jazz stars. Pérez, the institute’s artistic director, designed the program to combine musical humanitarianism with radical new ways to incite musical creativity. Pérez once led the group of elite international students to the Panamanian jungle to interpret forces of nature, resulting in a jam session so primal it charmed a nearby cobra. In Boston, they visited a penitentiary to perform an inmate’s poem set to their music.

A training ground for artists seeking to evolve to the highest levels—both as musicians and human beings—students in the institute are taught by masters like Wayne Shorter, Joe Lovano, and Terri Lyne Carrington; perform at world-renowned festivals; and give back through musical community service.