John Stein, 2019 July 24
Guitarist, longtime staff member, and retiring Professor of Harmony at Berklee College of Music John Stein discusses his early musical experiences and education, his years as a musician in Vermont, his return to undergraduate studies at Berklee in the early eighties, his work at the college’s tutoring office, and the importance of the Berklee core music curriculum. He also describes the establishment of the Learning Center and the college’s integration of music technology in the 1990s. He also discusses guitars, his teaching philosophy, and his time in Valencia, Spain, while teaching in Berklee’s First Year Abroad student program.
Guitarist and educator John Stein (1949-) was raised in Kansas City, Missouri and began learning the guitar at the age of seven. Stein withdrew from Beloit College his senior year, spending several years as a self-described hippie and gigging with bands primarily in Vermont, before enrolling at Berklee College of Music in 1980. Following his graduation, Stein was hired as assistant director of the tutoring office (later known as the Core Music Tutoring program), and was soon promoted to director. Together with Mike Badolato, Stein helped establish Berklee’s Learning Center in the early 1990s and was named assistant director. Stein received his master’s degree in education from Harvard in 1992. In 1999, he transitioned to the faculty, teaching in the Harmony department for twenty years before retiring in 2019. He has written and compiled several books for guitar, including Composing Blues for Jazz Performance, Composing Tunes for Jazz Performance, and Berklee Jazz Standards For Solo Guitar.
