The Berklee Vocal Jazz Ensemble is in its fourth year under the direction of Voice department
faculty member April Arabian. The 12-voice ensemble, accompanied by a four piece rhythm
section, specializes in contemporary and jazz vocal grop performance. The Berklee Vocal Jazz
Ensemble has twice performed at the International Association of Jazz Educators conference, in
New Orleans in 1990 and in Washington, D.C. in 1991. They recently performaned at the Tri
-C Jazz Festival in Cleveland sharing the bill with jazz vocalists Sheila Jordan and Mark
Murphy. The group was also featured in a recent performances alongside the Gary Burton
Quintet in Boston. Other local performances include The New England Show Choir Camp, the Bay
State Show Choir Festival and a clinic with the New York Voices. The ensemble will travel to
Toronto for a performance at the 1992 Ontario Vocal Festival and will also be featured at the
1992 American Choral Director's Association eastem Division Conference. The Berklee Vocal
jazz Ensemble performs a wide variety of original and standard vocal arrangements which
feature the group's unique sound, improvisational abilities and individual talent.

April Arabian is a well known vocal jazz educator. She received her Bachelor and
Master of Music Degrees from Western Michigan Universityand is currently an
Assistant Professor of Voice at Berklee College of Music.

The Vocal Summit ensemble at Berklee was inspired by the European version, Jazz Vocal
Summit, a unique and innovative a cappella group that popularized the art of
spontaneious vocal improvisation in the early 80's. The group featured will known
artists Bobby McFerrin, Urszula Dudziak, Jay Clayton, Lauren Newton, Jean lee and
Berklee Assistant Professor Bob Stoloff.

Berklee's Vocal Summit, founded in 1986 continues to explore new musical horizons
each semester with a line up of exceptional talent fro the U.S., Europe adn other
countries throughout the world. while the group’ s main focus is spontaneous
creativity, Summit performs original S.A.T.B. arrangements in a variety of musical
styles ranging from Jazz to the classics.

In addition to annual concerts at the Berklee Performance Center, Vocal Summit has
performed at several high schools and colleges in Massachusetts including Tabor
Academy, Govenor Dummer Academy, Brandeis University and Wheelock College.

Bob Stoloff is a muiti-instrumentalist/vocalist and eclectic performer with credits
ranging from the original European Vocal Summit to the Boston based vocal group the
Ritz. He has written two books on vocal improvisation and is an internationally
acclaimed clinician.

Berklee College of Music is home to 2700 students, 260 of whom are voice principals.
The Voice department at Berklee is comprised of 15 faculty members and offers students
a stylistic variety of private instruction, in addition to courses in stage performance,
repertory, sight reading, ear training, improvisation and arranging.

The Vocal Jazz Ensemble and the Vocal Summit falls under the auspices of the Ensemble
Department, which offers students a wide variety of over one hundred ensembles in
which they may participate. Voice students may choose from many small, solo-oriented,
rhythm section-vocal-ensembles to one of the larger vocal ensembles: Vocal Summit,
Concert Choir, Vocal Jazz Ensemble, College Singers and Gospel Choir.

Degree and Diploma programs are offered in the following areas: Performance,
Songwriting, Jazz Composition, Composition, Professional Music, Music Production and
Engineering, Music Synthesis, Film Scoring, Commercial Arranging, and Music
Education. Five Year dual majors and special summer programs are also available.