Berklee today is the official alumni publication of Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. It is a forum for contemporary music and musicians.
Issue link: http://berkleetoday.epubxp.com/i/827757
Summer 2017 21 "and told me that the Pops had an upcoming recording ses- sion with John Williams and they needed a synthesizer player for a really hard piece of music. I made it through that session and Pat got me playing synthesizer for the Boston Pops July fourth concert." Ever since, Brad has played with the Pops and arranged orchestrated music for the group. When opportunities in film and TV music began coming up, the Hatfields considered moving to L.A. "Most of my family lives around here, so we wanted to stay near Boston," adds Gaye. Their teaching at Berklee, work for the Boston Pops, and other gigs also tipped the sales in favor of Beantown. "Those are Boston-centric jobs," says Brad. "We needed to be here to do that work." Serendipitously, a student in Brad's online course opened even more doors in TV music. "Three years ago I had a student named RC Cates who seemed to know music supervision pretty well," says Brad. "Then I found out that he had 11 Daytime Emmy Awards! He was between shows and took the class to learn more about all aspects of licensing. After that term, he became the music supervisor for The Young and the Restless and asked if Gaye and I would like to write for the show. Our income stream has tilted because of this opportunity." "Generally we are told what style of music the show needs," Gaye says. "We will write maybe nine tunes for each session about three times per year." "We record a variety of approaches to each tune," Brad says. "We might cut it once with a vocalist or instrumental soloist and then do another version for solo piano or piano trio with another tempo or vibe. So these eight or nine tunes can end up as 40 different mixes." The Hatfields advise those wanting to build a career in Boston to connect with people who are already connected. "There are a lot of people doing cool things here —lots of oppor- tunities," Brad says. Those watching the Boston Pops in this year's July 4 broad- cast can spot Brad playing live from Boston. The Mind Can Change; the Heart Remains the Same It's a late spring day and overcast outdoors in Eastham on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Inside the Gathering Place at Eastham's senior center, music therapist Brianna LePage '01 leads about a dozen senior citizens from the guitar and piano in songs that range from old-time numbers such as "Bicycle Built for Two" to classic rock tunes like "Dust in the Wind." LePage's enthusiasm radiates to the clients and those who at the beginning of the session were staring blankly at her, start to participate. LePage conducts hour-long music therapy sessions daily in addition to other initiatives that brighten the lives of her patrons. As the program director at the Gathering Place, she wears many hats. "I oversee all the programs and run the entire day center," she tells me once the singing session is over. "I make the people breakfast when they arrive here in the morning and later I make them lunch. We do programs all day long here." LePage brings a special warmth and compassion to her work with the geriatric population. It appears to be more of a calling than a job for her, and music and other arts are central to the services she renders. LePage started out as a classical violinist. She earned a bach- elor's degree in performance from Hartt School of music at the University of Connecticut before coming to Berklee to pursue music therapy. Her love for music and her appreciation of senior citizens both began when she was growing up in Provincetown at the very tip of Cape Cod. "When I was three, I started playing my violin at local nursing homes," she explains. "That's when I first saw how music touched people. After I got my performance degree, I felt there was something missing. I loved playing in orchestras, but felt that I'd rather be right in front of someone playing the music directly to them and feeling a connection. I wanted to feel like I was helping people in some way." LePage's mother told her of an article she'd read about professor Suzanne Hanser, the founding chair of Berklee's Music Therapy Department. "When I read it and learned that she had studied about Alzheimer's disease and dementia, I really wanted to go to Berklee," LePage says. "After I met Dr. Hanser, I knew this field was what I wanted to go into." She dove deep in her Berklee studies with Hanser, professor Karen Wacks, and others. Her 2001 internship at Beth Abraham Health Services in Bronx, NY, brought her into the orbit of Connie Tomaino and the late Oliver Sachs, both giants in the field. She later worked at Kings Harbor Multicare Center while her husband completed trumpet studies at Juilliard. They re- turned to Massachusetts in 2005. "I wanted to bring the tools I'd gotten and my artistic skills back to the Cape to share with people here," LePage says. She worked at various Cape Cod–area facilities and as a freelancer until coming to the Gathering Place in 2013. The sensitivity LePage brings to her work imbues the place with a family feel. LePage and the staff don't administer medical care to their patrons. Everyone has to have a certain level of independence to attend the day programs. But staff members do provide beneficial treatment. "In the early stages of Alzheimer's or de- mentia, music can help people get past something," she says. "If someone is really upset or very confused, music is like electrical tape. When the brain is short circuiting, it can stop that from happening and help someone click into a moment that's more clear. These moments may seem brief to us, but they could feel like a lifetime to that person." LePage has penned five brief books about her interactions with clients, musings on music, and spiritual thoughts. She feels that for people with dementia, the mind may change but the heart remains the same. "We can still care for and help these people," she says. "I feel like my generation forgets sometimes how much our grandparent's generation has given us. I want to give them back a little something each day. And they bring us gifts from having been a mother, a teacher, or a member of the Armed Services that bought us our rights and freedom. I like to say thank you to them and repay them by playing music that they love. Having these people leave here with a smile on their faces is what I want." From Boston to The World Robin Moore '93 has worked as an audio engineer for 25 years. For 19 of those years, she has been a staff engineer for the Boston public radio station WGBH. She regularly mixes and ed- its news packages for The World news programs produced by WGBH and distributed nationally, and records and mixes other programing, including live performances from the WGBH's Fraser Performance Studio. Moore also operates her own com- pany, Dangerzone Productions, and takes on diverse projects from tracking orchestral sessions for the video games Final Fantasy XV and Mages of Mystralia to on-location live classical recording for the Chorus of Westerly to live recordings for jazz saxophonist David Liebman, among others. Growing up in the Boston area, Moore played piano from a young age. "I liked electronics and was into gear," she says. "I purchased synthesizers and got my first multitrack recorder when I was 17." She also showed an aptitude for science and math, and decided to attend Brown University in Providence, RI, after high school and major in electrical engineering. But in her second year, she felt the need to feed her creative sensibilities. "I wanted to do something less technical and audio engi- neering seemed like a happy middle ground," Moore shares. She took a leave of absence from Brown and came to Berklee to study studio engineering. "I intended to stay just for a semester, but I fell in love with MP&E;," she says. Her engineering back- ground enabled her to jump into the most challenging classes in the program. By loading her schedule, she completed all of the MP&E; coursework in three consecutive semesters. Ultimately, she transferred those credits to Brown to complete her electrical engineering degree. In 1993, she did an internship at WGBH, a connection that would later open doors for her. During her final semesters at Brown, Moore became an on-air radio personality for Kix 106 in Providence and worked as a deep house DJ in Rhode Island Brianna LePage '01 Martha Hassell