Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Berklee and Electronic Arts Celebrate Annual EA Day

12/04/2024

Berklee and Electronic Arts Celebrate Annual EA Day The second annual EA Berklee Day celebrated women in the screen scoring industry and presented the Electronic Arts/Berklee Charting Change Scholarship to students Carol Gao and Rachel Ray McFarlane.

By

Tori Donahue

April 10, 2024

(Center left to right) Students Carol Gao and Rachel Ray McFarlane were presented with Electronic Arts/Berklee Charting Change Scholarships by (left to right) Berklee Interim President and Provost David Bogen, Worldwide Executive and President at EA Music Steve Schnur, and Screen Scoring Chair Sean McMahon at the college's annual EA Berklee Day.

Scott Zuehlke Photography

(Left to right): Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, Stephanie Economou, Natalie Holt, Nainita Desai, and Kathryn Bostic participate in a panel discussing the state of the media scoring landscape moderated by Steve Schnur, worldwide executive and president at EA Music (far left).

Scott Zuehlke Photography

Berklee and Electronic Arts (EA) celebrated the second annual EA Berklee Day Charting Change at the college's Boston campus with a day of activities, which included a panel of groundbreaking composers and musicians and the presentation of the Electronic Arts/Berklee Charting Change Scholarship to students Carol Gao and Rachel Ray McFarlane.

As part of the EA Berklee Day celebrations, a panel of acclaimed composers including Stephanie Economou (Assassins Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnar k), Natalie Holt (Loki), Kathryn Bostic (Women of the Movement), Nainita Desai (The Deepest Breath), and Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch (Living) shared their insights and expertise on working in the entertainment industry, concluding with a Q&A section with students. The panel was moderated by Steve Schnur, worldwide executive and president at EA Music, and introduced by Sean McMahon, chair of the college's Screen Scoring Department. At the panel's conclusion, all composers offered advice to students. Bostic spoke to the importance of authenticity as an artist, saying, Your voice is always changing-the constant is you.

In February 2023, the Screen Scoring Department at Berklee College of Music and EA Music announced their partnership, which will enable greater equity in the entertainment industry and world of screen scoring. Each semester, the Electronic Arts/Berklee Charting Change Scholarship will offer one qualified woman or non-cisgender composer studying in the Screen Scoring Department the chance to not only receive a financial scholarship but to be mentored by an industry-leading team and learn how they compose, orchestrate, and arrange an original score for an EA video game title.

This year's EA Berklee Day celebrated the next generation of great composers with the current generation of great composers, said Schnur. Together we've made an unprecedented commitment to the future of music composition, and to the women who will create.

Ahead of the panel, the Electronic Arts/Berklee Charting Change Scholarships were awarded to Carol Gao, the fall semester recipient, and Rachel Ray McFarlane, the spring semester recipient. In a special virtual appearance, Pinar Toprak BM '00 (Captain Marvel, Fortnite, NFL Thursday Night Football) presented McFarlane's scholarship. Both students received $15,000 and professional mentorship opportunities with a team of world-class video game composers at EA after they graduate.

Gao, a native of Toronto, Canada, is double majoring in game and interactive media scoring and electronic production and design at Berklee. She is a pianist and member of the leadership board of Berklees Video Game Music Club. After graduation, she will move to Los Angeles for an internship with Sparks and Shadows Inc. While in LA, she hopes to build her career as a media composer and secure an in-house position at a game company or production house, in addition to freelance work. Gao's other passions include session playing and teaching piano, composition, and music theory.

McFarlane, also a native of Canada, is double majoring in game and interactive media scoring and film scoring at Berklee. She is currently a member of the Composer Diversity Collective and intern at Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project. She currently works with Orchestral Tools, EastWest Sounds, and Spitfire Audio as a social media influencer to promote positive inclusion within the video game scoring community. After graduation, McFarlane hopes to continue elevating her skills by attending a master's program at either the University of Southern California or New York University.

Related Categories

News

Most Popular

Ledisi, Q-Tip, and Gilberto Santa Rosa will receive honorary doctorates from Berklee College of Music at its 2024 commencement ceremony.

Ron T. Young

Ledisi, Q-Tip, and Gilberto Santa Rosa to Receive Honorary Doctorates at Berklee 2024 Commencement The ceremony will be held on Saturday, May 11.

Latest

Berklee's Yoon-Ji Lee Receives Guggenheim Fellowship Lee, an assistant professor of composition, creates music based on unconventional and nonlinear structures that weaves together acoustic and electroacoustic mediums.

Youssou N'Dour

Image courtesy of the artist

Youssou NDour to Receive Honorary Doctorate at Berklee Valencia's 2024 Commencement The ceremony will be held on Monday, July 8.

(Center left to right) Students Carol Gao and Rachel Ray McFarlane were presented with Electronic Arts/Berklee Charting Change Scholarships by (left to right) Berklee Interim President and Provost David Bogen, Worldwide Executive and President at EA Music Steve Schnur, and Screen Scoring Chair Sean McMahon at the college's annual EA Berklee Day.

Scott Zuehlke Photography

Berklee and Electronic Arts Celebrate Annual EA Day The second annual EA Berklee Day celebrated women in the screen scoring indust
LINK: https://www.berklee.edu/berklee-now/news/berklee-and-electronic-arts-c...
See more stories from berklee

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

27/05/2026

Telestream Appoints Benjamin Desbois as CEO, Effective July 1

Telestream has announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Benjamin Desbois as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2026. Desbois, currently Teles...

27/05/2026

FOX MLB Leads Live-Event Categories; ESPN Is Tops Overall at 47th Annual Sports Emmy Awards

ESPN garnered 10 awards; NBC's Sunday Night Football received the Outstandin...

27/05/2026

Matrox Video Marks 50th Anniversary, Announces New Product Launch for June

Matrox Video is celebrating its 50th anniversary, marking five decades of operations from its headquarters in Montreal, Canada. Founded in 1976, the company has...

27/05/2026

MLB Announces Fan Engagement Initiatives for Americas 250th Anniversary

Major League Baseball has announced a series of initiatives tied to America's Semiquincentennial, including a national marketing campaign, Fourth of July br...

27/05/2026

Advanced Systems Group Hires Brian Gross as Account Manager for Audio Team

Advanced Systems Group (ASG) has announced that Brian Gross has joined the company as an Account Manager on its Audio team, based in the Burbank office. He will...

27/05/2026

Nielsen Research: Hispanic Fans, Asian Markets Drive Global Soccer Audience Ahead of World Cup 2026

Nielsen has released new research on soccer fandom ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2...

27/05/2026

ESL FACEIT Group Debuts First Ever Esports Vertical Stream Co-Developed With TikTok

ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) has unveiled a new partnership with TikTok to bring broad...

27/05/2026

Two Weeks Away: FIFA Outlines Production Plans for Highly Anticipated North American-Based World Cup

FIFA's Oscar Sanchez gives a deeper look to how this tournament will be cove...

27/05/2026

SVG Students To Watch: Maggie Lynn, Virginia Tech

The soon-to-be senior from Charlottesville is building her skills in replay, TD, and even creative content for HokieVision and its ACC Network productions In t...

27/05/2026

A Global Festival of Football: FOX Sports Illustrates Strategy to Bring Every FIFA Mens World Cup Match to the U.S. Audience

FOX Sports' Mike Davies breaks down the vision for this summer's showcas...

27/05/2026

Top-Tier Storytelling: Host Broadcast Services Works at Capturing the Atmosphere of the FIFA Mens World Cup

HBS's Paul King, FIFA's Oscar Sanchez preview how the masses at home wil...

27/05/2026

Matt Gangl & Pete Macheska on FOX MLBs Huge Night and an Unforgettable Postseason Run

FOX's MLB coverage dominated the night at the 47th Annual Sports Emmy Awards...

27/05/2026

FOXs Mike Davies and Team on Outstanding Technical Team Win for 2025 World Series

One of the most memorable Postseasons in baseball history would have had no memo...

27/05/2026

NBC Sports Rob Hyland Reflects on an Unforgettable Sunday Night Football Season

NBC's Sunday Night Football is among the most decorated and most watched programs in the history of television. It added to its jam-packed trophy case on Tu...

27/05/2026

Prime Videos John Ward and Mike Francis on Groundbreaking NBA on Prime Video Studio

The 2026 Sports Emmys marked a watershed moment for Prime Video Sports. After bu...

27/05/2026

Countdown to FIFA World Cup 2026: SVG Launches SportsTechLive Blog in Lead-up to Winter Games

With the Opening Match just over two weeks away, the entire sports-production-te...

27/05/2026

Spotify Brings Long-Form Magazine Articles to Audio

Spotify already brings together listeners' favorite music, podcasts, and audiobooks in one place. Now, we're trialing a new format that expands the cont...

27/05/2026

Podcast Clips Make Your Favorite Moments Easier to Save and Share

The best podcast moments deserve more than just a mental note. That's why today, we're making those moments easier to save and share with clips. Whethe...

27/05/2026

Spotify and Netflix Partner With Jay Shetty to Bring On Purpose' to Video Across Both Platforms

On Purpose is one of the most popular podcasts in the world, known for conversat...

27/05/2026

Olivia Rodrigo Brings Billions Club Live to Barcelona: Watch the Concert Film Now

On May 8, 1,500 of Olivia Rodrigo's top fans gathered in Barcelona's Tea...

27/05/2026

JZ Microphones announce the MU-1

Hybrid design combines large-diaphragm capsule & ribbon JZ Microphones have teamed up with Grammy-winning producer and engineer Marc Urselli to develop a ne...

27/05/2026

Tape Effects Collection from AIR Music Tech

Three new plug-ins inspired by classic tape effects AIR Music Tech's latest release delivers a set of plug-ins that aim to capture the character, moveme...

27/05/2026

The Crow Hill Company's Absurdly Quiet Piano goes Pro

Piano played on the edge of silence The Crow Hill Company's Vaults collection offers a continual rotation of instruments that are given away for free fo...

27/05/2026

Arturia release Memory V

Recreates Moog's iconic Memorymoog polysynth Arturia's vast software instrument range offers a combination of new and old, with innovative modern so...

27/05/2026

Accentize introduce free dxLevel plug-in

Offers loudness levelling for speech and dialogue Accentize have built up a solid reputation with their audio-restoration tools, and their latest plug-in is...

27/05/2026

10,000 units strong - The Rohde & Schwarz R&S M3SR Radio 4400

10,000 units strong - The Rohde & Schwarz R&S M3SR Radio 4400 Rohde & Schwarz celebrates a major manufacturing milestone, producing its 10,000th R&S M3SR Radi...

27/05/2026

L3Harris Introduces the XL Converge 300P Portable Public Safety Radio

The XL Converge 300P radio system emerges with a groundbreaking feature set enhancing the mission-critical communications of public safety, federal and critica...

27/05/2026

Modernizing Public Safety Communications

Pairing Two47 MCX software with existing LTE networks means tailored system upgrades that can save time, money and lives....

27/05/2026

L3Harris Strengthens Global Solid Rocket Motor Supply Chain With New PAC-3 Propulsion Supplier

PAC-3 MSE offers improved range, speed, and maneuverability, making it an effect...

27/05/2026

Brightcove Adds New Features to Its AI Suite for Video Advertising

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/05/2026

Star Trek VFX: Recreating John Knoll's Iconic Warp Stars without a Slitscan Camera

Star Trek VFX: Recreating John Knoll's Iconic Warp Stars without a Slitscan ...

27/05/2026

Adventure World Uses Blackmagic Replay for Marine Live

Adventure World Uses Blackmagic Replay for Marine Live Brie Clayton May 27, 2026 0 Comments Large screen displays and slow motion replays dynamically ...

27/05/2026

Berklee Alumna and Assistant Professor Olivia Prez-Collellmir to Premiere Original Work at Gaud Centennial in Barcelona

Berklee Alumna and Assistant Professor Olivia P rez-Collellmir to Premiere Origi...

27/05/2026

Gravity Media Expands Into Creative Services With New Agency

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/05/2026

Tegna Names Patrick Paolini as CEO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/05/2026

Telestream Taps Company Vet Benjamin Desbois as CEO

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/05/2026

HDR10+ Technologies to Launch Eclipsa Video Certification Program

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/05/2026

ATSC to Gather in Washington Next Week for Annual Meeting

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/05/2026

Telestream Appoints Benjamin Desbois as Chief Executive O...

Co-founder Dan Castles to transition to Executive Chair; internal promotion reinforces continuity and long-term growth Telestream, a global leader in media wor...

27/05/2026

Big Blue Marble Announces First End-to-End 5G Broadcast S...

Big Blue Marble today announced that its Nakolos platform is the first end-to-end 5G Broadcast solution worldwide to implement the complete feature set introduc...

27/05/2026

Lightware Continues Its ESG Commitment Through Girls Day...

Lightware recently hosted the Girls' Day event in April at its headquarters in Budapest, welcoming students for an interactive introduction to engineering a...

27/05/2026

VEON's Kyivstar and Uklon Launch Ukraine's First Live Testing of Autonomous Vehicle Technology

27 May 2026 VEON's Kyivstar and Uklon Launch Ukraine's First Live Testi...

26/05/2026

Matrox Video Marks 50 Year Milestone

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

26/05/2026

Roku Expands Premium Subscriptions With Fox One

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

26/05/2026

Brian Gross Joins ASG's Audio Team as Account Manager

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...