
For Berklee Artists and A&R Talent, a New Path to a Big Break Thanks to a new Career Center program, students are building their own pipeline to industry success.
By
Nick Balkin
January 24, 2022
Berklee artist Isa Ansin (right) performs at Brighton Music Hall.
Image by Lilly Patterson
Last fall, Berklee student Isa Ansin took the stage at Brighton Music Hall, a 500-capacity Boston venue booked mainly by national touring acts. As the first of two openers, her job was to warm up the crowd for indie-pop singer V rit , the show's headliner.
For most young artists, such a gig would serve as an early career milestone. For Ansin, who landed the booking with help from Berklee's new talent relations ambassador program, it was notable for another reason: it was the first time she'd ever performed her own music live. But you wouldn't know that based on the crowd's reaction. The show was so well-received that V rit invited Ansin to open for her again a few nights later, at New York City's Bowery Ballroom, covering Ansin's travel expenses and bumping her up to the lineup's second support slot, ensuring an even larger group of potential new fans to win over. The payoff was immediate: after the Brighton and Bowery shows, Ansin had gained hundreds of new Instagram followers.
It was crazy, said Ansin, who performs under the stage name Chrysalis. It was such an amazing experience, and the crowds, at both shows, were so welcoming it was honestly a really good reinforcement for me that writing music and performing my originals is what I want to do for the rest of my life.
Building a Talent Pipeline In terms of audience growth, few things move the needle like opening for a popular touring act. But with hundreds of artists vying for these coveted gigs, the chances of landing one, without connections or a proper strategy, can feel about as likely as winning the lottery.
Thanks to a new initiative from the Berklee Career Center, more student and alumni artists are snagging these in-demand support slots. The talent relations ambassador program, launched last fall as part of the Hire Berklee Talent campaign, is composed of student A&R scouts who identify, develop, and track talent within the Berklee community for specific performance, recording, writing, and producing opportunities. The current team-Lilly Patterson, Karissa Bone, Austyn Jones, Jordan Hall, and Daniel Ramos-represents an array of Berklee majors, from songwriting and production to business and musical theater.
Liza Levy
Image by Tyler Matthews
Patterson, who booked Ansin's show with V rit , seeks out Berklee artists who offer a balance to the headliner's style. She found Ansin through Berklee Connect (login required), a student and alumni directory where artists can upload unreleased music, videos, and other media. While [Ansin] didn't have any releases, and that definitely made me a little nervous, I really loved her artistry and personability, and so did V rit 's team, said Patterson. Isa is a lyrically captivating writer; she's literally a poet. I anticipated that her set would be super chill, which I thought would contrast and complement V rit 's more upbeat, danceable discography.
They're building a talent pipeline to the industry while helping to super-serve the needs of our employer partners, said the program's director, Liza Levy, talent relations manager for the Career Center.
The results speak for themselves, with ambassadors securing paid gigs for Berklee acts at major venues in the Boston area and beyond. In addition to Ansin's gigs with V rit , other program highlights have included Lindsay Whiteman, a seventh-semester student, opening for TikTok sensation JORDY at Brighton Music Hall; Jay Alan, a songwriting major, and Laura Danae, a graduate student at Berklee NYC, opening for Evan Giia B.M. '14, respectively, at the Sinclair (Boston) and Elsewhere (Brooklyn); and Cinya Khan, a professional music major, who's set to open for indie phenom Clairo at the House of Blues in Boston next month.
Theres nothing more powerful than listening to a student talk about why another students work is inspiring to them.
-Liza Levy, talent relations manager
Levy credits a recent student employee, Rehan Manickam B.M. '21, for sparking the idea behind the program. Rehan put me on to all of these Berklee artists, producers, and songwriters that were making incredible music. From there we started sharing this work with A&R execs, publishers, bookers, and managers in the industry, said Levy. Theres nothing more powerful than listening to a student talk about why another students work is inspiring to them. (After graduating, Manickam got a job working in A&R at Love Renaissance, the label home to Summer Walker, 6lack, and others.)
The program began to take shape last fall when Blythe Scokin, manager for Nashville singer-songwriter Ingrid Andress '13, proposed having a Berklee student open for Andress's upcoming Boston date. The benefits were two-fold: adding a student to the bill would help build an organic buzz on campus for the show, and Andress could give back to her alma mater by showcasing a developing artist.
Levy sent over a list of potential Berklee acts, and Scokin and Andress fell in love with an artist named Zoe Sparks, who opened the show and ended up attracting a ton of people to it. So we were like, this is interesting, we could take this whole structure and offer it to other artists-and it doesn't just have to be Berklee alumni, it could be any artist coming to Boston, said Levy. Then, if the pilot goes well, we can talk to managers about extending the campaign to New York and our Berklee NYC students.
Watch Zoe Sparks perform on Berklees Two Track series:
When pitching an opening act, there are many factors to
North America Stories
10/09/2026
Duff Foreman is an AI-generated announcer who will add color to this month's New Mexico Open...
10/09/2026
Bitmovin is rolling out Encoder Version 3, the next major release of the technology behind its VOD and Live Encoders. Version 3 is built on a premise every stre...
10/09/2026
At IBC2026, on booth 1.B47, Net Insight will showcase Open Live Media, its architecture for delivering resilient live media services across networks, partners, ...
10/09/2026
The Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) and Scripps Sports have announced a national broadcast rights agreement for the 2026-27 season, a landmark par...
10/09/2026
The Trusted Partner Network (TPN), the global content security initiative powere...
10/09/2026
The NFL is launching its most expansive creator programming yet, bringing togeth...
10/09/2026
Sportsnet is set to deliver its biggest hockey season ever with a national sched...
10/09/2026
LiveU is now a Clarus Integrated Reseller, bringing Starlink's fast, reliabl...
10/09/2026
Mimir is the cloud-native media production platform built for teams that need to move media fast across live, archive, web, social, and broadcast workflows. At ...
10/09/2026
ATSC is being honored with a 2026 Technology & Engineering Emmy Award by the Nat...
10/09/2026
Audio-Technica has introduced the BP880R Contact Transducer, a specialized micro...
10/09/2026
TMRW Sports in partnership with the LPGA, today announced multiyear U.S. media rights agreements with ESPN and Scripps Sports/ION to bring WTGL, the new women...
10/09/2026
SportsNet Pittsburgh (SNP) in partnership with Major League Baseball and the Pit...
10/09/2026
Tennis Channel announced today its launch as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel.
Tennis Channel offers viewers a single home for Tennis Channel and Ten...
10/09/2026
Dolby has announced major updates to Dolby OptiView, its live sports platform, ahead of IBC 2026. The updates include new AI-powered intelligence to better unde...
10/09/2026
Dalet has appointed Brian Doheny as CEO. Doheny joined Dalet as President and Chief Revenue Officer in April 2026. Since joining Dalet, Doheny has led the compa...
10/09/2026
Sony, as well as its partner company Nevion, is starting IBC 2026 with a handful of announcements for attendees to see on the show floor.
Sony Announces the 4t...
10/09/2026
The six-year-old venue is expanding capabilities for NFL action, Super Bowl LXI, 2028 Summer Olympics
SoFi Stadium, as well as the surrounding area known as Ho...
10/09/2026
France launch follows UK and Germany as Nielsen expands product across EMEA
Paris, France, September 10, 2026 - Nielsen, a global leader in audience measuremen...
10/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/09/2026
Leading professional audio manufacturers NUGEN Audio, RTW, Steinberg and Telos Alliance have joined forces with Fraunhofer IDMT to establish a common approach t...
10/09/2026
Built Into Setplex's Zapflex Platform, AI Insider Turns Video Service Data Into Actionable Insights
Setplex today introduced AI Insider, a breakthrough new...
10/09/2026
Managed service changes dialogue without actor-specific training or facial rigging while preserving the original performance and fitting established post-produc...
10/09/2026
The ACT Entertainment tvONE and Green Hippo Pixel Academy has released its autumn course schedule, with hands-on training dates in September, October and Novemb...
10/09/2026
Orange Polska continues to Rely on Viaccess-Orca for Secure TV Services and the Next Phase of its Technology Evolution
Viaccess-Orca (VO), a global leader in T...
10/09/2026
Generate and create directly in your timeline with new AI-powered innovations in...
10/09/2026
Tedial is introducing Media Business Hub (MBH) at IBC 2026, a new business enablement platform designed to help media organizations unlock the full value of the...
10/09/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, will unveil the next phase of its transformation at IBC2026 with a preview...
10/09/2026
Fabric Data and TMT Insights today announced that the two companies are combining to create Fabric Insights, uniting authoritative data, purpose-built software,...
10/09/2026
Operative, the preferred advertising and broadcast management provider for the world's leading media brands, today announced a comprehensive slate of new pr...
10/09/2026
Test & measurement innovator, Leader Electronics of Europe, has announced the launch of its latest range of handheld signal generation, analysis and monitoring ...
10/09/2026
The partnership begins with native Zixi protocol support on the Kiloview D350 and will extend to deeper product integration and joint go-to-market initiatives
...
10/09/2026
Avid and FilmLight announce strategic partnership to reimagine the color pipelin...
10/09/2026
Maxon Brings Exclusive Preview of Fall Innovations to IBC2026
Brie Clayton September 10, 2026
0 Comments
IBC attendees will get the first look at new ...
10/09/2026
Puget Systems Launches Built Different by Puget Systems, A New Podcast That Go...
10/09/2026
Three Boston Conservatory Dance Alums Honored for Their Early-Career Promise India Hobbs and Demetrius Lee received Princess Grace Awards, while Lilly David t...
10/09/2026
MonoNeon Returns to Berklee to Kick Off Signature Series The Grammy-winning bassist and alumnus performs with students and faculty from the Planet MicroJam In...
10/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/09/2026
Gear up: The latest PC games and major updates are ready to play on GeForce NOW ...
10/09/2026
AI inference chipmaker d-Matrix today announced it will use NVIDIA NVLink Fusion to connect its next-generation Raptor XPUs to NVIDIA's AI infrastructure pl...
09/09/2026
Sony Electronics has announced the SEL814G, the company's first fisheye zoom G Lens for full-frame Alpha E-mount cameras. The lens will be available in Octo...
09/09/2026
Telestream has announced an expansion of its Practical AI capabilities across th...
09/09/2026
Haivision and Chyron have announced a technology partnership integrating Haivisi...
09/09/2026
Omaha Productions has released ManningCast: Heist, a short film featuring Peyton and Eli Manning attempting to break into NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's o...
09/09/2026
Imagine Communications will demonstrate the next evolution of XVR at IBC2026 (Stand 1.B73, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14).
XVR is Imagine's channel-in-a-b...
09/09/2026
swXtch.io has announced abbe, an AI-based orchestration layer for live media workflows, making its world premiere at IBC2026 (Meeting Room 5.MR13, Hall 5, Septe...