Berklee City Music Presents Nine Scholarships and Awards at Annual Concert

Berklee City Music Presents Nine Scholarships and Awards at Annual Concert Student recipients from seven states and Canada received scholarships, housing awards, and aid to attend Berklee.

August 7, 2026

By

Tori Donahue

Berklee President Jim Lucchese (left) and Krystal Prime Banfield (far right), Berklee vice president of Education Outreach and Social Entrepreneurship, celebrated the Berklee City Music scholarship recipients on stage at the Berklee Performance Center.

Bryan Lasky

Nine young musicians from Boston and beyond received scholarships, housing awards, and financial aid towards a Berklee education at a ceremony and concert on Tuesday, August 4 at the Berklee Performance Center.

The recipients are participants in Berklee City Music, a nonprofit program that delivers high-quality contemporary music education to youth from under-resourced communities at low or no cost. The program also includes the City Music Network, an association of 44 community organizations that serve more than 65,000 students in the US, Canada, and Latin America each year. City Music provides pre-college support to help students have a pathway to Berklee and provides advising support while they are enrolled. This year, Berklee City Music funded nine awards for entering students, totaling over $1.2 million in scholarship support during the students' time at Berklee. Berklee City Music will hold its annual Amplify Berklee gala, which will raise funds for continued scholarship support, in November.

The evening featured Lisa Marie Lovett, an acclaimed spoken word artist, author, and founder of Seasoned Dialogue, as guest emcee. She also facilitated the Berklee City Music Summit from August 1-4. As an artist, Lovett has built a platform devoted to healing, self-worth, and the beauty of mending what life has tried to break. Known for her Southern-soulful cadence and hug-like delivery, her work explores love, grief, faith, boundaries, womanhood, and restoration, often using metaphors of gardens, seasoning, and everyday life to make deep truths feel both sacred and accessible.

The scholarship presentation and concert marked the end of Berklees Aspire: Five-Week Music Performance Intensive, which dozens of students attended on Berklee City Music Summer Scholarships.

2026 Scholarship Recipients from Berklee City Music:

Matteui Bastillada, Summerland Key, FL

Prince Jean Cabagnon, Vancouver, Canada

Macie Capel, Aliquippa, PA

Kaleb Hart, Memphis, TN

Tomas Labrador Flores, Boston, MA

Gabriella Pinilla, Surprise, AZ

Elisha Smith, Canal, OH

Janiyah Whitfield, Camden, NJ

Cydney Williford, Maricopa, AZ

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