An ongoing partnership between Lollapalooza and Berklee College of Music has resulted in scholarship awards for 14 musicians since 2011.
Millisa Henderson of Muskogee, Oklahoma, is the 2016 recipient of the Berklee Lollapalooza Endowed Scholarship, a four-year, full-tuition award that brings her to Berklee in the fall. Megan Bishop of Chicago, Illinois, has been awarded the Berklee Lollapalooza Five-Week Scholarship to attend this summer’s program for high school students.
The partnership also gives Berklee student folk trio Honeysuckle the opportunity to perform on one of the main stages at Lollapalooza’s 25th anniversary festival, July 28-31, in Chicago. Honeysuckle perform Saturday, July 30, at noon on the Pepsi Stage. Read more about students performing at festivals through Berklee’s Popular Music Institute. Berklee students will also host a silent concert at Kidzapalooza throughout the festival (more info below).
“Five years ago, Lollapalooza celebrated its 20th anniversary, and Berklee and Lolla celebrated together by announcing the endowed scholarship,” said Berklee professor Jeff Dorenfeld, who developed the partnership with Lollapalooza producers C3 Presents. “The scholarships are life-changing for the recipients, while the partnership also affects, educates, and enables many more Berklee students to meet their dreams and aspirations through the festival performance and their work at Kidzapalooza. Together, we build careers in music.”
Berklee Lollapalooza Endowed Scholarship
After a process that included auditions in cities across the U.S., Berklee chose Millisa Henderson to receive the full-tuition Berklee Lollapalooza Endowed Scholarship. In the spirit of Lollapalooza, the college aimed to find not only an outstanding musical talent, but also a musician with charisma, energy, and a strong interest in rock music who aspires to a performance career.
Millisa Henderson is an 18-year-old guitarist who began taking lessons in 2009. She has been lead guitarist/vocalist for rock bands Insane Audio and Signs of Warning, and guitarist for the Muskogee High School Jazz Band and Pride of Muskogee Marching Band. She has also been a member of Guitarchestra, a Tulsa-based orchestra that performs rock arrangements of classical pieces. Henderson was awarded second place – out of 900 entries – in the 2015 Queen of Strings competition. Also a vocalist and pianist, her performances cross genres including rock, funk and fusion. She is currently working on an EP of original music.
Henderson attended Berklee’s Guitar Sessions in 2013 and the Five Week Summer Performance Program in 2014 and 2015. “After being on campus, taking classes with incredibly talented teachers, and discovering other young people with my same love of music, I knew becoming an undergraduate at Berklee was something I really wanted to do,” said Henderson. “I feel that the key to a sincere, life-long music career is through music education and study at an esteemed school.” Henderson plans to major in professional music with a concentration in music business/management or music production and engineering.
The Berklee Lollapalooza Endowed Scholarship is endowed by Goldman Sachs Gives, a donor-advised fund. The scholarship was established at the recommendation of Berklee trustee Fran Bermanzohn, managing director and deputy general counsel of Goldman Sachs
Berklee Lollapalooza Five-Week Scholarship
Megan Bishop, a 16-year-old vocalist from Chicago, IL, is the recipient of the Berklee Lollapalooza Five-Week Scholarship, awarded annually to a Chicago-area musician. At the Five-Week Summer Performance Program (July 9-August 12), she joins more than 1,000 teens from all over the world who are sharpening their skills in private lessons, ensembles, and concerts.
Bishop has been taking voice lessons for 10 years, driven initially by her love of musical theater. She appeared in local musicals as a part of Brain Surgeon Theater and also performed inCarmen at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as part of the children’s chorus. In her high school, she’s a member of Tri-M (Modern Music Masters, the music honors society), gigs with the Jazz Combo, and is enrolled in band (flute) and choir. Bishop writes and records original songs in her bedroom with the goal of being able to independently produce and sell her music. She is also currently writing a musical.
“I’m really excited to meet new people and collaborate, record music, learn more about who I am as a musician, and explore different kinds of music,” said Bishop. “I am so grateful for the scholarship. Everything about music has thrilled me since I was really young and I’m striving to get better at doing what I love.”
Students Host Silent Concert at Kidzapalooza
Students from Berklee’s Popular Music Institute will host a silent concert at Kidzapalooza, Lollapalooza’s family-friendly fest within the fest. The silent concert is a popular attraction where the students are paired with kids on instruments—including bass, guitar, keyboard, and drums—that they play while wearing headphones. The instruments are connected to a laptop with Pro Tools and outboard gear through which a student mixes and engineers the concert. The engineer then sends the performance out to mixer/amps for the players and audience to listen to through headphones.
