Partnership with the Berklee College of Music

The Jazz & Rock Schulen Freiburg have been an official partner of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA since 1997.

Berklee, the most prominent rock/pop and jazz music conservatory, maintains an international network of 14 world-wide partner schools – the so called Berklee International Network (BIN). The International Music College Freiburg, a division of the the Jazz & Rock Schulen Freiburg, is the exclusive BIN partner school in the German-speaking region of Europe.

The students of the IMCF profit from this partnership through the regular exchange of experience between instructors and administrators, and also through Berklee workshops given by prominent American guest teachers.

Moreover, student and teacher exchange programs between the BIN schools take place, e.g., the 2005-2007 Comenius School Project of the European Union, in which Freiburg, as well the BIN schools from Athens and Helsinki took part. A further project for 2008 – 2010 is in the works.

In the international “Study Abroad” program (ISA), established in the summer semester 2008, Berklee students study for a semester in the Main Program at the IMCF in Freiburg. The German students of the IMCF have the possibility to attend the international English-speaking classes together with the Berklee students. A prerequisite for this program was the “articulation” and the possibility of credit transfers from selected courses of the IMCF, i.e., a test of the compatibility of the courses and study plans, as well as a quality control by Berklee professors.

The results of these tests were found positive in an “articulation agreement” between the two schools. This means that a giant step forward was made for a planned transfer program, in which German students of the IMCF, after graduation or during their study, can transfer to Berklee College, e.g., to study further toward a bachelor or masters degree in Boston.
IMCF students, as well as students from other BIN partner schools will be given preferential treatment in the granting of Berklee College scholarships.

Further international network activity

In recent history, the music field has become globalized through increasing mobility, open borders, and more modern means of communication. It is therefore critically necessary for a modern music career program to “think” internationally.

Beside working together with Berklee College and the partner schools of the BIN, the International Music College Freiburg is involved in numerous other committees, associations, and networks. The most prominent associations are the IASJ (Intermational Association of Schools of Jazz) and EMMON (European Modern Music Education Network), by which study travel, artistic projects, and pedagogical conferences are promoted and carried out.