PHOENIX

2 Phoenix-area teens earn $300K to 'Harvard of music'

Two teens from Phoenix and Peoria each earned $150,000 full-tuition scholarships to Berklee College of Music, which some call "the Harvard of music."

Kaila White
The Republic | azcentral.com
Keirnan Johnson of Peoria earned a full-tuition Berklee City Music College Scholarship.
  • Michael Gloria of Phoenix and Keirnan Johnson of Peoria each earned more than $150,000
  • They'll be attending Berklee College of Music, an acclaimed school in Boston
  • Both teens are students of the Phoenix Conservatory of Music, a local non-profit

Michael Gloria and Keirnan Johnson are one hurdle away.

With a lifetime of piano lessons behind them, they've trekked from Arizona to Boston for a summer program that stands between them and a very prestigious college experience.

Gloria, of Phoenix, and Johnson, of Peoria, were among the 15 students in the U.S. who earned more than $150,000 each in full-tuition scholarships to Berklee College of Music, which many call "the Harvard of music."

Getting the letter

Gloria, an 18-year-old who just graduated from the Arizona School for the Arts, found out he earned the scholarship while he was at his sister's housewarming party.

"I told myself I wasn't going to get emotional, but when you find out that your college is going to be almost paid for and you're not gonna have to be in huge debt to go where you wanna go, it took a huge load off of me and I just started crying," Gloria said.

Michael Gloria of Phoenix earned a full-tuition Berklee City Music College Scholarship.

Johnson, an 18-year-old who was homeschooled, also was at home with his four siblings and parents when he found out, and said he was shocked.

"I've wanted to attend Berklee ever since I found out about it," Johnson said. "Berklee, to me, means opportunity, success, and really just a brighter future."

How rare is this?

Berklee is a private college in Boston offering majors such as film scoring and jazz composition. Notable alumni include musician John Mayer; musician Annie Clark, who is known as indie-pop star St. Vincent; and producer Jeff Bhasker, who won Grammy Awards for his songs with Jay-Z, Kanye West and Fun.

The Juilliard School in New York also sometimes gets the Harvard University comparison, Gloria said, but Berklee focuses on contemporary music such as jazz and rock.

Last year, 18 Berklee City Music College Scholarships were awarded and almost half went to students in the Boston area, and none went to students from Arizona, according to information from Berklee.

Before that, Ahmari Underwood of Laveen earned one in 2013.

How much does this help them?

Michael Gloria, a Phoenix Conservatory of Music student.

Although $150,000 seems like it should cover everything, it doesn't.

Fees and room and board are about $20,000 per year, Gloria said. If he lives on campus for four years, he'll still be paying $80,000 for college.

Both teens are students of the Phoenix Conservatory of Music, a non-profit that provides affordable music education, as well as participants in its Berklee City Music program, which gives contemporary music education to youth from underserved communities at low or no cost.

Berklee would have been completely out of reach without the scholarships, both said.

How they got there

Gloria said he kind of hates how he got into music.

"I used to dread going to Sunday-school choir practices," he said, laughing. "Church children's choirs are kind of the worst choirs ever and I hated going to them because I could hear when it was off."

Now, his favorite song that he's written is "Never Be Apart," which he wrote for his girlfriend, who is also a musician and will be attending Vassar College more than three hours away in New York.

Johnson got a late start in music, joining a neighbor's steel-drum band at 13 years old. Now he plays piano, drums and steel drums, and studies music at least 25 hours each week, he said.

"I feel I want to tell people how I have progressed. This is the song I wrote and played to audition for Berklee," he posted on Facebook along with this video:

One other PCM senior, Kyler Van Horn of Peoria, also was accepted into Berklee but did not receive a full-tuition scholarship. He will be attending ASU in the fall.