MUMBAI: India's aspiring music students can rejoice. The process of auditioning for the prestigious Berklee College of Music will be a lot more cheaper as the Boston based music college would be coming to India in February 2010 to conduct their first auditions in Mumbai and Delhi.

A Delhi based music school, Performers Collective has partnered with Berklee and would be hosting them in India. Says Performers Collective founder Jack Thomas, "Berklee has started to see India as the next big destination for student intake.
In the coming three to four years, they see India as an emerging hub for students aspiring to study music." 

Though the Berklee College of Music has many centers in Asia, India was never on its map thus far. Aspiring students believe this move will definitely make things simpler and save their expenses  To promote this visit, GigSupport Artistes, Berklee College and the American Embassy is also organising a tour by Aditya Balani Group from the Berklee College of Music across Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore from 7 - 15 January, 2009 

Founded in 1945 by Lawrence Berk, Berklee has remained the foremost choice when it comes to studying music. The college offers more than a dozen performance and nonperformance majors, and the opportunity to study 29 distinct principal instruments and an alumni that includes the who's who of the music industry. Needless to say, over 160 of Berklee alumni have gone on to win the prestigious Grammy awards 

Some of its alumni include musicians like Chuck Loeb, Stuart Hamm, Steve Vai, Ernie Watts, Eric Marienthal and Indian born musicians like Ehsaan Nooraani and Raghav Sachar.

Over 12,000 students apply to study music at Berklee every year  Stay tuned for more updates.