August 21: Pat Carroll, a saxophonist from California, has been focused on music since age 12, when he began studying with noted San Francisco musician Dann Zinn. In his junior year of high school, Carroll was awarded the Jimmy Lyons scholarship at the 2004 Monterey Jazz Festival. In 2005, he was commissioned to write and perform original music as a member of the SFJAZZ Young Composers Project, a group that rehearsed with Ravi Coltrane, Miguel Zenon, Vijay Iyer, and Maria Schneider.  At Berklee, Carroll has studied with Hal Crook, Ralph Peterson, and Joe Lovano.  His composition, "Mighty Aphrodite," appears on the new Jazz Revelation Records release, Common Ground.

August 28: Berklee Monterey Quartet. Each h fall, Berklee chooses four of its finest students to perform at the Monterey Jazz Festival, where they perform to standing-room-only audiences. The group featured here performed at the festival in 2007. With graduation still ahead, the members of the Quartet are already highly sought after, with dozens of professional credits, major awards, and concerts. Leader Nishimura, from Tokyo, holds the coveted piano chair in the IAJE Sisters in Jazz Quintet, and was chosen to perform at the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival at the Kennedy Center.

September 4: Manami Morita, a native of Saitama, Japan,started playing classical piano at 4.  At 13, Morita discovered jazz and became addicted, learning improvisation on her own. In 2004, Morita put aside thoughts of becoming a flight attendant or English teacher to follow her dream of playing jazz, when she received a scholarship to study at Berklee. She was recently awarded the Mary Jane Earnhart Endowed Scholarship.  Morita appears on the latest Jazz Revelation Records CD release, "Common Ground."

September 11: Katie Thiroux, from Los Angeles is the recipient of the Phil Ramone Presidential Scholarship to Berklee, a rare, full-ride award. She has just completed her second year.  Thiroux performed at the 2004 and 2005 IAJE conferences as both a bassist and vocalist. For four years in a row, she was selected to be a member of the elite Gibson/Baldwin Grammy National Honor Jazz Ensemble. She has also received fellowships to the prestigious Brubeck Institute Summer Jazz Colony, and the Vail Jazz Festival.