About Berklee

Berklee is dynamic, innovative, creative, global, and bold—a place that embraces improvisation and innovation.

Founded on jazz, the music of the African diaspora, and a dedication to contemporary music, Berklee is a singular institution for the study of the performing arts. The institution continues to integrate and find connections between its historical roots and the contemporary worlds of music, dance, and theater. Berklee is a place where artists come together to innovate and collaborate, and where artistic and cultural diversity is e mbraced and celebrated. This ethos permeates all aspects of Berklee—from teaching and learni ng to administration and governance—and is fundamental to the Berklee experience.

Berklee continually cultivates its own promise—stretching, expa nding, and reinventing itself in a rapidly changing world. In recent years , Berklee has opened new campuses in New York City and Valencia, Spain, and g rown Berklee Online into the world’s largest online music school. In 2016, the Boston Conservatory—the oldest and one of the most prestigious con servatories in the U.S. for dance, music, and theater—joined forces wi th Berklee College of Music, establishing a performing arts training institution unparalleled in its breadth and depth. As a combined institution, Berklee is an education powerhouse with global reach and vast cultural impact.

Boston Conservatory at Berklee

Our leading contemporary conservatory for dance, music, and theater offers undergraduate and graduate programs that combine focused, individualized training with an innovative curriculum that empowers students to create the future they imagine.

Contact Info

Website: www.berklee.edu

Phone: +1 617-747-2245 or toll-free at +1 877-BERKLEE (U.S. and Canada) or online summer programs for your experience level in music performance, theater, dance, music production, songwriting, and music business.

Why Summer Programs?

World Class Faculty and Visiting Artists

Learn from Grammy-, Tony-, and Oscar-winning artists.

Peers from Around the World

Connect and collaborate with more than 3,000 like-minded musicians, actors, and

Music Performance Programs

Find on-campus or online summer programs for your experience level in music performance. Whether you want to improve as a singer or instrumentalist, you’ll find a vast selection of workshops, intensives, and programs to choose from.

Summer Programs

Study with world-renowned faculty at the preeminent institute for contemporary music and performing arts. Find on-campus dancers from over 70 countries.

Piano/Keyboard Workshop

Boston -Ages 15+

Fully immerse yourself in piano, keyboard, and Hammond organ performance. Develop your skills in improvisation, performance, chord theory ensemble playing, and synthesizer technology through this dynamic workshop. You’ll be exposed to a variety of styles, including jazz, hip-hop, rock, R&B, pop, funk, Latin, and fusion.

Who is on your CD player?

Peet: Literally everything, except maybe the hardest rock styles. We love today’s pop music, even electronic dance music. Dua Lipa, Charlie Puth, Martin Garrix and Zedd just to mention a few. Then we also listen to 80s music and gospel music a lot. Naturally, all this is beside our favorite smooth jazz artists.

Attila: My personal favorites are Kirk Whalum, Marcus Anderson, Brian Culbertson, Dave Koz, Everette Harp and Marcus Miller but I really listen to many others as well.

Martin: You have to stay informed to remain competitive. In this respect, music is like any other profession. Each of us does a lot of session work for other artists so we must stay on top of our game, both as instrumentalists and songwriters.

Peet: Since I also work as a music producer for many other acts in the totally different styles, it inevitably keeps my ears open for new sounds and current trends. I usually bring those influences with me to the Peet Project sessions and then we decide whether we want to use any of it in our own music. The new album is a great example of this approach end of the session we always have an “enjoyable” demo to listen to.

What is your creative process like?

Attila: Martin mentioned the song ideas that we bring to the studio. Here is how I capture mine: First I sing the core melodies and record them with my phone. Then I keep refining those basic melodies and develop them into something that I can take to my keyboards. Once I can play it all on keyboard, I record it again and bring it to the boys when we are in the studio. Then we finish it together.

What is your favorite song to perform?

Peet: That always depends on our current material because we are very excited to see how the audience reacts to our new music. E.g. these days we all love playing our latest radio single “Donut Jam”.

Martin: My favorite from Sweet Lemon, the new album coming in December 2022 is Endless Road - because it is a relatively special one in our repertoire. The time signature (6/8) is unusual in our genre and it has some progressive elements, not to mention the killer guitar solo by Michael Thompson. His participation is a dream come true in itself.

Oliver: I love performing Down to the Lakebecause of the keyboard solo that I can play in it.

Martin: Usually we all meet in Peet’s studio and one of us comes up with a song idea. Sometimes it is just a short melody and a few chords the we start brainstorming over it. We record all ideas immediately and start to arrange the song at the same time, so by the

Attila: I love Chill with Us because of its special atmosphere.

Which famous musicians do you admire?

Peet: My personal favorite from the pop world

Q&A Peet Project Band With

is Charlie Puth. From the smooth jazz scene, my biggest inspiration is Brian Culbertson.

Oliver: My favorite musician is Anomalie. He is such a great pianist and producer!

Martin and Marcell: It is Steve Lukather – and probably this needs no explanation.

Attila: I admire Kirk Whalum and Marcus Anderson, they are fantastic players!

What is the best advice you have been given?

Peet: “Don’t play a note on your instrument until you are sure that you can give something positive to the universe with it.” That came from Dave Koz while we were recording Rosy Cheeks in our studio in 2017.

What would your family say is your best quality?

Oliver: They say it is obvious that we all love playing this kind of music and that it comes straight from our hearts. They can see it on our faces when we step on the stage. We all have the time of our lives while performing and during the creative process in the studio. It all adds an extra vibe to our music.

How has the music industry changed the last decade?

Peet: It has become completely digital. We still sell physical CDs, mostly at shows, but they are more like merchandise. The vast majority of people listen to music online these days. That, of course, is also a great opportunity because you can reach out to a greater potential audience. Yet it also puts pressure on us, because we need to deliver regularly in the online realm as well.

Walk us through a day in the life of being a musician?

Marcel: We all play in several other bands and musical acts, too. So mostly we practice and attend rehearsals, then go on tour. And some of us including me, teach as well. Peet is a music producer, so he usually works in his studio during the day and then goes on stage in the evenings. We all love the famed “rock & roll lifestyle”, with staying up until dawn and sleeping through half of the next day, but it never happens. We all get up early in the morning, even if we had to perform until late the night before. That is why we love touring in the US, because there we all can focus on the Peet Project shows only.

How has Peet Project’s music style evolved over the years?

Peet: Back in 2010, at the time of our first album we are about finding the right sound and direction for our music. We figured out that we enjoyed the most: great energy, funky grooves using saxophone and violin in combination most of the time, with some additional vocals to spice up things and the brave use of electronic elements. Current pop music has always had a great influence on our creative process and that has not changed. If you could have steamed hot Coffee with any music icon or legend past or present, who would you select and why?

Attila: I would love to spend some time with

Maceo Parker and would love to hear some stories about his years with James Brown.

Oliver: I am curious about Michael Jackson!

Martin: Steve Lukather, because he is my musical hero.

Why is it critically important that musicians understand the business side of music?

Oliver: It is very important to always do what you love. We all have to stick to this foundation. I am saying this because sometimes when we start to see behind the scenes, it can easily control our creative decisions. Seeing and understanding market demand can ruin our natural way of development. We can’t let that happen. Of course, especially today, we need to understand how things work, because of this huge noise going out there on the market. There are so many scams out there, online and offline service providers who promise you a miracle. If you understand how things truly work you can see instantly why their promises cannot be true, or at least not for every artist they work with.

Is the group involved in any charitable foundations that support ARTS education for children?

Martin: As mentioned earlier, some of us teach music, even to the youngest generation. We participate in several programs and attend music camps year by year. These programs provide the young generation with inspiration and professional support to help with their musical careers. We all have a very serious responsibility to be an inspiration for the kids.

Where does the group writing process come from?

Attila : Our goal is to work as a group on and off stage as well, so we make it a point to do the songwriting together in the studio. I am very happy that with the new album (which is our seventh studio album), we were able to use this approach for each and every song.

What do you want fans to know about each member of Peet’s Project?

Peet: I am a worship leader and Christ-following Christian.

Oliver: I just got married this summer.

Attila: I became a happy father this year.

Martin & Marcel: We are identical twins, but Marcell is 8 minutes older than me.

Who are / what was it that shaped each member’s desire to choose a career in music?

Peet: Around the age of 12 I discovered the possibility of making music on a personal computer using a couple of simple studio equipment items, and by the age of 16 I knew that I would want to keep on doing this for the rest of my life.

Oliver: First I started to learn to play the clarinet but when I changed to piano, I knew I found my true instrument. I wanted to become the best keyboard player that I could possibly be.

Martin & Marcel: Our dad is a drummer and we have an older brother who is a great singer and guitarist. When we were still teenagers, we started a family rock band called “The Gamblers”. We decided that Marcel would play the drums and Martin would play the bass. We never stopped ever since.

Attila: I learned saxophone in several different music schools in Hungary and had great inspirations locally and worldwide as well. I always dreamed of becoming a professional musician like them, and I am very grateful that it became reality.

If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?

Peet: Less online, more live. Less digital, more physical.

Attila: I would like to see the more use of real instruments and I could imagine instrumental solos in pop songs again – like it used to be!

Who or what inspired each individual member of the group to make great music?

Peet: I think music is really a spiritual thing, it is God’s gift to humans. He gave it to us to express feelings that cannot be expressed in any other way. So He is the greatest inspiration, even to those who write music without knowing Him.

With all that is going on in the world today do you think people look to music to supply a sense of hope?

Peet: Definitely. Music is a great tool to take out people from their weekday problems for even just a moment and fly them away to an island of emotions that they actually need, and when the musical experience is over and they “fly back home from the island”, it can bring a positive change. That is our mission.

What’s on your bucket list?

Peet: Playing in South America and Asia. But we have never been to New York, and we would love to see it and perform there.

Oliver: Doing a Peet Project tour across the USA from New York to San Diego in a tour bus! I would love that!