The 2016 merger between The Boston Conservatory and Berklee College of Music marked the first time two performing arts colleges joined forces, setting off a powerful ripple effect of groundbreaking “firsts” across the Conservatory’s three divisions and the wider Berklee organization—not to mention higher education and the performing arts at large. We reflect on the joint institution’s pioneering collaborations, genre-combusting performances, and innovative learning opportunities through the lens of the question: What milestones could have only been possible in this unique space—the world’s most complete training ground for performing artists?

Boston Conservatory at Berklee has announced a new Master of Fine Arts in musical theater vocal pedagogy degree program that will launch in fall 2020. Boston Conservatory’s new M.F.A. in musical theater vocal pedagogy is a one-of-a-kind program that draws on Boston Conservatory’s deep expertise in both musical theater and vocal pedagogy.

Few summer music festivals allow non-professional musicians to collaborate with some of classical music’s most prominent emerging artists. The dynamic husband and wife team Michael Shinn and Jessica Chow Shinn, the Conservatory’s dean of music, and associate professor of collaborative piano, respectively, have created such a program. For the first time, pianoSonoma will hold two festivals—one in California, and another in Boston, hosted by Boston Conservatory at Berklee from Tuesday, May 14 to Friday, May 17, 2019.

Boston Conservatory is reinventing conservatory education, and its graduates are the proof. Here is a look at just a few of the diverse global adventures in store for the class of 2019.

Mezzo-soprano Michaela Wolz (B.M. '17, voice, M.M. '19, opera) was one of five winners selected from a group of nine finalists in the 2019 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, one of opera's most prestigious competitions.

Set around an enigmatic consulate in Eastern Europe, Gian Carlo Menotti’s three-act opera The Consul constructs a gloomy world in which a family’s desperate attempt to flee totalitarian rule is met with an indifferent bureaucracy. Here are some interesting tidbits to know about both the opera and Menotti before seeing The Consul, running March 28 through March 31 as part of Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s Center Stage collection.

Boston Conservatory at Berklee Executive Director Cathy Young will present an honorary doctorate to Tony Award–winning actress, singer, and dancer Sutton Foster at Boston Conservatory’s commencement ceremony on May 11. She will deliver commencement remarks for the Boston Conservatory at Berklee class of 2019 at the ceremony. Legendary American soprano Leontyne Price will be honored at the ceremony, where Dr. Laura Kafka-Price, a close relative, will accept an honorary doctorate on Price’s behalf.

“You’re not one of our people. You’re not our concern.” These lines, from Gian Carlo Menotti’s 1950 opera, The Consul, echo current events from around the world, as asylum seekers are regularly denied refuge. The opera will be presented by Boston Conservatory at Berklee from Thursday, March 28 through Sunday, March 31 as part of the school’s Center Stage performance collection.

Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s Center Stage programming continues with a piece that rings true to today’s political environment, operatic masterpiece The Consul. The Pulitzer Prize–winning opera originally premiered at Philadelphia’s Schubert Theater before moving to Broadway in 1950, with music and libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti. Performances will take place at Boston Conservatory Theater from Thursday, March 28 through Sunday, March 31.

The 2019 New Music Festival, running February 21 through 26, features Boston Conservatory contemporary classical performance students and ensembles alongside world-class guest artists. Featuring works by Mario Davidovsky, Igor Stravinsky, Saunder Choi, Steve Reich, David Bowie, and multiple premieres of student compositions.