Million-dollar musicians

The Berklee Performance Center hosts hundreds of concerts a year -- sometimes four a day when college is in session -- but few carry both the excitement and uncertainty of the annual City Music Blow-Out, in which 50 of the top teenage musicians in the city take the stage and 10 learn they have been awarded full four-year scholarships -- a million dollars' worth in total.

The show is the highlight of the year for Berklee City Music, a 15-year-old program that provides free instruction to 270 promising young players and singers from Boston, Lawrence, Cambridge, and Chelsea. In the summer, that means an intensive, five-week program for high school students, and, for younger students, Saturday and after-school programs beginning in the sixth grade. The scholarship contenders are, for the most part, already veteran musicians by the time they're old enough for college.

``The bar is raised quite a bit, because you have students who have been with us for as much as six years," said J. Curtis Warner , Berklee's assistant vice president for community and governmental affairs and the executive director of Berklee City Music.

Warner said that in deciding which 10 of the 14 applicants get scholarships -- all have finished high school and have already been accepted by the college -- the school looks for the work ethic and attitude that are key to long-term success, not just the raw talent of a rising star. In fact, he says, future stardom isn't the top priority for most of them.

``You'd be surprised how many of our kids come, and they're not trying to get a record deal," says Warner, a drummer and a graduate of Berklee College who worked in the Boston public schools before returning to work at the college. ``Their goal is to be a teacher, a manager, engineer, producer, music therapist. They've got realistic goals."

That realism came out in interviews with the performers as they tuned up to play in the Blow-Out's three-part program of jazz, R&B, and Gospel ensembles.

``I'd be majoring in music education. So I want to become a teacher, professor, doctor of music, and hopefully go from there. I'm not too, too pressed to get signed or become a performer," said 20-year-old Justin Claiborne of Dorchester, who joined the City Music program after budget cuts at his school that led to a reduction of music teachers. Anthony Nembhard, an 18-year-old who plays electric and upright bass, also seemed to have much of his future mapped out, regardless of whether his name was called during the midshow announcement of scholarship recipients.

``This is my dream, man," he said.

``First thing I want to do is build a studio so I can get some people in, do a lot of recording, eventually hit the road."

And teach: While a student at the Boston Arts Academy, he took part in a program that took kids in off the streets -- many with no musical experience -- and gave them a crash course in music, culminating in a performance at a local elderly home.

The show began with a high-energy rendition of ``A Night in Tunisia" by the jazz ensemble, in which scholarship candidate Anant Pradhan of Jamaica Plain ripped out a solo on the tenor saxophone, and fellow candidate Jeannette Perez of Roslindale anchored the trumpet section.

After the R&B put their stamp on favorites by Michael Jackson, Beyonce Knowles, and Earth, Wind and Fire, Berklee's president, Roger H. Brown, took the stage with Warner to announce the scholarship winners, drawing out the moment by reading bits and pieces of each performer's background before calling out their names.

Many in the audience knew those stories already, though, and jumped up to cheer when they realized that a friend or family member had been selected.

``I'm amazed. I don't know what to say," said Pradhan, the sax player, after the ceremony. ``I'm speechless, actually."

``Oh my God, I'm speechless," echoed trumpeter Perez. ``I can't even-- ahh! I don't know, I'm just happy."

Sheldon Thwaites , a drummer who came to Dorchester from Washington, D.C., after losing a brother to street violence there and who now lives with two other brothers -- both drummers, both Berklee graduates -- said he'll keep gigging and recording but plans to use his scholarship to study production and engineering.

``I want to do something that's going to last," he said. ``You're always going to need a songwriter, you're always going to need an engineer. I'm trying to be smart, be ahead of the game. Play music -- that's all I do, that's my only job. And inspire; that's my part-time job."