Clarksdale Teen Receives Scholarship to Berklee Summer Program

Clarksdale resident Travis Calvin, a member of the Delta Blues Museum's after-school arts and education program, has received a full scholarship to the Berklee College of Music's five-week Summer Performance Program that will be held July 12-Aug. 15 in Boston.

Allen Bush, Berklee's director of media relations; Shelley Ritter, director of the Delta Blues Museum; and Clarksdale musician and educator Daddy Rich presented the scholarship to Calvin on stage at the 5th Annual Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale April 19 during a performance by Calvin and his classmates.

Accompanied by a drummer, Calvin had auditioned for the scholarship two days earlier playing a guitar solo blues arrangement of “Amazing Grace.” He also plays bass, keyboards, drums, and the saxophone.

Calvin, 18, has since performed at the Chicago Blues and the Sunflower River Blues & Gospel festivals, and is a young fixture at Clarksdale blues clubs. He hopes to become a music teacher someday.

This is the first time Berklee has partnered with Mississippi institutions to identify and award music education opportunities to young blues musicians.

Another scholarship will be awarded in May to a teen from Copiah County in a similar effort with the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation.