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Vivian Aguiar-Buff sits cross-legged and looks directly at the camera in this portrait set against a gray background.
Vivian Aguiar-Buff on Hans Zimmer, DreamWorks, and Her Emmy Win

What do Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight, and Gabby’s Dollhouse have in common? Emmy-winning music supervisor Vivian Aguiar-Buff helped shape their sound. In this deep-dive interview, the Music Supervision and Film Scoring instructor reflects on her path from law school dropout to Remote Control Productions, the secrets behind music supervision, and why being part of a creative team means leaving your ego at the door.

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Circle of Fifths
Circle of Fifths: The Key to Unlocking Harmonic Understanding

The circle of fifths is arguably the most helpful way of visually organizing Western music theory’s 12 chromatic pitches for learning. This primer, featuring excerpts from Music Application and Theory and Music for Beginners will give you several new tools to commit this concept to memory.

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An MC raises a fist while rapping into a microphone during an onstage performance at a hip hop concert.
How Hip Hop Culture Became a Global Force in Black Creative Expression

Take an in-depth look at the rise of Hip Hop Culture—from Bronx block parties to global stages—as a powerful expression of Afro-Diasporic identity, resilience, and artistry in this lesson excerpt from Black Creative Expression.

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Huey Lewis is pictured on the cover of his 2020 album, "Weather."
Huey Lewis and the News on His Hearing, the Power of Love, and More

Huey Lewis: Some of his lies are true, including the ones about stowing away on a plane to Europe, playing soccer with Black Sabbath and Ozzy, and being dressed by Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy. He also touches upon his meteoric rise to fame in the 1980s and his struggles with Ménière’s disease.

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David Valdes

David Valdes is an award-winning playwright whose work has been performed across the US and abroad. He has worked with Actor’s Theater of Charlotte, Milagro, Borderline, Fresh Ink, the Boston Center for the Arts, and many others. His plays have twice been featured in the National Showcase of New Plays, and he has received fellowships from Company One, IATI, and the Boston Foundation. As a columnist, he has written for the New York Times, Boston Globe, Huffington Post, and Medium. For Berklee Online, he teaches the Script Analysis for Theater course, which he wrote.



The tragedy and comedy masks with a red curtain backdrop.

Musical Theater: A Brief History

By David Valdes

In this excerpt from David Valdes’ Script Analysis for Theater course, learn a brief history of musical theater as well as common structure and themes in musicals.

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