How do you capture 19 years of transformative leadership? Shelton G. “Shelly” Berg, who steps down from his position as dean of the Frost School of Music in May, did it with music—and the help of an array of faculty, supporters, alumni, and students who embodied the extraordinary era Berg created at the Frost School and the deeply collaborative nature of music and education.
“This is a moment for people that mean a great deal to us, from cherished colleagues to cherished friends,” Berg said at “A Lasting Legacy,” the tribute to his powerful impact on the Frost School held at the Knight Center for Music Innovation on Saturday night. “There is no greater gift.”
The celebration culminated with the unveiling of Shelly Berg Way, with the Frost Band of the Hour and University of Miami mascot Sebastian leading hundreds of guests, faculty, and staff in an exuberant parade to the new monument sign marking the drive in front of the Knight Center.
The evening featured a dinner and performance in the Knight Center’s Thomas D. Hormel Music Innovation Stage, with speeches filled with gratitude and reminiscences. (Faculty and staff had their own catered celebration on the plaza outside, with performances shown on a large screen.) Frank Ragsdale, chair of the vocal performance department, was a gracious emcee.
Naming donors Phillip and Patricia Frost were among the many supporters attending. Phillip Frost told of meeting Berg at an event in California and asking if he’d want to be dean of the Frost School. “I went up to Shelly and said ‘would you consider that?’” Frost said. “And he said yes!”
“Shelly, Pat and I are really appreciative that you have dedicated your life to this school and to the university over these 19 years," Frost said.
“It is difficult to overstate the impact that one man can have on a music school, a university and a community,” said E. Roe Stamps, the donor behind the Stamps Scholars Program. “We in Miami have seen this firsthand over the last 19 years, as Shelly Berg has brought greatness to the Frost School, the U, and to our beloved city.”
University of Miami provost Joel H. Samuels said Berg had fostered a great music school that was prepared for the future. “What we do as a university, what we are preparing our students for, what creative achievement and research look like, are at an inflection point that we haven’t seen before,” said Samuels, who is leading the search for the next dean. “At the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami we are uniquely poised for this moment in a way that I believe no other school is.”
Supporter and chair of the Dean's Advisory Committee Jeffrey Miller presented Berg and his wife, Julia, with a special Frost School Legacy Award in recognition of their having raised over $175 million for the school. “Legacy is about succession,” said Miller, who told how his mother Sue Miller urged him and his siblings to support Berg and the Frost School. “Shelly has created a strong foundation that the next dean can build upon.”
Berg repeatedly thanked everyone there. “When people ask me what I’ll miss the most it’s working with all of you,” he said. “Working with you has been the pride of my life and I’ll miss it for the rest of my life. Whatever I was able to accomplish was because of all of you.”
Alumni and faculty performers walked a red carpet early in the evening, and media coverage included NBC 6 South Florida, Univision’s Despierta América, People, and Variety. Pop icons Gloria and Emilio Estefan, honorary doctorate holders whose friendship with Berg has led them to become strong supporters and frequent collaborators, were prominently featured. “Dean Berg is one of the most incredible musicians and human beings that I’ve had the pleasure and honor of working with and calling friend,” Gloria Estefan told WPLG Channel 10.
“You’re the warmest people I’ve ever known,” Berg told the couple later. “I’m so grateful for everything you’ve done. And I think I’ve learned more from Emilio Estefan than I’ve taught in my entire life.”
Jon Secada, the singer-songwriter and crossover star who is one of the Frost School’s most famous alumni, said Berg created a new model for music education.
“His progressive vision, his commitment to bring to the forefront so many programs that deal with what musicians really need—that was his commitment from day one,” Secada said.
Berg curated a musical program that captured the arc of his musical life and his time at the Frost School, introducing each number with warm personal anecdotes. A multi-GRAMMY nominated pianist and composer, he is leaving the Frost School to focus on his music, and gave virtuosic, deeply felt performances in each piece.
He and Ross Harbaugh, the cello professor who was on the Berg’s search committee, gave a taut, passionate rendition of Astor Piazzolla’s “Le Grand Tango,” which they had played at a concert during Berg’s first month here. Berg introduced GRAMMY-winning trumpet player, composer, and professor John Daversa, Berg’s teaching assistant in his final year at the Thornton School of Music, by explaining how he’d invited Daversa to apply to be chair of the Studio Music and Jazz Program in 2013. “I called him up and said ‘John, I need your heart,” Berg said. That heart was laid bare in their intimate, sensitive duet on Stevie Wonder’s “Love’s in Need of Love Today."
Kim Josephson, the opera singer and professor of vocal performance who’s known Berg since they were both freshmen at the University of Houston, joined him on “A Simple Song” from Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass,” which they’d performed as undergraduates.
“He was the same then as he is today,” said Josephson. “Energetic, wildly visionary, dedicated and disciplined and determined.”
Alumni Jenna Robaii and Trent Saunders, successful Broadway artists who graduated in 2012 and were close to Berg during his early years leading the Frost School, sang “A Whole New World” from “Aladdin,” which Saunders performed on Broadway. The lyrics “A whole new world/a new fantastic point of view” echoed Berg’s exuberant vision for music education.
Gloria Estefan sang the Gershwin classic “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” a poignant, playful tribute to an absent friend, from her and Berg’s GRAMMY-nominated album “The Standards.” She was beautifully accompanied by Berg and faculty members Rey Sanchez on guitar, Dafnis Prieto on percussion, Chuck Bergeron on bass, and master’s student Justin Kinchen—a jazz and classical musician whose multiple talents have been uniquely fostered at the Frost School—on violin.
A choir of 16 students joined them for the finale, Berg’s arrangement of Eric Clapton’s soaring “Change the World” which he and Sanchez presented in his first year at the Frost School.
“This is my full circle moment,” said Berg. “Nineteen years ago Rey and I cooked this up. We said ‘we’re gonna change the world.’ And we did!”
