Bernie Worrell (1944–2016)

Keyboardist and Co-Founder of Parliament/Funkadelic Studied Piano at NEC

Keyboardist Bernie Worrell died June 24, 2016, leaving behind one of the most sampled bodies of music on the planet. Just a month ago, Worrell had accepted an honorary Doctor of Music degree at NEC's Commencement ceremony. We reprint the text of the citation here:

"As Co-Founder, Musical Director, and Arranger of the legendary band Parliament/Funkadelic, Bernie Worrell helmed the group to international acclaim, broadening its bluesy foundation harmonically, while expanding and refracting its tonal palette by way of his deft facility with analog synthesizer technology. In the ensuing years, he has embellished and enhanced the music of Talking Heads, Keith Richards, the Pretenders, the Last Poets, Jack Bruce, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sly & Robbie, Ginger Baker, Steven Van Zandt, Pharoah Sanders, Dave Stewart, and Fela Kuti, just to name a few. He is one of the most sampled musicians on the planet. A transcendent figure in the evolution of modern musical forms, Worrell has left a lasting footprint in the musical culture, innovating sonic language that has gone on to form the building blocks of new genres and playing a primary role in the advancement of the sound to which the whole world moves. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, he is a classically trained pianist, having taken private lessons at Juilliard and pursued college studies at NEC, where he received an Outstanding Alumni Award in 2009."

Worrell's Student Performances at NEC

The NEC Archives have scanned concert programs from Worrell's performances as a classical piano student at NEC in the 1960s, which we offer here as JPG links:

1963-03-21 Beethoven Sonata, Op. 53
1963-12-19 Schubert Impromptus
1966-01-13 Beethoven Trio, Op. 1, No. 1
with Paul Johnian, violin; William Peck, cello