By MOLLY INGRAM
Editor-in- Chief

As college application due dates quickly approach the senior class, fall generally tends to be a stressful time for students and teachers. However, one senior is stress-free.

Senior guitar and saxophone musician Zach Giberson has no concerns when it comes to college, because he’s already been accepted into his dream school.

"I first heard about (Berklee) through my guitar instructor Tyson Graf, a Berklee College of Music alum," Giberson said.

By making a simple choice to do an audition during the summer, Giberson impressed the board members of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, earning a full-ride scholarship to their five week Summer Performance Camp. But that was only the beginning of Giberson’s success.

Not only did he win a spot in the camp, but also in Berklee’s class of 2014.

"Berklee was always on my list of schools to which I should apply, but oddly enough, they invited me to attend both their Summer Performance Program this past summer as well as their undergraduate program before I even applied," Giberson said.

This past April, Giberson went to Monterey with the AM jazz band to compete in the prestigious Next Generation Jazz Festival. It was there that he auditioned for Berklee’s Summer Jazz Workshop. Giberson was notified later on that he had been accepted into the camp, thus being able to attend the Summer Performance Program for free.

"During those five weeks, I was able to see all the amazing facilities, faculty, and student body Berklee had to offer," Giberson said.

Although Giberson was somewhat nervous about being so far away from home, he quickly adjusted to the east coast lifestyle, and fit in with the rest of the students. In fact, Giberson made new friends during his stay in Boston, and is looking forward to spending the upcoming school year with them.

"I’m most excited to return to the school next year because of the student body," Giberson said. "I’ll have the incredible opportunity to work with musicians from all over the world, all with a common goal and reason for attending the college of music."

At the end of the camp, Giberson and the other musicians participated in the five week Blowout Concert, where they got to perform what they had been working on during the camp.

Several hours before the concert started, Giberson received a notification which stated that he was to arrive backstage before the start of the concert. During the Five Week Blowout Concert, highly talented musicians from the camp were presented with various scholarship awards.

Finally, the Berklee College of Music full-scholarship recipients were announced, and Giberson was among nine lucky students.

"While waiting back stage, I was able to figure out that I had won the full-ride," Giberson said."After the concert, I walked outside into the exiting crowd, and I saw the look of pure disbelief on my parents’ face."

Feeling excited and "more relieved than anything", Giberson was "extremely happy" that he had been accepted into such a prestigious music school, which will help him achieve his future goals.

With a dual major in performance and jazz composition, Giberson plans to obtain a Master’s degree, followed by a Ph.D.

"After that, I hope to teach music as a college professor while continuing to perform and write as much as possible," Giberson said.

Because Giberson has already been accepted into college, he doesn’t have to deal with the inconvenience of college applications, the hassle of finding teachers to write recommendation letters or the fear of not knowing where he’ll end up next fall.

"It’s slowly starting to sink in, and I think I’ll fully realize my good fortune when November comes around," Giberson said. "In any case, it’s an amazing feeling to just know where I’m going, and that everything for the most part has worked out."