BERKLEE
ASIA RISING
People, places, and stories shaping Asian and Asian American music.
Berklee Asia Rising brings artists, students, educators, producers, and creative professionals together through performance, production, media, and exchange.
DISTINCT PERSPECTIVES. SHARED WORK.
Music moves through many languages, cities, scenes, technologies, and traditions.
BAR creates a place for these perspectives to meet through creative practice.
Students and collaborators bring their own experiences, questions, and ways of working. Together, they arrange, record, perform, produce, document, and publish work for the stage, the screen, and wider audiences.
SELECTED WORK
See what takes shape when people meet through music.
Performances, recordings, arrangements, and original projects offer a view into how BAR works: distinct practices coming together around a shared idea.
4 selected projects
03
The Khalil Tribute Medley
Performance and arrangement · Walter Kwan and the BAR Ensemble
View Project + Credits →
WHAT PARTICIPATION CAN OPEN
What BAR Makes Possible
BAR connects creative practice with people, platforms, and opportunity. Through productions, performances, editorial work, and professional relationships, students create work that reaches beyond the classroom—and connections that can continue beyond Berklee.
Create Meaningful Work
Develop music, performances, writing, and collaborative projects shaped by different creative and cultural perspectives.
Build a Visible Body of Work
Connect your contributions and production credits to a professional profile that can grow with you.
Find Your Creative Community
Meet artists, producers, songwriters, instrumentalists, educators, and music professionals with complementary experience and interests.
Reach Wider Audiences
Share work through BAR productions, editorial, public programming, and media channels.
Open New Pathways
Build relationships that can support future collaborations, performances, professional opportunities, and industry connection.
THE WORK, IN VIEW
Current participation, production, audience activity, and professional experience provide a growing record of what the BAR community has built together.
Unique Berklee Students
Students who have participated in or contributed to BAR
Cumulative Participations
A growing record of student involvement across BAR
Published Videos and Shorts
54 public videos · 39 public Shorts
Studio + Live Video Releases
Produced public videos · noncommercial unless separately identified
Documented Views
Instagram Reels + YouTube
Internships
Professional opportunities involving BAR participants
Industry Forums
Conversations connecting students and industry
Public Performances
Live performances presented through BAR
How these figures are documented
Approximately 5.39M combined displayed views across 96 published Instagram Reels, captured August 14, 2026. YouTube records 353K lifetime views and 1.5M lifetime impressions from May 17, 2023 through August 14, 2026. The 31 studio and live video releases are public YouTube videos whose titles use a Berklee Live Cover variant or Live at Berklee, plus videos in BAR’s In the Studio and Live Concerts playlists; overlapping matches are counted once. “Video release” here means a published video, not a commercial music release unless separately identified.
BAR NETWORK
The work brings people together.The network carries it forward.
The BAR Network is a professional community of artists, producers, songwriters, performers, educators, and music professionals.
Discover the people behind the work—what they create, what they know, and what they hope to build next. Find collaborators, stay connected, and open new possibilities together.
A CONNECTED CREATIVE COMMUNITYCreative practice, shared knowledge, and future possibility
Profiles bring each member’s work, interests, and professional practice into view.
PROJECTS + CREDITS
Discover the people who bring each project to life.
Explore the artists, engineers, producers, arrangers, players, and other contributors documented in each project’s credits.
Project 1 of 4
Eight recent projects · updated from YouTubeDOCUMENTED PROJECT
The Khalil Tribute Medley
A BAR live performance arranged by Walter Kwan, with documented public credits drawn from the project’s YouTube record.
- Walter Kwan
- Arrangement
- Kate Gao
- Vocals
- Star Sung Mahoney
- BGV Arrangement
- Kevin Huang
- Alto Saxophone
- Jacob Singson
- Drums
- Nathanael Sunarto
- Playback Engineer
Project records connect each piece of work to the people and roles behind it. Open a record to watch the complete video and see its documented credits.
BAR EDITORIAL
Listen closely.
Write what you hear.
Student opinions, reviews, essays, and cultural perspectives on music connected to Asia and Asian America.
FICTIONAL SAMPLE · BETA PREVIEW
When an album refuses to translate itself
BAR Editorial Sample
FICTIONAL SAMPLE · BETA PREVIEW
What global pop misses when it only studies the numbers
BAR Editorial Sample
FICTIONAL SAMPLE · BETA PREVIEW
The songs we carried into rehearsal
BAR Editorial Sample
FIND YOUR PLACE IN BAR
One creative platform. Clear ways to move closer.
STUDENTS AND EMERGING CREATIVES
Explore the ways BAR work takes shape.
Discover classes, productions, projects, events, and creative practices. Curiosity is a meaningful place to begin.
Explore Student Pathways →INDUSTRY AND CREATIVE PARTNERS
Begin with the work.
Discover artists and creative professionals through their projects, roles, credits, skills, and selected areas of practice.
Explore Members and Work →SUPPORTERS AND INSTITUTIONS
Help the next work exist.
Support production, paid student roles, artist development, documentation, public programming, and the relationships that carry the work forward.
Partner with BAR →ABOUT
Berklee Asia Rising is a creative and educational platform connecting the people, places, and stories shaping Asian and Asian American music through performance, production, media, and exchange.
BAR is a founder-built and founder-operated initiative created by Edvard Lee, working with participating artists, students, alumni and project collaborators.
Built through the shared work of faculty, students, artists, and collaborators, BAR creates opportunities to develop new projects, encounter different creative contexts, document professional contributions, and bring the work to public audiences.
BAR welcomes people of every background who approach the music, communities, and cultural contexts with curiosity and respect.
Meet the FounderView the official Berklee course listing ↗
FOUNDER · EDUCATOR · PRODUCERORIGIN AND LEADERSHIP
Meet the founder
Edvard LeeAssociate Professor, Berklee College of Music
Edvard Lee is a Malaysian American pianist, producer, audio engineer, and Associate Professor in the Performance Division at Berklee College of Music. At Berklee, Lee founded the Berklee Asia Rising (BAR) ensemble and platform. He also developed the original curriculum for the college’s J Pop and K Pop ensembles, establishing a formal academic framework for the study of Asian and Asian American and diasporic music within the college's environment.
His professional studio and production credits include global media clients such as Netflix, National Geographic, and the Beijing Winter Olympics, as well as major labels including Sony Music USA, Warner Music Taiwan, and MBK Korea. Lee has collaborated with a diverse roster of artists, including Cory Henry, Tom Browne, and Charles Haynes, and has appeared at major concert venues such as Boston Symphony Hall and TD Garden.
Beyond his academic work, Lee is an entrepreneur. He is the founder of media company Patterns Ltd. and Eidolon Recording Studios. His broader business portfolio includes co-founding several award-winning hospitality ventures, including Cha Yen Thai Cookery, Kala Thai Cookery, and Boxfish Seafood Restaurant.
Lee is also a voting member of the Recording Academy and a member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES).
Berklee Faculty Bio Page ↗
WHERE THE WORK BEGINS
Programming turns ideas into public work.
Across performance, recording, music business, and artist development, BAR brings projects from rehearsal and production to the stage, screen, and wider public.
Explore Programming →01PERFORMBerklee Asia Rising EnsembleExplore →02PRODUCEMedia & Recording TeamExplore →03DEVELOPArtist DevelopmentExplore →04CONNECTMusic Business TeamExplore →
SIGNATURE PRODUCTIONS
Where a creative community comes together through music.
These are the public settings where BAR’s teams come together and the work takes shape.