Alum

Brian "Raydar" Ellis

Position
Assistant Professor
Affiliated Departments
Expertise
hip-hop
Telephone
617-747-2845

For media inquiries, please contact Media Relations

Brian "Raydar" Ellis BM '06 is known as a jack-of-all-trades and master of many. After graduating with a double major in music business and electronic production and design (formerly known as music synthesis), he cofounded Revive Music Group with classmate Meghan Stabile and helped cement the company as a powerful force in New York City's jazz scene. While teaching at Berklee, Ellis has crafted remixes for Blue Note Records, contributed session musician work for artists like Esperanza Spalding and Chris Dave, and served as the DJ for various shows around the world. These experiences have helped inform him in teaching established classes like Turntable Technique and Hip-Hop Ensemble and in the creation of classes like Hip-Hop Songwriting and the J Dilla Ensemble.

Career Highlights
  • Co-founder of Revive Music Group, a live event company created by the late Meghan Stabile that became a hub for talent in the Jazz community through the early 2000s to the 2020s
  • Guest educator for Vox's "Earworm" episode on J Dilla
  • Performances at prestigious venues like The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, MoMA, and The Blue Note, plus NPR's Tiny Desk
  • Educational workshop leader for Splice, Tracklib, and Adidas Sound Labs
  • Musical ad placements for companies like Sony, Toyota, Salesforce, Rockstar Games (NBA 2K), and Cup of Noodles
Awards
  • Engineer/session musician for Esperanza Spalding's Grammy winning album Radio Music Society
  • Featured artist for Terri Lyne Carrington's Grammy nominated album Waiting Game
In Their Own Words

"I want my students to leave my classes feeling empowered and inspired to take the lessons they learned into their own hands and find new ways of expressing themselves. There's nothing better than seeing a student go from not knowing how to do a task to not only doing the task, but having fun in the process."

"My professional background contributes heavily to my teaching. Living in New York City, the birthplace of hip-hop, I'm constantly involved in a vibrant scene that keeps me up to date with different musical approaches. These experiences through performances and recording sessions inform and evolve my lesson plans, giving my students fresh takes on the musical landscape they are about to enter."