Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

The Best Tiny Desks by Berklee Artists (an Incomplete List)

14/11/2024

The Best Tiny Desks by Berklee Artists (an Incomplete List) From Big Thief and Lizzy McAlpine to DOMi & JD Beck, Kenny Beats, Arooj Aftab, and more, Berklee acts have always owned the Tiny Desk stage.

By

Keerthana Sudarshan

November 14, 2024

Lizzy McAlpine '20 performs with Tiny Habits at NPRs Tiny Desk. Left to right: Judah Mayowa, Maya Rae, Lizzy McAlpine, Cinya Khan.

Image by Bob Boilen/NPR

Since its debut in 2008, many emerging and established talents have graced the Tiny Desk stage, sharing their artistry in an unexpectedly intimate office setting. Vulture, the purveyors of all things music culture, recently dropped their compilation of the 50 Best NPR Tiny Desks, featuring several Berklee alumni, including Kenny Beats BM '13 and Jo Palmer '10 (performing with Yaya Bey). The mentions were another nod to Berklee's contributions to contemporary culture, but these Tiny Desk moments only scratch the surface. For instance, what about those unforgettable performances by Lalah Hathaway BM '90 '22H, esperanza spalding BM '05, and Arooj Aftab BM '10?

Or, how about this round-up of Berklee students and alumni who have been rocking the desk recently-whether supporting their own projects or accompanying other artists:

Noname (feat. Cisco Swank BM '22)Noname is a Chicago-based rapper, poet, and activist known for her distinctive blend of lyrical prowess and social consciousness. She often reflects on her activism, addressing topics such as police brutality and mental health, while emphasizing the importance of community and self-love. Berklee alum Cisco Swank, whose debut solo album More Better, released in May 2023, revolves around similar themes, accompanies Noname on keys and vocals in her standout Tiny Desk concert.

Big Thief (feat. Adrianne Lenker BM '12, Buck Meek BM '10, James Krivchenia BM '14)Adrianne Lenker, the raw and unapologetic songwriter and vocalist, makes her glorious third appearance on the Tiny Desk series with her indie-folk band, Big Thief. The band formed when Lenker and her Berklee alumni bandmates-Buck Meek, Max Oleartchik (who parted ways with the band in 2024), and James Krivchenia-reconnected in New York City. Theyve earned critical acclaim for their heartfelt music and rich soundscapes over the years, releasing five albums in the span of just seven years. Check out their 2022 Tiny Desk at Home video for tender tales and playful lyrics.

Big Thief Return to Its Roots

The indie-folk superstars share practical songwriting tips and rare wisdom on pursuing sustainable success and maintaining artistic integrity.

DOMi & JD Beck (Domi Louna BM '20)Virtuosic duo DOMi & JD Beck deliver a master class in musicianship during their Tiny Desk concert, leaving both seasoned and casual listeners reeling. Domi Louna, originally from France and a Berklee Presidential Scholar, met JD Beck at a trade show, sparking their dynamic partnership. Their debut album, Not Tight, earned them two Grammy nominations: Best New Artist and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. The duo has collaborated with iconic artists including Thundercat, Anderson Paak, Herbie Hancock, and Bruno Mars.

Lizzy McAlpine '20Lizzy McAlpine, who has risen to stardom recently, invited the compelling trio Tiny Habits to create a stripped-down version of her music featuring just an acoustic guitar and their four voices. The trio-which features current student Judah Mayowa, Cinya Khan BM '23, and Maya Rae BM '24-first met in their Berklee dorms and have since become inseparable, both in friendship and in harmony. Theyve toured the US, UK, and Europe, supporting artists such as Ingrid Michaelson, Clairo, and Gracie Abrams, while receiving accolades from industry legends like Elton John. Here, Tiny Habits adds a lush backdrop that beautifully complements McAlpine's seasoned storytelling .

RijahOne standout from the recent wave of talent is Berklee student Rijah, an up-and-coming R&B artist hailing from Jersey City, New Jersey. She made waves in 2023 with her appearance in NPR's Tiny Desk Top Shelf series-not technically a Tiny Desk concert, but a showcase of the best submissions from that year's Tiny Desk Contest. Her 2023 Tiny Desk submission which includes other Berklee students Zeke Sacaridiz on drums, Owen Reinders on bass, Lex Kolody on guitar and Ian Michael on keys, caught the eye of R&B sensation Baby Rose and received high praise from Sudan Archives for her amazing and unique voice. It was also featured on WBUR.org as a favorite Massachusetts Tiny Desk entry. Rijahs 2022 EP, the only one I know, showcases her distinctive blend of jazz and R&B, diving into themes of growth and human experience. Her latest project, Motion Pictures, promises to take listeners on a journey of self-discovery and musical innovation.

Even More Berklee Tiny Desk ConcertsSome other notable alumni performances that we've been loving include Little Moon (feat. Chris Shemwell BM 20), Nick Hakim BM '13, Usman Riaz '17, Aimee Mann '80, Hiromi Uehara '03, and Fabiola M ndez BM '18. Happy listening!

Related Categories

Live Performances

News

Most Popular

Jim Lucchese

Image by Kelly Davidson

Jim Lucchese Named Berklee's Fifth President A 20-year music industry veteran and a committed artist advocate with deep Berklee roots, Lucchese sets the tone for a new era at the institution.

Latest

John Hollenbeck

Image by Mercedes Jelinek

John Hollenbeck and Miguel Zen n Named the 2024-2025 Ken Pullig Visiting Scholars in Jazz Studies The internationally renowned artists will instruct jazz composition students, lead ensembles, and teach master classes.

Gustav S derstr m on stage at Spotifys Now Playing event in Los Angeles on November 13, 2024.

Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Spotify

Spotifys New Creator Progra
LINK: https://www.berklee.edu/berklee-now/news/best-tiny-desk-npr-big-thief-...
See more stories from berklee

Most recent headlines

05/02/2025

Nielsen Out Of Home Measurement Now Covers 100% Of The United States

New Coverage and Reach Metrics to Begin For February 2025 and will be Included for Super Bowl LIX Ratings New York February 3, 2025 Nielsen, a global leade...

05/02/2025

Hubbard Broadcasting Taps Nielsen for Local TV Measurement

Multi-year deal includes Local TV ratings for all markets and includes Nielsen's Ad Intel Nielsen's Local TV measurement powered by Big Data + Panel N...

05/02/2025

Fox Plans To Launch Direct-to-Consumer Service This Year

Fox Corp. is planning to launch a direct-to-consumer streaming service sometime later this year, Executive Chair and CEO Lachlan Murdoch told analysts on an ear...

05/02/2025

HPA Tech Retreat to Go Behind the Scenes With YouTube Phenom MrBeast

LOS ANGELES Feb. 3, 2025 As it heads to its estimable 30th anniversary, the HPA Tech Retreat continues to add one-of-a-kind programming to its schedule. The...

05/02/2025

World Surf League Turns to LTN for Live-Event Versioning

COLUMBIA, Md. The World Surf League (WSL) is expanding its relationship with LTN to include content versioning for worldwide distribution this year, bringing a ...

05/02/2025

Perifery Acquires Pixitmedia to Expand AI-Powered Media Distribution

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. Perifery, a division of DataCore, has agreed to acquire the assets of Pixitmedia from its owner Kalray, targeting the Media and Entertainm...

05/02/2025

Inside IBC's innovation boom: what's powering the future of media?

Speaking exclusively to TVBEurope, four of its experts weigh in on the IBCs role in fostering innovation, the technological shifts on the horizon, and why sport...

05/02/2025

Meet the director of product marketing

Vincent Noyer, director of product marketing at LYNX Technik, tells TVBEurope how remaining engaged and proactive leads to opportunities for growth By Matthew ...

05/02/2025

ESPN Viewing Hits Decade-Long Highs in January

ESPN is reporting that its NFL playoffs and College Football Playoff games in January boosted audiences to levels not seen at the network in years....

05/02/2025

Roku Remains Top U.S. Streaming Device

A new study from Pixalate indicates that Roku remains by far the dominant player among streaming devices in North America where its market share was more than d...

05/02/2025

Panasonic To Ship New 4K 60p 10-Bit Camcorders In March

NEWARK, N.J. Panasonic next month will release new 4K 60p 10-bit professional camcorder models, including the AG-CX20, HC-X1200 and HC-X2100 for video productio...

05/02/2025

Tegna Shuts Down National Fact-Checking Operation

WASHINGTON Tegna has shut down Verify, the station group's national fact-checking operation, laying off around 18 journalists, producers, researchers and ot...

05/02/2025

FCC Chair Brendan Carr Fills More Key Staff Positions

WASHINGTON, D.C. Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr continues to build out his leadership team with the announcement of more staff appointment...

05/02/2025

Sanctuary Pictures Unveils Punk-Horror Feature Penny Lane Is Dead

04 02 2025 - Media release Sanctuary Pictures Unveils Punk-Horror Feature Penny Lane Is Dead Writer/Director of Penny Lane Is Dead, Mia'Kate Russell Sanc...

05/02/2025

Faculty Notes: Fall 2024

Faculty Notes: Fall 2024 Recent accomplishments, releases, and events by Berklee faculty. February 4, 2025 Professor Tomo Fujita played the John Coltrane In...

05/02/2025

Thales announces two new appointments to its Board of Directors

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Thales' Board of Directors (Euronext Paris: HO) which met on February 4, 2025, coopted as a Board member Val rie Guillemet, ...

05/02/2025

RT publishes Register of External Activities for Q3 2024 (statistical summary)

RT is today publishing a statistical summary from the Register of External Activities for the third quarter of 2024. The RT Register of External Activities (...

05/02/2025

Eurovision Royalty to join the Late Late Eurosong Special this Friday Night

Here is your host, Patrick Kielty! This Friday night Eurovision royalty Linda Martin, Niamh Kavanagh and Eimear Quinn will come together for the first time to ...

05/02/2025

Other Voices makes its return to RT this Spring with an incredible lineup

Laura Marling, Lisa O'Neill, James Dean Bradfield, Jacob Alon, Bashy, Morgana and more to feature in Other Voices Series 23 this Spring RT 2 & RT Player |...

05/02/2025

AI Pays Off: Survey Reveals Financial Industry's Latest Technological Trends

The financial services industry is reaching an important milestone with AI, as organizations move beyond testing and experimentation to successful AI implementa...

05/02/2025

How GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs Are Built to Supercharge Generative AI on PCs

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5090 and 5080 GPUs - which are based on the groundbreaking NVIDIA Blackwell architecture -offer up to 8x faster frame rates with NVIDIA...

04/02/2025

Spotify Reports Fourth Quarter 2024 Earnings

Today, we announced our fourth quarter 2024 earnings, closing Q4 stronger than ever by outperforming across key metrics and celebrating our first full year of p...

04/02/2025

Spotify rapporterar intkter fr fjrde kvartalet 2024

Idag rapporterar vi int kter f r fj rde kvartalet 2024. Vi avslutade Q4 starkare n n gonsin genom att vertr ffa f rv ntningarna p v ra nyckeltal och kan d rm...

04/02/2025

SGL Carbon opts for green electricity at its German sites

As a technology-based company and one of the worlds leading companies in the development and production of carbon-based solutions, SGL Carbon opts for innovativ...

04/02/2025

ST Engineering iDirect Names Sridhar Kuppanna as Chief Technology Officer

Ground segment technology innovator appoints new CTO to execute bold technological vision Herndon, Va., February 4, 2025 ST Engineering iDirect, global leade...

04/02/2025

L3Harris Signs Multi-Year Pilot Training Agreement With Thai Airways

L3Harris has signed a two-year agreement with Thai Airways International to provide training service on its A320 Full Flight Simulator (FFS). This significant a...

04/02/2025

US Air Force Completes First Flight of L3Harris Viper Shield Electronic Warfare System

L3Harris' all-digital electronic warfare suite, Viper Shield , completed its...

04/02/2025

Radio Botswana chooses Calrec's IP-native Type R mixing system

The shift from analogue to IP was driven by a desire for greater flexibility in our operations. IP simplifies connectivity, reduces the physical footprint of th...

04/02/2025

Simplifying Gray Media News Operations with Calrec's Type R

Streamline, standardise and save: how Gray Media has simplified news operations At TVNewsCheck's News Tech Forum 2024, Gray Media's Peter Gogas and Calr...

04/02/2025

Bending Spoons closes $233 million acquisition of Brightcove

Boston, MA-February 4, 2025 | Bending Spoons, the Italy-based technology company, completed its previously announced acquisition of US-based streaming technolog...

04/02/2025

Grup Mediapro to Collaborate with Google Cloud on Gen AI

BARCELONA Grup Mediapro and Google Cloud have expanded their collaboration to create an innovation lab focused on generative AI to develop solutions for the med...

04/02/2025

EditShare Receives SOCE 2 Type II Certification

WATERTOWN, Mass. EditShare this week said it has received SOC 2 Type II certification, an independently audited evaluation of an organization's information ...

04/02/2025

Executive Creative Director Halle Petro Named Partner of Sonic Union

Executive Creative Director Halle Petro Named Partner of Sonic Union Brie Clayton February 4, 2025 0 Comments Sonic Union is excited to announce Execu...

04/02/2025

Blackmagic Design Announces Blackmagic Camera for Android 2.0 Update

Blackmagic Design Announces Blackmagic Camera for Android 2.0 Update Brie Clayton February 4, 2025 0 Comments New update adds support for Xiaomi Pad 6...

04/02/2025

CETA Software Launches Artist Access: The Time-Tracking Tool for Creative Teams

CETA Software Launches Artist Access: The Time-Tracking Tool for Creative Teams Brie Clayton February 4, 2025 0 Comments CETA Software, creators of p...

04/02/2025

OWC Announces General Availability Launch of OWC Dock Ejector 2.0

OWC Announces General Availability Launch of OWC Dock Ejector 2.0 Brie Clayton February 4, 2025 0 Comments The Ultimate Tool for Efficiently and Safel...

04/02/2025

Colourist Claudio Del Bravo on grading Queer

Explaining the process to TVBEurope, Del Bravo said the films look was inspired by the Technicolor three-strip' process, evoking the rich colours of early ...

04/02/2025

Paramount, Nielsen Sign Multiyear Measurement and Analytics Deal

NEW YORK Paramount Global and Nielsen have inked a new, multiyear deal that will provide measurement for all of the company's platforms, including national ...

04/02/2025

2d Animated Short Concerning a Project for Schools

2d Animated Short Concerning a Project for Schools Brie Clayton February 3, 2025 0 Comments 2d animated short concerning a project for schools Febru...

04/02/2025

Step by step guide to using 3D Models in After Effects

Step by step guide to using 3D Models in After Effects Graham Quince February 3, 2025 0 Comments Since 2024, Adobe After Effects has had native suppor...

04/02/2025

Powerful Premiere Automation with new Excalibur Update

Powerful Premiere Automation with new Excalibur Update Colin Smith February 3, 2025 0 Comments This tutorial takes you through the new update for auto...

04/02/2025

Cinematography of A Complete Unknown: Shooting 12,800 iso Sony Venice 2 to create a 1960's era film

Cinematography of A Complete Unknown: Shooting 12,800 iso Sony Venice 2 to creat...

04/02/2025

DIY to DA: Ela Minus Breaks Through

DIY to D A: Ela Minus Breaks Through The electronic artist and producer tells Rolling Stone about her new album, D A, and how shes forged a career outside the...

04/02/2025

NVIDIA Blackwell Now Generally Available in the Cloud

AI reasoning models and agents are set to transform industries, but delivering their full potential at scale requires massive compute and optimized software. Th...

04/02/2025

The Future of Football? Technology and Entertainment Merge in the Kings World Cup Nations

The future of football? Technology and entertainment merge in the Kings World Cu...

04/02/2025

Virtual Production and AR Graphics: Demystifying the Tools, Technologies, and Trends

Virtual Production and AR Graphics: Demystifying the Tools, Technologies, and Tr...

04/02/2025

SVG All-Stars: Russell Fink, Senior Director, Programming and Content Analytics, SNY

SVG All-Stars: Russell Fink, Senior Director, Programming and Content Analytics,...

04/02/2025

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: farmerswife's Jodi Clifford on Organizing Your Productions Like a Professional

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: farmerswife's Jodi Clifford on Organizing Your Pr...

04/02/2025

EA Acquires TRACAB Technologies as It Looks to Move Beyond Games

EA Acquires TRACAB Technologies as It Looks to Move Beyond Games EA believes TRACABs sports tracking/analysis technology will help to make the EA SPORTS App the...