Universal Music Group and UCLA‘s Herb Alpert School of Music announced the creation of the Berry Gordy Music Industry Scholarship on Monday, the latest namesake at the school for the famed founder of Motown.
The scholarship comes just over a year after Gordy’s $5 million helped establish UCLA’s Berry Gordy Music Industry Center last May. The new scholarship is designed for students in the music industry program to help pay for educational expenses including tuition and housing. One student will be selected each year, and recipients will be eligible for the scholarship on consecutive years based on financial need.
“For more than 65 years, Berry Gordy’s name has been synonymous with artistry and the transformative power of music,” UMG chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge said in a statement. “Through this scholarship, UMG is honoring his enduring legacy by investing in a new generation of young people who will help carry that spirit forward — creators and changemakers, who will have an opportunity to reflect the innovation and entrepreneurial genius that Mr. Gordy helped bring to the world through Motown, Tamla and the pioneering sound of Detroit.”
The director of the Gordy Center, will select the scholarship recipient each year, UCLA said, and the recipient will be “a student demonstrating exceptional promise and financial need.”
“I am thrilled that my friend Sir Lucian Grainge and Universal Music Group have committed to support this program with their endowment that will help open doors for many more students and continue to pave the way for music to be a force for good and change,” Gordy said in a statement. “The center provides vital opportunities for students at UCLA to help prepare for careers in the music industry, so that future generations of young talent will continue to innovate, inspire and bring together culture and communities through the power of music.”
Robert Fink, acting dean of the Herb Alpert School of Music and director of the Gordy Center, said the partnership “reflects our belief that increasing access to education and professional training is a powerful tool for transforming the music industry,.”
“This endowment ensures that the next generation of music executives, artists, and entrepreneurs will not only be inspired by Berry Gordy’s legacy of innovation but also equipped to build on it,” he said.
