The Frost Zone

In the early 2000s, pianist Emmet Cohen, then 17, was hammering away backstage at the Jazz Band of America concert in Indianapolis. He was part of a soundcheck with vocalist Patti Austin and the late saxophonist Phil Woods. “I was pounding on the piano cause I was super-excited,” he remembered in a recent interview, “and Shelly comes over, and he’s like, ‘Emmet, you can’t pound on the piano before the concert, you’re going to put it out of tune.’”

Cohen was embarrassed. “I said, ‘Oh my God, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that.’”

But Shelly—that would be Shelly Berg, pianist, composer, and dean of the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music—saw an opportunity. “Then he said, ‘You come study with me, I’ll teach you how to play the piano without putting it out of tune.’”

During his 14-year tenure, Berg has shown himself to be a deft recruiter of talented students and faculty to Frost, which counts Cohen among its alums, alongside such notable names as Bobby Watson, Carmen Lundy, Danny Gottlieb, Jon Secada, Raul Midón, and Bruce Hornsby. (Two of the most famous musicians associated with Frost—guitarist Pat Metheny and the late bassist Jaco Pastorius, who both attended the school in the 1970s, when it was still called simply the University of Miami School of Music—never graduated and were actually faculty members there for longer than they were students.)

Now 31, Cohen, like many Frost graduates, is appreciative of the guidance he found there, especially from Berg—who, in addition to being the school’s dean, teaches piano. “He was serious about mentoring me in many different facets of my career and my music,” Cohen said. “He has