A Christchurch guitarist won full tuition at Berklee

Corban Blackwell, 17, opened a Berklee College of Music email at school in Christchurch and found a full-tuition scholarship at the top. RNZ reported it on November 3, 2026. The scholarship, which the report valued at $400,000, covers four years of classes at the Boston school. Living and travel costs are separate. His family expects those to run about NZ$50,000 a year and is raising them on a Givealittle page.

He remembers playing a guitar solo at a primary school concert when he was nine, in front of about 100 people, and feeling as if the room were a big stage. He now practices about five hours a day. A scholarship to Berklee's summer program sent him there for six weeks at 16. While he was in the United States he auditioned and interviewed for a place. The yes arrived after he was home. He went looking for his teachers to show them. The news is this offer and the costs that remain. It is not a promise that the move is already paid for.