Berklee College Of Music

As word spreads about friction between Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj on the set of "American Idol," we at Pop & Hiss find ourselves wondering what ever happened to Kara DioGuardi, the singer and pop songwriter who occupied a judge's seat in 2009 and 2010. (We're not alone, either: Music-industry gadfly Bob Lefsetz recently included DioGuardi alongside Macaulay Culkin and Jimmy Ray in a missive titled "Where Are They Now?") On Thursday morning, our in box provided the answer: DioGuardi -- who prior to "Idol" penned big singles for Ashlee Simpson and Christina Aguilera , among many others -- has joined the academy, teaching a class at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Everything seems to be coming together for Terri Lyne Carrington. She has played with the giants of the jazz and contemporary music worlds. Some of them--Wayne Shorter, Grover Washington, Patrice Rushen, John Scofield, Gerald Albright--are guests on her debut album for Verve/Forecast Records, "Real Life Story," due out this week. She has a steady job five nights a week in the Hollywood-based band on Arsenio Hall's TV talk show.

Music composer Garry Schyman sits in his Culver City studio, at a desk topped with Gustav Mahler biographies and Krzysztof Penderecki recordings, and ponders the hero's predicament. He pivots to his keyboard and plays a handful of chords conveying utter loss, the draining of hope. If you happen to play the video game Resistance: Retribution after it's released next spring, you'll take on the role of a British soldier working to subvert an alien invasion in post-apocalyptic Europe.

"The Voice" wrapped up its second and penultimate week of blind auditions for Season 4 on Tuesday night, with each of its four coaches adding two singers to his or her team. Usher added 20-year-old former Ford model Audrey Karrasch, who was excited to show her stuff to the coaches, but not quite as thrilled as her mom, who gushed, "I'm so excited I could pee. " She sang "Price Tag," spinning Blake Shelton and Usher, and while it looked like she might go Shelton's way, before anyone even had a chance to ask, she blurted out to the newer coach, "OK, Usher, I'll do it. I pick Usher.

Some days, trombonist Mark McGrain was so far down he couldn't get himself to crawl out of bed, let alone make his gigs. Then he injured his ankle and was afraid it might be broken. It had been several years since he left the faculty of Boston's Berklee College of Music and, with it, his health insurance. He couldn't pay a doctor. "You're very lucky if you can even eke out a hand-to-mouth existence in music these days," he said.

The Romanian pan flute is an instrument most often heard in folkloric settings, rarely outside its element. In the hands of Romanian expatriate Damian Draghici, it becomes something else again. One of the world's virtuosos on his instrument, Draghici has pushed the envelope of technical aplomb, using a complex triple-tonguing method that led to his nickname, Speed of Light.

The CalArts Contemporary Music Festival this year may be only a faint echo of past glories, but its collective ear is clearly on the future. There was more artifice than art in the opening programs, but the technologies surveyed dazzled in their own right and hold much promise. Interactive was the word in trendy neighborhoods Friday and Saturday.

Wynton and Branford Marsalis are two of the most influential young musicians anywhere. But you might not have heard of Delfeayo Marsalis, unless you're a habitual reader of the fine print in CD booklets. Until now, Delfeayo Marsalis has been mainly known as a record producer who's overseen about 20 projects by such notables as his brother Branford, pianists Marcus Roberts and Kenny Kirkland and pianist-singer Harry Connick Jr.

The career of Mike Metheny has closely paralleled that of his brother, Pat. Like Pat, he started out on trumpet (but, unlike him, he stayed with the horn while Pat, to quote Mike, "got smart and switched to guitar, an instrument that doesn't require lips"). Like Pat, Mike was raised in Lees Summit, Mo., but wound up in Boston, playing and teaching at the Berklee College of Music.