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Visit BerkleeValencia.org for more information.
Three years ago, representatives of Berklee, the Spanish creators' rights organization—Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (SGAE)—and the government of Valencia, Spain, began to discuss a bold plan: They would create a new kind of music school for the 21st century. In a groundbreaking event held in a temporary multimedia-laden structure on the future site of the college, Berklee and SGAE today announced the fruits of those discussions, a new college to be known as Berklee Valencia, and scheduled to open in 2012.
In his address to the capacity crowd, Berklee President Roger H. Brown cited star alumni Quincy Jones, Arif Mardin, and Toshiko Akiyoshi as prime examples of the college's practice, from its earliest days, of using music to "transcend barriers of culture, gender, language, religion, race and ideology," a practice that made Berklee the natural choice for this international partnership.
"[Valencia, with its] natural beauty, superb climate, progressive political leadership, adventuresome architecture, and heritage of music education, represents a perfect place to create a musical 'hothouse' in which to bring together musicians from all over the world."
The city of Valencia has recently revitalized itself, demonstrating its vision and ambition by welcoming startlingly original, modernist buildings, and hosting the America's Cup yacht races and Formula One motor racing.
Under the leadership of President Francisco Camps, the Generalitat of Valencia recognized that a Berklee-run contemporary music school would be a perfect complement to its City of the Arts and Sciences and category-leading arts, architecture, and sporting events. It would be an educational and cultural entity in keeping with its own re-emergence onto the world stage.
"In 2005, I visited Berklee, saw what it was all about, and I got very excited by the energy there," said President Camps. "We are at the crossroads of many different cultures here in Valencia, and it is clear to me that we have much to say to each other: in Spanish. In English. And, in music."
The Valencian government has demonstrated its commitment by ceding a four-acre parcel of city land for the project, near the City of the Arts and Sciences. On this site, SGAE will construct an iconic tower, known as ARTeria Valencia, designed by one of Europe's finest young architects, Anton Garcia-Abril, to serve Berklee's unique, musical requirements in a wholly original way.
Within the iconic building, Berklee will create Berklee Valencia, a school focused on music for film and digital media; recording; the global music business; and musical traditions indigenous to Spain, the Middle East, and Africa. It will be a music education institution that has no precedent, anywhere.
"[Berklee Valencia] would promote the future, knowledge, and cohesion of society," said SGAE President Teddy Bautista, who, with the assistance of Berklee Trustee Luis Alvarez, brought the project forward and the parties together. He said that the new college "would promote the future, knowledge, and cohesion of society," and would create "a link between Valencia and Spain with the U.S.A., but more importantly, with lovers of culture throughout the world."
SGAE has created a network of multiuse educational and workspaces throughout Spain and Latin America, known as ARTeria Multiespacios, which include theaters, recording studios, and postproduction facilities for use by their members. Over the next three years, while Berklee Valencia is being constructed, Berklee and SGAE will collaborate on a series of high-level, music seminars across the entire ARTeria network, for both SGAE members and musicians from the general public.
Following performances by Berklee student supergroup Grupo Musical Berklee Valencia, and addresses by Valencian Mayor Rita Barbera and by Brown, Bautista, and Camps, it was time to lay the metaphorical "first stone" of the new building. Gathering around a high-tech, Plexiglas lectern, the four leaders and architect Garcia-Abril together depressed a large stone, and brought to life a 10,000-lumens, holographic projection of the new, 27-story building, to sustained applause.
Read a translation of this story on the Berklee Valencia website.
When it came time to complete the day's program, we were fortunate to have five-time Grammy winner and former Berklee Executive Vice President Gary Burton '61 there to send the crowd home with a master's work in their ears. Burton was joined by fellow alumni, Spaniards Polo Orti '92 on piano and Victor Merlo '91 on bass and Antonio Sanchez '97, from Mexico, the drummer in Pat Metheny's group.
The buzz of extraordinary good feeling and excitement about this new kind of music college, whether from musicians, politicians, journalists, or Valencian citizens with a vested interest in their city, was impossible to miss. It seems safe to say that as the new tower rises, and students begin to come from around the world, their collective effect on the city, and on the global music industry, will create a whole new buzz of its own.
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