Five Dominican Students Receive Summer Scholarships to Berklee
Left to right: Scholarship recipients Leomar Cordero, Esthefany Santos, and Amanda Sánchez; AES President Edwin de los Santos; Berklee President Erica Muhl; Itabo owner Félix García; and scholarship recipients Lorainne Garrido and Jose Rehuel Vizcayno.
Image courtesy of the AES Dominicana Foundation
Berklee is continuing its partnership with the AES Dominicana Foundation and electricity generator Itabo to present annual scholarships to student musicians from the Dominican Republic to attend the Aspire: Five-Week Music Performance Intensive (Aspire) summer program.
Since 2015, AES has provided full scholarships to more than 40 talented Dominican musicians to attend the Aspire program. This year's recipients include Amanda Sanchez, Lorainne Garrido, Leomar Cordero Castro, Jose Diaz, and Esthefany Guiyenny Santos Polanco.
“We are enormously grateful for our partnership with the AES Dominicana Foundation, and for the generous support it provides for outstanding musicians to study at Berklee. The foundation’s work serves to enrich the cultural landscape of the Dominican Republic, and indeed the world, by uplifting brilliant young artists,” said Berklee President Erica Muhl. “I’m delighted that this agreement will provide the means for these wonderful young students to have a continued immense and positive impact on arts and culture, including by greatly enhancing our community here at Berklee.”
A delegation from AES visited Berklee's Boston campus in August to meet with President Muhl and to solidify and extend the partnership. The two-day visit concluded with the scholarship recipients performing as part of the Aspire: Showcase Concert at the Berklee Performance Center. The delegation was led by Edwin de los Santos, president, AES; Félix García, private owner, Itabo; Bredyg Disla, communications and sustainability director; Rita Pena, communication manager; and F. Javier Vargas, a professor at the Dominican Republic's National Music Conservatory.
“Charged with energy, inspiring, and promising is how I would summarize the meeting [with] President Muhl and the senior directors of Berklee...who together with our partner Félix García signed a multiyear agreement to provide scholarships for students of the National Music Conservatory,” said de los Santos. "With this renewed enthusiasm, AES reiterates its commitment with Dominican education and culture.”
“Music is inspiring [and] seeing how these Dominican students' lives changed at Berklee has been truly gratifying and motivating,” said García. “I hope that more young people get motivated and take advantage of the door AES Dominicana Foundation and Itabo are opening to a world of opportunities.”
About AES Dominicana Foundation
AES Dominicana Foundation is a nonprofit organization that works for the protection of the Earth and the well-being of its inhabitants. Since 2015, AES has supported more than 40 outstanding young musicians from the National Conservatory of Music, providing them scholarships to Berklee summer programs.
