Berklee Valencia Plans Unveiled

January 1, 2009

A rendering by architect Anton Garcia-Abril of ARTeria Valencia, the future home to Berklee Valencia.

On October 15, 2008, at an event in Valencia, Spain, representatives from Berklee, the Spanish creators’ rights organization Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (SGAE), and the Valencian city government announced cooperative plans to create a new music school for the 21st century. The new facility, Berklee Valencia, is scheduled to open in 2011.

President Francisco Camps, of the generalitat of Valencia, told a capacity crowd that a Berklee-run contemporary music school will serve as a perfect complement to Valencia’s City of the Arts and Sciences, and as an educational and cultural entity in keeping with the city’s revitalization and its 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’s clear to me that we have much to say to each other in Spanish, in English, and in music.”

In his address, Berklee President Roger H. Brown said, “[With its] natural beauty, superb climate, progressive political leadership, adventuresome architecture, and heritage of music education, [Valencia] represents a perfect place to create a musical ‘hothouse’ in which to bring together musicians from all over the world.”

Brown also cited Berklee’s star alumni Quincy Jones, Arif Mardin, and Toshiko Akiyoshi as prime examples of the college’s long-held practice of using music to “transcend barriers of culture, gender, language, religion, race, and ideology.” The practice made Berklee the natural choice for this international partnership.

The Valencian government ceded a four-acre parcel of land near the City of the Arts and Sciences on which SGAE will construct an iconic 27-story tower to be known as ARTeria Valencia. The structure was designed by one of Europe’s finest young architects, Anton Garcia-Abril, to serve Berklee’s unique, musical requirements in an original way.

Berklee Valencia will focus on instruction in composing music for film and digital media, recording, global music business, and musical traditions indigenous to Spain, the Middle East, and Africa. “[Berklee Valencia] would promote the future, knowledge, and cohesion of society,” said SGAE President Teddy Bautista, who, with the assistance of Berklee Board of Trustees member Luis Alvarez, championed the project and brought SGAE, Berklee, and Valencia officials together. Bautista said the new college will create “a link between Valencia and Spain with the U.S.A., but more importantly, with lovers of culture throughout the world.”

Throughout Spain and Latin America, SGAE has created a network of multi-use educational and workspaces known as ARTeria Multiespacios. These workspaces include theaters, recording studios, and postproduction facilities for SGAE members. As Berklee Valencia is constructed over the next three years, Berklee and SGAE will collaborate on a series of high-level music seminars to be offered throughout the entire ARTeria network for both SGAE members and musicians from the general public.

Following performances at the announcement ceremony by the top Berklee student ensemble Grupo Musical Berklee Valencia and addresses by Valencian Mayor Rita Barbera, Brown, Bautista, and Camps, it was time to lay the symbolic first stone of the new building. Gathering around a high-tech, Plexiglas lectern, the four leaders and architect Garcia-Abril depressed a large stone that illuminated a holographic projection of the building.

Completing the day’s festivities was a performance by Grammy-winning vibraphonist and former Berklee Executive Vice President Gary Burton and a group comprising Spanish alumni Polo Orti ’92 (piano) and Victor Merlo ’91 (bass) and Mexican-born drummer Antonio Sanchez ’97 (of the Pat Metheny Group).

The buzz of extraordinary good feeling and excitement about the new music college was impossible to miss. As the new tower rises and students begin to arrive from around the world, their collective effect on the city and on the global music industry will, no doubt, create a buzz of its own.

This article appeared in our alumni magazine, Berklee Today Winter 2009. Learn more about Berklee Today.
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