Berklee Valencia - Partnership between Berklee and SGAE Announced

Berklee College of Music- October 16, 2008

Berklee President Roger H. Brown and Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (SGAE) CEO Eduardo Bautista have announced an unparalleled cultural partnership to build a new college for global, contemporary music education in Valencia, Spain. Berklee Valencia will be the largest offshore U.S. music college in the world. Many of the programs will offer areas of music education that are new to Europe, focusing on contemporary music, international business, and the latest developments in leading-edge music technology.

Berklee Valencia will open in 2012, with the first full-time class entering that September. The college will be housed in a new cultural complex called ARTeria Valencia, which will be part of ARTeria Multiespacios, a network of performance, education, and related commercial spaces being constructed by SGAE in several Spanish and Latin American cities. Berklee will also provide these sites with special academic programs, workshops, clinics, and scholarship auditions.

SGAE, in turn, will send prominent members—composers, songwriters, producers, filmmakers, and legal scholars—to Berklee's Boston campus for residencies, workshops, and clinics.

Berklee and SGAE officials will break ground October 16, 2008, on nearly four acres of land (20,000 square meters) that was made available for the project by the Generalitat Valenciana (the government of the Valencian region) and the City of Valencia. ARTeria Valencia's iconic complex will include a 25-story tower sitting atop a two-story, 1.5-acre plinth. An outdoor theater with 1,000 seats will be built on the plinth, and the plinth interior will feature housing for faculty and students, as well as public and commercial space. Construction will begin in early 2009. The ARTeria Valencia complex is projected to cost 92 million euros ($130 million), with an additional 11 million euros ($15 million) to construct the most technologically advanced recording studios, classrooms, and learning labs. The project will be privately funded by the partnering cultural entities.

SGAE CEO Bautista, also a trustee of the college, invited Berklee to join his organization in creating an institution that would bring to Spain postsecondary music studies in technology, business, and contemporary music, allowing students from classical conservatories to take their skills and careers to new heights. The Mediterranean seaside city of Valencia is a crossroads for music from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and home to more than 500 symphonic bands. Valencia was chosen as the college's site for its mix of tradition and the vigorous modernization that has brought new centers for education, business, and the arts.

 

Curriculum

Berklee Valencia will be unlike any other music college in the world. The mission and curriculum will reflect the innovative partnership between Berklee, the world's largest independent music college, and SGAE, a leader in protecting and managing the rights of artistic creators around the globe. The Berklee-designed curriculum—fashioned for both undergraduate and graduate levels—will prepare students to meet the challenges of the contemporary music industry and be leaders in the global music community through five main areas of study:

• Music for Film and Integrated Media
• Electronic Production and Design
• Global Music and Entertainment Management
• Symphonic Band Studies
• Mediterranean Music

Certificates will also be awarded in a variety of shorter programs.

The college's mission will be to provide the technological and business skills necessary for advancing careers in the 21st-century global music industry. Berklee Valencia will enroll 1,000 students, with nearly 200 seats reserved for study abroad from Berklee Boston. Student recruitment will be global, with special emphasis on Spain, Europe, Spanish-speaking countries, Africa, and the Middle East. Classes will be taught in English. Faculty and administrative staff will reflect the Berklee Boston pool of talented performers, composers, producers, and business people from all over the world, many of whom have earned Grammy Awards and nominations and have collaborated with the most groundbreaking artists of our time.

"In our partnership with SGAE, we aspire to be the global laboratory that produces the big musical ideas of the 21st century," says Brown. "When a young Quincy Jones arrived at Berklee in the 1950s or a young Juan Luis Guerra in the 1980s, who could have imagined the impact of their lives and work? Berklee Valencia will bring together musicians from Spain, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and will undoubtedly help nurture the next generation of great creators."

SGAE's CEO Eduardo Bautista sees this as a project that is both strategic and inspiring.

"It's strategic for SGAE in that it brings together both shores of the Atlantic and promotes a fluid dialogue between cultures," says Bautista. "It's the clearest example of cultural diplomacy between Spain and America. But it's also inspiring in that it's an opportunity for our members to work with an institution defined by its continuing response to the challenges of the moment. This will be invaluable as they face the challenges of today and the future."

Building

ARTeria Valencia was designed by celebrated Spanish architect Antón García-Abril, who will also oversee construction. Located near Valencia's City of Arts and Sciences, the complex will complement other new modern structures. The 25-floor high-rise will be constructed of four-story concrete blocks with corner cutaways that will be stacked in a rotating manner, creating a helix with massive balconies opening to Valencia's legendary luminosity while also carving out public spaces. Seventeen stories of the building will be devoted to Berklee Valencia, while SGAE and other cultural institutions will occupy the remaining floors.

ARTeria Multiespacios

ARTeria Valencia, home of Berklee Valencia, is a key piece of ARTeria Multiespacios, a network of multipurpose spaces being developed by SGAE. The ARTeria includes eight centers in Spain—Madrid, Barcelona, Boadilla del Monte, Sevilla, Santiago de Compostela, Bilbao, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and Valencia—as well as in Mexico City and Buenos Aires.

Four of these centers are already operative—Centro de Alta Tecnología Aplicada (Center for Applied Technology or CATA) in Madrid; the Teatro Metropolitan in Buenos Aires; and ARTeria Noroeste, Santiago de Compostela. La Casona, in the historic center of Mexico City, was officially inaugurated October 1, 2008.

The centers will have space for dance, music, audio/visual work, and theater, as well as recording studios, classrooms, restaurants, and SGAE offices.

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