Photo source: Festival 10 Sentidos
Before entering the Berklee College of Music Valencia campus in Fall 2015 and studying in their Music Production, Technology and Innovation program, I was a seminary student at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Tag: Berklee Valencia Campus (Page 1 of 5)
Berklee Valencia Campus
As the semester winds down, I’m taking the time to reach out to those who still have the opportunity to study in Valencia next year by sharing a little bit with you about my personal experience spending a semester in Valencia.
I’ll be honest I applied to the Valencia campus on a bit of a whim. I was undeclared and had no idea what I wanted to do at Berklee academically. All my friends were applying to the Study Abroad program, and my Facebook feed was littered with people boasting screenshots of their acceptance emails. I can’t say for certain if seeing a certain number of those images was what finally made me take the plunge into the application, but I did it. Within a few weeks, I was deposited to study in Valencia. Little did I know at the time that the study abroad program would become my favorite part of Berklee.
To think I could fit the entirety of my experience into a blog post would certainly be ambitious, so I’ll keep to some key points that really made my time in Valencia incredible:
In putting together a final thesis, one in which we would work on for the entire year, I wanted to create a piece of art that was meaningful and that would have a lasting legacy. Surrounded in the beautiful city of Valencia, I was inspired to write and compose an original musical Ciao Bambino, a blend of Mediterranean and American music, where I would serve as the writer, composer and lead actress.
Taking a project on like this is no easy task, in fact it has never even been done before on Berklee Valencia’s campus. Putting together a storyline, writing a full two act script, character development, a total of twenty-four songs with music and lyrics, ten produced musical demos in the Berklee recording studios, and a business/finance plan, was what I spent the majority of my year researching, and creating. So, when I graduate with my Masters, I will return back to New York City, and start workshopping my original musical, and present this package to theaters, producers, and investors in hopes of mounting a professional production on stage.
Last night we had our final rehearsal with Valencia Film Orchestra. So far it has been an amazing journey, and we are really excited about our concert in the Palau de la Música this Saturday, April 30th.
Putting together a group of 66 amazingly talented musicians has been the hardest challenge of our lives. We have gone through months of hard work, planning and preparation. Thousands of emails and phone calls later, we were able to successfully have our first rehearsal two weeks ago. Everybody was super excited to share beautiful music with fellow musicians from up to 13 countries.
Valencia Film Orchestra is the result of a dream. A dream shared by Fernando Furones (principal conductor) and Elaine Lizardo (artistic director), both Film Scoring students at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Together, they have devoted themselves to this project ever since they arrived in Valencia last January.
After reaching out to as many people as possible, they succeeded in creating the first soundtrack orchestra based in Valencia. They got the support from Berklee’s campus in Valencia and Fundación FUVANE, a charity focused on providing help to children with mental paralysis.