Berklee Blogs

First-hand accounts of the Berklee experience

Tag: Philippos Nakas Conservatory (Page 1 of 2)

Philippos Nakas Conservatory

A View from the Summit

By Jason Camelio, Director of International Programs

There are many sites to see in Valencia. Depending on where you stand your perspective can be dramatically altered. From the bridges spanning the Palau de les Arts, you see the expanse of truly vivid imaginations. It is compositional in nature. Fluid. Impressive and yet subtle with a filigree of detail juxtaposed with complex imagery. This imagery can also describe the incredible group of creative and inspired minds holding court at the 2012 Berklee International Network Summit.

2012 Summit Guests

2012 Berklee International Summit Guests - 60 Attendees from, 24 institutions and organizations in 20 countries.

As I looked across Sala A, I saw individuals with a deep passion for the craft and art of music and music education. They are an inspirational organization that is reflective of what my teachers and mentors at Berklee have shared with me of Lawrence Berk and those keeping to his ideals.

At the Summit, we set out to meet three goals.  Our partners had the opportunity to be introduced to the new vice president of global initiatives Guillermo Cisneros. This is the first Summit Guillermo has presided over. Equally important, we introduced our partners to the new campus at the Palau. Finally, by incorporating a number of new institutions and organizations with whom Berklee has been working over the past few years at the Summit, we worked to expand the potential of this truly dynamic global organization.

Read More

Allee in Athens: Signomi!

Allee Futterer is not shy. At 19, she is the youngest Berklee student in the Athens program, but she is always the first to start a conversation with a complete stranger. I’m not sure if signomi (excuse me) is the first Greek word she learned, but I’ve sure seen her use it a lot, as she asks for coffee or someone’s name.

Read More

Finding a New Beat in Athens

Most people say that traveling abroad “expands their horizons,” but for Berklee voice student Ratasha Huff, being in Athens is providing experiences that go well beyond the implications of that three-word cliché.

We sat down to talk in the café at Nakas conservatory and when I asked how it’s been studying abroad for a semester in Athens, she talked first, not about music, but about culture and politics. “I have a much better understanding of my country’s impact on the world—some in good ways and some not,” said Ratasha, who calls Charlotte, North Carolina her hometown. “I was already aware of this, but to be here and talk to people, do my own research, has really been an education.”

Read More

Athens: “Life is Beautiful”

Student guitarist Rick Carrizales is loving the city where he has lived since September and is wistful about his study abroad semester ending soon. “I can’t believe this whole thing is ending in two weeks,” he said yesterday while we walked the streets surrounding the Nakas school. An El Paso, Texas native who was lit up by music in a serious way when he first heard Stevie Ray Vaughan, Rick talks about the Athens trip as providing about a 50/50 benefit, half music and half cultural and personal.

Read More

Going for Gusto in Athens

My choice for in-flight reading material was so pregnant with obviousness that I expected ridicule from my fellow passengers. Was I actually boarding an airbus for Athens with a copy of Kazantzakis’s Zorba the Greek in my bag? Well, I hear that Greeks embody the joy-of-life thing as well as anyone, and Zorba is viewed as one of literature’s most gusto-rich characters, so why not? I am on this journey to learn how the high-spirited Athenian life is leaving its mark on nine Berklee students; might as well have Zorba, the king of zest, in the back of my mind.

Read More

Page 1 of 2

Copyright © 2023 Berklee College of Music