News from the Institute

The Mediterranean Music Institute hosted several events culminating in an award presentation for flamenco legend Linares. 

In celebration of Spain's multicultural heritage, a small group of musicians from around the world, led by Javier Limón, took the stage at Madrid’s National Auditorium, blending sounds from across the Mediterranean and beyond.

The Berklee Mediterranean Music Institute and Casa Limón showcased Mediterranean music and student work through a week of events. 

This fall, the Mediterranean Music Institute offered a concert celebrating Spanish-speaking female poets, titled "Palabra de Mujer."

The Master of Mediterranean Music Award was presented to the noted cajón and flamenco percussion master at the Mediterranean Music Institute (MMI) spring concert, the Rhythm of Lorca.

Israel "Piraña" Suárez has adapted the cajón for musical styles outside his native flamenco. In this episode, we'll hear him play it in the funk tune "Aguas de Funk." Suárez will receive the Mediterranean Music Institute's Master of Mediterranean Music Award on March 26.  

In fall 2017, bassist Lucy Clifford '16 got the chance to record and tour with Portuguese fado sensation, Mariza. Clifford reflects on the experience for Berklee Blogs.

Percussionist Israel “Piraña” Suárez will receive the Mediterranean Music Institute's Master of Mediterranean Music Award at the Rhythm of Lorca Concert on March 26.

This past fall, Israeli recorder player and composer Tali Rubinstein B.M. '14 toured with Flamenco Legends, the late Paco de Lucia's band, now led by Javier Limón. What follows are a few selections from a travel journal she kept over the course of the tour.

Portuguese fado star Mariza was presented with Berklee’s Master of Mediterranean Music Award by Javier Limón, Latin Grammy-winning artist and artistic director of Berklee’s Mediterranean Music Institute, at her weekend performance at the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River, Massachusetts.

In this episode, you'll hear Mariza's "Alma," a song that fuses traditional fado melodies with newer styles, and is sung in Spanish. She will be given the Mediterranean Music Institute's Master of Mediterranean Music Award on November 11. 

Berklee Meets Lorca is a reimagining of the poetry of Federico García Lorca, celebrated as one of the most important Spanish poets of the 20th century, by the Mediterranean Music Institute.

Kurdish vocalist Aynur Dogan received the Mediterranean Music Institute Award on March 16, becoming the first woman to earn the honor since the its inception in 2014. Immediately upon winning the award, she dedicated it to the resilient women of her homeland.

Student Tonina Saputo has been part of the Mediterranean Music Institute's Refugio del Sonido project, was selected as one of Univision's U-LAB artists, and will perform in Spain's Ellas Crean Festival. Here's a track off her upcoming first album. 

At its annual spring concert, on March 16, the Mediterranean Music Institute (MMI) will honor Kurdish musician Aynur with this year’s Master of Mediterranean Music Award and, at the same time, launch its Women in Action initiative, which seeks to raise awareness of female artists and to promote gender equality in the Mediterranean music scene.

U-LAB, a partnership between Univision and Berklee's Javier Limón to support new musical talent, recently announced its "first class of emerging artists" are Marianella "Nella" Rojas B.M. 15, Desmond "D.J." Scaife Jr. B.M. '16, and current Berklee student Tonina Saputo.

The Mediterranean Music Institute (MMI) and Berklee’s campus in Valencia, Spain, will join Casa Árabe in celebrating its 10 anniversary at a concert featuring Iraqi composer and oud virtuoso Naseer Shamma on March 12 at Madrid's Teatros de Canal. 

In this episode of Inside Berklee, Christiane Karam B.M. '03, an associate professor in the Voice Department, talks about her musical journey in exploring ways that different cultures intersect and find common ground, and how this journey, in part, led her to found the Middle Eastern Festival, now in its ninth year.

The Mediterranean Music Institute launches their fall 2016 MMI recording, featuring student band the Mediant Collective.

As part of its Refugio del Sonido project, which aims to spread awareness of the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe, the Mediterranean Music Institute (MMI) recently presented its annual concert to a sold-out hall at the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, Spain.

Twelve Berklee alumni and one faculty member received 14 Latin Grammy Award nominations for producing, mixing, engineering, and songwriting across five categories.

José Mercé's 2016 album, Doy La Cara, is nominated for a Latin Grammy for Best Flamenco Album. It was produced by Mediterranean Music Institute Artistic Director Javier Limón and features nine current or former Berklee students. 

La Guitarra Vuela (The Guitar Flies) was produced by Javier Limón of Berklee’s Mediterranean Music Institute in cooperation with Iberia airlines, which sponsored not only a trip but also documentary and two full scholarships for guitarists from Spain or Latin America to attend Berklee’s Five-Week Summer Performance Program.

A group of students who fled war-torn countries recorded four albums under the direction of Javier Limón as a tribute to the millions of refugees around the globe, and to benefit Doctors Without Borders.

With the support of the Berklee Mediterranean Music Institute, The Mediant Collective band will tour in June 2016, performing more than 10 concerts and offering three clinics in Spain, Greece, Israel, and Turkey. 

To mark International Roma Day on April 8, Berklee's Mediterranean Music Institute and the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights and Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University joined forces to address issues facing the Roma community in Europe and to celebrate its culture.

Flamenco singer and composer Pepe de Lucía receives the Master of Mediterranean Music Award in the Mediterranean Roots Festival in Valencia.

The Mediterranean Roots Festival (Festival Raíces del Mediterráneo), produced by the Mediterranean Music Institute and Berklee’s Valencia campus, held concerts on October 29 and 30 that celebrated the musical heritage of the Mediterranean area and its fusions.

The Berklee Mediterranean Music Institute and Berklee's Valencia, Spain, campus present the Festival Raíces del Mediterráneo (Mediterranean Roots Festival).

In collaboration with the Mediterranean Music Institute, composer, laouto, and guitar player, student Vasilis Kostas toured Greece with his band, the Vasilis Kostas Quartet.

Javier Limón, MMI's artistic director, performs at the Mediterranée International Festival of Music in Ashdod, Israel with alumni pianist Tal Even Tzur and recorder player Tali Rubinstein, harmonica player Antonio Serrano, and special guest singer-songwriter David Broza.  

Laouto and guitar player Vasileios Kostas will be on a Greek tour with his quartet in June 2015.

The MMI Recordings is launching two new albums to finish this school year. Christiane Karam and the Pletenitsa Balkan Choir features more than 40 student performers as well as the Berklee World Strings directed by Eugene Friesen, and Layth & Naseem is the first release by Jordanian violinist Layth Sidiq and Palestinian cellist Naseem Alatrash.

On April 8, a little more than a year after Paco de Lucía's death, Serrano joined dozens of Berklee students onstage at the Berklee Performance Center to celebrate his legacy at the Mediterranean Music Institute’s spring concert.

Javier Limón, the artistic director of the Mediterranean Music Institute, and jazz singer Magos Herrera will perform standards from their 2014 duo album Dawn on March 26 at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. Lebanese student percussionist Gilbert Mansour will join them as a guest artist.

Berklee Latino and the Mediterranean Music Institute, in collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes, presented a concert that took the audience on a journey through Spanish music. 

Under the musical direction of Javier Limón, artistic director for Berklee's Mediterranean Music Institute, four Berklee students will give six concerts in Spain, February 11-19.