PODCAST: Inside Berklee—Paloma Menendez

If you ask vocalist Paloma Menendez, a seventh-semester music business/management major, where she’s from, make sure to have pen and paper ready. Born in Mexico, she views herself as Cuban and considers Boston her home. But even that list leaves out formative years living in Colombia, Puerto Rico, Florida, and South Carolina.

Her academic path at Berklee has been similarly circuitous as she’s honed her entrepreneurial skills through the Berklee Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship (BerkleeICE), managed Berklee artist Olivia Swann as part of the Berklee Popular Music Institute (BPMI), and gave a string of performances at this year’s Summer in the City concert series.

“Because I moved around so much and I had to readjust to so many different situations, I am always into new opportunities and meeting new people,” she says, shedding light on her gung-ho approach to her education. She credits Berklee personnel such as her vocal instructor Jamie Lynn Hart and BPMI leaders Jeff Dorenfeld and Jeff Apruzzese for giving her the guidance and confidence she needs to make such a robust college experience work.

Given the paths she's carved throughout her life, it’s fitting that for this episode of Inside Berklee, Menendez calls in from a semester abroad at Berklee’s campus in Valencia, Spain, where she’s taking a respite from her music-business-heavy schedule to re-energize her singing and songwriting. Take a listen and hear why Menendez says that as wide-ranging as her college career seems, “This is exactly what the Berklee experience should be.”

Produced by Bryan Parys
Engineered by Darcy Davis and Tony Brown
Recorded at the BIRN studios

Watch Menendez perform "Mais que nada" at Berklee's Singers Showcase: