Academic Leadership from Boston, Valencia Return for Abu Dhabi Educators' Symposium

Academic leaders from across the global campuses of Berklee will once again connect with arts educators throughout the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region at the second annual Berklee Abu Dhabi Creative Arts Educators’ Symposium. The two-day intensive, which takes place October 10 and 11 at the Berklee Abu Dhabi Center, engages local educators on a wide range of subject matters, from teaching popular music to incorporating new technologies such as AI to reigniting passion and inspiring creativity in the classroom.

Session facilitators include Dr. Krystal Banfield, vice president of Education Outreach and Social Entrepreneurship; Tonya Butler, chair of the Music Business/Management Department; Misael Martinez, assistant vice president of social entrepreneurship and creative youth development; Lucas Martín, assistant professor at Berklee Valencia; Kenrick John, director of the Berklee City Music Preparatory Academy; and Marek Dykta, senior assistant director of admissions. (Berklee will hold auditions and interviews in Abu Dhabi for undergraduate applicants this December.)

Also returning are Viktorija Pilatovic, assistant professor at Berklee Valencia, and Enrique Gonzalez Müller, an associate professor of music production and engineering who also founded the Pedagogy Arts Collective. We caught up with them ahead of the event to explore what they took away from the last symposium and what they hope to contribute this time.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

What did you learn at the last symposium that made an impression on you?

Viktorija Pilatovic: The educators that I met shared a genuine desire to help students succeed and make our lessons more engaging and meaningful. After the symposium sessions [last year], many of the teachers said to me, “I want to go to school and learn from you!” They were so inspired to pursue further development and education, and it was really a positive takeaway for me.

Enrique Gonzalez Müller: In many ways the symposium felt very much in line with the work I have done for years at Berklee, including founding and running the Pedagogy Arts Collective and the Global Open Pedagogy Arts Collective. Going into the symposium, I thought I’d encounter educators similar to those I’ve engaged with in other settings. The similarities are that educators in Abu Dhabi are deeply, emotionally invested in what they are doing. I felt a very uniform sense of pride for their job and a desire to have a positive impact on their students and their community. However, many of the educators we met also taught a vast gamut of ages, from college students to four-year-olds. The challenge became: How do you teach students to tap into the potential for creativity they all possess, while making those concepts applicable across a very wide range of ages?

Viktorija, you'll be talking about actively listening and analyzing music, as well as creative techniques for music making. What aspects of the ways we engage with music do you feel translate across cultures?

VP: For active listening and analyzing, I wanted to do a session that inspires teachers to look at music layer by layer and show their students the many aspects they can listen for. The harmony, the rhythm, how the melody moves, the arrangement, and the mood are all part of the "international language" of music. Regardless of how these nuances change, music speaks to something fundamental in all of us. For creativity in music making, we will play a game where you would go into the hallway, for example, and grab an object that is not a musical instrument. You bang it or you tap it, and maybe it inspires a song in you or a melody. I wanted to do something very nonconventional to inspire them to try it with their students.

Enrique, you'll be working with educators to help rediscover their passion for the arts as a way to inspire fresh lesson ideas. Can you talk about why helping educators reconnect with their love for the arts is an area of focus for you?

EGM: What I find is that experts understandably often forget how it felt to be a beginner. It’s important for experts to viscerally remember what it was that brought them to this craft, to start this complex yet rewarding adventure into the creative arts. It's essential that educators reconnect with the original reasons they chose music, rekindling the passion that first inspired them. When they do, they become more empathetic to their students' journeys, which in turn allows them to teach more effectively and with greater purpose. Missing this opportunity means overlooking the key to fostering a deeper connection and more impactful learning experience.

Are there differences in the way you approach conversations with arts educators in the Abu Dhabi region versus how you would engage with similar communities in Boston, Valencia, or other places where you have taught and learned?

EGM: I try to approach this in two distinctive ways. First, I do extensive homework to understand what makes the culture unique, with 90 percent of that effort focused on asking thoughtful questions and deeply listening to the community. This helps me become aware of realities that may differ greatly from my own and allows me to learn and better support them. Second, I aim to celebrate the things that unite us as humans—like the pursuit of health or creating space to observe, tangibly explore, and share the things we love. The challenge then is to develop ideas that honor those universal values while also reflecting what is special about that unique community.

Can you talk about why you feel it is important to have these exchanges between different Berklee communities, in this case Valencia and Abu Dhabi?

VP: I am a traveler, and I love learning about and exploring different cultures because it feeds me as a creator. In a similar way, I think exchanging experiences across different Berklee communities is essential because it fosters mutual learning and growth. Regions with more established music education systems, like Valencia and Boston, have much to share in terms of expertise and best practices. Meanwhile, a younger region like Abu Dhabi can benefit from Berklee’s vision to help nurture and develop its music market, arts sector, and its approach to creating academic institutions focused on creative expression.

EGM: Through the Global Open Pedagogy Arts Collective, part of my work is to bring Berklee’s unique pedagogy out to the world. This involves supporting our global partners such as Abu Dhabi, but also engaging all of the arts educators in the community by making Berklee’s campuses a hub of discovery, innovation, and communication on arts pedagogy. Creating diverse environments brings a depth of enrichment that no individual, group, or culture can achieve alone. When we bring together and amplify people from communities with vastly different values and approaches, the results are richer, more impactful, and lasting. These experiences not only help me better serve students back home in Boston but also ignite my curiosity to learn more about how the arts and education are valued and shared around the world. This approach is central to Berklee’s mission of building the future of arts education and empowering our global community of tomorrow’s artists and educators.