
Academic Leadership from Boston, Valencia Return for Abu Dhabi Educators Symposium Viktorija Pilatovic and Enrique Gonzalez M ller are among faculty who will be participating in the two-day intensive for the second straight year.
By
Daniel Pesquera
October 8, 2024
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 Mart n, 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 M ller, 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 M ller: 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 Pilatovic leads a group exercise at the 2023 Berklee Abu Dhabi Creative Arts Educators Symposium.
Berklee Abu Dhabi
Viktorija, youll 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, youll 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. Its 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
North America Stories
14/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/04/2026
Wowza will return to NAB Show 2026 with a set of live demonstrations focused on how video infrastructure is evolving for a new generation of AI-powered and oper...
14/04/2026
Stegawave Debuts Real-Time Forensic Watermarking to Tackle Piracy in Live Sports...
14/04/2026
Living in Boston: A Guide for Incoming Boston Conservatory Students From navigating the T to balancing school with professional gigs, a current student shar...
14/04/2026
Just What Is Genre These Days, Anyway? Understanding the business and art of genre-bending in 2026.
April 10, 2026
By
Bryan Parys
Illustration by Jack Fla...
14/04/2026
Lenora Helm Hammonds Is Turning Passion Into Plan A The dean of the Professional Education Division has seen the industry from all sides. Now shes bringing it...
14/04/2026
How Michelle Zalabak Found Her Dream Career in Music and Finance The Warner Music Group deal analysis manager helps determine what artist catalogs are worth a...
13/04/2026
Telos Alliance has announced that J nger Audio has joined the EBU ADM Implementers Group (ADM-IG) as a founding member. The group is focused on advancing ADM an...
13/04/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate its Alliance Partner ecosystem at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C2408, Central Hall, April 19-22), showing AMPP integrations across live pr...
13/04/2026
Media Links will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth W2033), demonstrating IP transport solutions for live production including hitless protection technology, Xscen...
13/04/2026
NBC Sports has announced a programming, distribution, and sales partnership with...
13/04/2026
FloSports has promoted Chief Operating Officer Jayar Donlan to President, effective immediately. In his new role, Donlan will lead the company's commercial,...
13/04/2026
PanCam Pictures, the documentary production company founded by Paul Camarata, us...
13/04/2026
Mimir will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (North Hall, Booth N2850), demonstrating its cloud-native media production platform with new capabilities including Mimir Cu...
13/04/2026
BBright has announced that its IP Gateway now supports the Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST) protocol. The addition will be introduced at NAB Show 2026 ...
13/04/2026
Net Insight has been awarded a development project through the European Space Agency's Navigation Innovation and Support Program (NAVISP), with co-funding f...
13/04/2026
intoPIX will exhibit at NAB Show 2026, marking the company's 20th anniversary. The company will demonstrate its JPEG XS compression portfolio and IPMX-appro...
13/04/2026
Starting from scratch, the team built an in-house content platform comprising ga...
13/04/2026
Here's a look at some of the new products and updates, along with audio-centric conferences, that attendees will find next week at the show
When the 2026 N...
13/04/2026
Avid will launch new integrated newsroom capabilities for Avid for News at NAB Show 2026 (Booth N2226, April 18-22), demonstrating how Avid Content Core connect...
13/04/2026
Synamedia has announced a new version of Quortex PowerVu, an IP-native, software...
13/04/2026
Mediaproxy has developed a suite of AI-powered tools for brand and advertisement tracking, integrated into its LogServer compliance logging and analysis platfor...
13/04/2026
Disguise will demonstrate its media servers and software at NAB Show 2026, appearing across five partner booths in Central Hall: MRMC, B&H, Planar, CarbonBlack,...
13/04/2026
OpenDrives is introducing OpenDrives Edge at NAB Show 2026, a hybrid cloud-edge performance accelerator for distributed video and rich media workflows. The prod...
13/04/2026
The show will deploy 18 cameras across two sets and the draft floor, including a...
13/04/2026
L3Harris is accelerating the development of infrared payloads for Space Development Agency's Tranche 2 Tracking Layer, to help meet urgent national defense ...
13/04/2026
By leveraging cutting-edge unfilmed Gen III image intensifier technology, NOVA delivers unmatched clarity, range, and reliability in low-light environments - en...
13/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/04/2026
Explore new Disguise plugins, including Sony's VP integration; Listen to panels across partner booths at Sony and B&H
Disguise, the company powering everyt...
13/04/2026
TAG Video Systems, the leading IP-native Realtime Media Platform, has announced its participation in the Media Exchange Layer (MXL) interop initiative. TAG has ...
13/04/2026
Today, Chaos launched V-Ray for Blender Community Edition at BCON Austin 2026, making its production-proven 3D renderer free for all Blender users. The same Aca...
13/04/2026
Additions strengthen LTN's leadership as broadcasters scale satellite-to-IP transition
LTN today announced the appointments of Mark Romano as Vice Presiden...
13/04/2026
LEEDS, UK, APRIL 13, 2026 NUGEN Audio releases Halo Vision v1.2, a significant update to its real time, customizable audio analysis suite for 3D, surround and...
13/04/2026
Atomos today announced the acquisition of Flanders Scientific (FSI), one of the most respected names in professional reference monitoring. This strategic move r...
13/04/2026
How Mei Semones Built Her Sound from J-Pop, Jazz, and Bilingual Songwriting The indie-pop artist combines agile guitar lines, rhythmic shifts, and lyrics that...
13/04/2026
Cue the Change: Jonathon Heyward Is Making Classical Music More Relatable Nicknamed the Converse Conductor, the Boston Conservatory alum holds top conductin...
13/04/2026
Heat Wave: Inside Miamis Sizzling, Boundary-Blurring Latin Music Scene In a city shaped by migration and exchange, Berklee alumni are helping drive a Latin mu...
13/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/04/2026
DHD audio, developer and manufacturer of digital audio systems for professional broadcast, has launched a comprehensive brand update to mark its 30th anniversar...
13/04/2026
Stegawave, an Irish technology company specialising in forensic watermarking for video content, today announced the launch of its anti-piracy platform for live ...
13/04/2026
New version of Quortex PowerVu delivers a standards-based approach to satellite-to-IP transitions, eliminating the need for baseband workflows and complex infra...
13/04/2026
Grass Valley LDX camera systems enable leading German production company to support broadcast and cinematic live production within a single environment.
Grass ...
13/04/2026
London, UK, 13 April 2026 Techex and MediaKind today announced a partnership to integrate Techexs IP transport and orchestration technology, tx edge, directly...
13/04/2026
In today's hybrid education environments, there is no one-size-fits-all' AV solution. Lightware's extensive AV portfolio addresses this challenge, ...
13/04/2026
Mediaproxy, the global standard for software-based IP compliance monitoring and multiviewing solutions, has developed a new suite of AI-powered tools designed t...