Degree Name

MA in International Education

First Advisor

Linda Drake-Gobbo

Abstract

Barcelona SAE is a third-party study abroad provider that facilitates study and intern abroad experiences for college-age students from around the world. One branch of Barcelona SAE is its Customized Programs Department, which offers over 45 customized programs to students studying everything from public health to the culinary arts to engineering. They currently have a gap, though, in their portfolio of program offerings: they have never offered a program geared toward students studying music. Through interviews with staff members from Barcelona SAE, this paper demonstrates a need for a music-based customized program in Barcelona. Furthermore, it fills this need with a three-week, faculty-led program that exposes students to local culture while walking them through the innovation, creation, entrepreneurship and collaboration in Barcelona’s digital music scene.

Each summer Barcelona hosts two conferences in digital music, both of which focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. These two events, Sonar +D and Primavera Pro, happen within two weeks of each other, and will be a focal point of this program. Both conferences provide a space for entrepreneurs to come together and share their discoveries, and to discuss the direction in which the industry is growing. Students will have the opportunity to network, hear from guest speakers, and sample some of the world’s newest advances in the field of digital music. In addition, students on the Innovation in Digital Music program will visit local businesses in the digital music industry to learn from professionals and see how the digital music business works in Europe.

The Innovation in Digital Music program features design components from SIT’s Design Concepts & Evaluation and International Education Design & Delivery courses; the courses from which the theoretical foundations of this paper are drawn. The target market for this program is music courses at Berklee College of Music, Juilliard School, University of California San Diego, Jacob’s School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. These schools all have strong music departments, and a high likelihood of sending their students abroad. As of now, music students from these universities do not have an option for a music-specific customized program in Barcelona, and this program fulfills that need, while diversifying Barcelona SAE’s portfolio and expanding their marketability.

Disciplines

Education | Music | Music Performance | Music Practice

Download

Share

 
COinS