June 1, 2018

Berklee Sessions:
COPE Radio Valencia
Berklee College of Music - Valencia
Global Entertainment & Music Business

A Culminating Experience
By: Melissa Caton

Table of Contents
Summary

1

Objectives

3

Resources

4

Tasks

5

Timeline

7

Pre-Session Checklist
Post-Session Checklist

8
9

Risks

10

Outcomes

11

December
January
February
March
April
May
Social Media

11
12
13
14
15
16
17

Conclusions

18

Summary
Widely known across the country, Cadena
COPE is one of the largest national radio
stations in Spain. Coming in at just over two
million daily listeners, they broadcast from
several locations nationwide; with one in
Valencia. An amazing opportunity presented
itself when the local station connected with
Berklee Valencia to feature live music
performances on the radio.
With this knowledge, I approached the
Berklee Valencia Communications department
head, Amanda Tornel, to express my interest in
turning the COPE Radio collaboration into a
monthly feature that I would then organize
and manage as my Culminating Experience. I
wanted to organize an opportunity to
showcase the cultural and musical diversity of
the Berklee Valencia campus, while at the
same time creating an invaluable experience
for the emerging artists who are currently
attending various degree programs during the
term.

1

Summary
From this came the COPE Radio and Berklee
Valencia collaboration. Over the course of six
months I executed six genre diverse live or
recorded music sessions to be featured on air with
COPE. This collaboration proved to be an
invaluable experience for all parties involved. Not
only was it enriching for COPE’s programming, but
it also created a unique performance opportunity
for new artists. Each of the student performers
commented that they believed that the COPE
collaboration was an invaluable initiative to help
students promote themselves and their music. Preshow and post-show social media numbers were
collected from each artist in order to observe if any
noticeable difference could be determined in
connection to the sessions. However, throughout
this process I was able to determine that the true
value of this collaborative initiative was on a more
personal level. For Berklee, organic promotional
content, COPE unique and engaging
programming, and for the students, an industry
relevant resume builder.
2

Objectives
The talent of Berklee students comes in so
many different forms. It knows no specific race,
gender, history, genre or beyond. That is one of
the amazing advantages of organizing a series
like this one with the vast diversity that comes

Create a Unique
Performance
Opportunity

from the music programs offered here. I knew
that I wanted to organize a unique performance
opportunity that would not only showcase
amazing talent, but also the varied genres,
backgrounds, and goals of the students who
attend Berklee Valencia.
The choice was made to partner with COPE
Valencia to provide one Berklee student acoustic
act each month with an invaluable opportunity
to perform live on Spanish National Radio.
Therefore, gaining a real music industry relevant
performance experience that they could then
add to their artistic resume.

By providing exposure to these emerging
musicians, an opportunity is also created to
promote different student/faculty/ campus

Draw attention
to existing
events

organized initiatives or events that take place
throughout the year. This created a foundation
for monthly "theme creation," which, by doing
so allowed me to segment and plan each
monthly session to achieve highest visibility and
promotional value towards each event.

3

Resources
Cadena COPE is one of the largest radio
broadcasters in Spain. Their network is wide as well as
a strong local presence. By connecting with COPE we
provide an extensive platform for Berklee and their
students for organic and unique promotion.

For this project, student performers from Berklee
Valencia will be utilized for the radio sessions, as well as
other guest speakers Staff/Students/Faculty/Fellows. This
will provide an amazing performance opportunity for
students to grow as professionals, as well as provide an
opportunity for Berklee to promote diversity and
inclusion on campus and the different programs offered.

My most important contact at Berklee Valencia is the
Head of Communications - Amanda Tornel. Amanda
proved to be an invaluable asset during the process of
planning and coordination. I worked closely with her to
communicate with COPE, as well as assist me in
streamlining each performance to ensure that each
session kept in line with the Berklee brand and
showcasing a diverse campus.
4

Tasks

Session
Background
and
Requirements

Starting with a test show in
December, a Berklee act was selected
to be featured on COPE Valencia’s
Monday show, ‘'La Tarde,” during their
segment called “Escenario FM,” which
hosted our sessions. These students
came from various cultural and musical
backgrounds, as well as different degree
programs within Berklee Valencia. Out
of six sessions, four were graduate

The session lineups for each week

students and two were undergraduate

needed to be planned around key

students. In addition to the student

events happening with Berklee

performers, a Berklee

Valencia. This would allow for

faculty/Fellow/staff member(s) were also

maximum exposure in the Valencian

selected to incorporate an additional

community. Each artist was

dynamic to the show, creating more

evaluated based on ensemble size,

content showcasing the exciting events

genre, sound, diversity, social media

happening on campus and the

presence and language. Specifically,

immense talent of the students who

I needed a performer(s) no larger

come here. As an additional element of

than an ensemble of 2-3 who could

the project and in an effort to gather

adapt to the acoustic and Spanish-

hard data towards the impact made on

speaking only requirements of the

each artist/initiative, social media data

radio station whilst still showcasing

was collected pre-show and post-show.

the diversity of Berlee’s students.
5

In order to find student musicians to perform, I created a Google Form
application in which the students submitted an artist bio, sample audio and
video clips, as well as links to any social media. Students would be approached
in person after live performances in a more traditional “scouting” A&R method. I
reviewed all of the applicants and made programming decisions with the
supervision of Amanda Tornel in the Berklee Valencia Communications
department. We met every few months to go over my plans for the coming
sessions and she provided me with advice to ensure all session plans aligned
with the Berklee brand. The test session was executed in December, upon the
completion of which COPE confirmed and locked us in for our Monthly feature
through June 2018.

6

Timeline

December: First test session, Discover-i Event
January: Voices of Love Concert
February: Faculty feature
March: DIY Musician Conference Europe
April: MUSAICO Festival
May: Women In Music Album Release

7

Pre-Session Checklist
Student Performer(s)
Acoustic or Recorded Music Capable
Spanish speaking (at least one)
Solo or no more than 3
Social Media
Social Media # Recording pre-show
Varied Genre from previous session (if applicable)
Session Briefing

Guest Speaker(s)
Berklee Faculty/Fellow/Staff/Students
Related to an upcoming campus event/initiative
Solo or no more than 2
Social Media
Social Media # Recording pre-show
Session Briefing

COPE Confirmation
Confirm Dates
Send Artist Bios
Send Guest Speaker Bios
Confirm any recording requirements

8

Post-Session Checklist
Student Performer(s)
Send all photos and videos taken during session
Day 1 - Social Media # Recording post-show
Day 2 - Social Media # Recording post-show
Day 3 - Social Media # Recording post-show
Day 4 - Social Media # Recording post-show
Day 5 - Social Media # Recording post-show)

Guest Speaker(s)
Send all photos and videos taken during session
Day 1 - Social Media # Recording post-show
Day 2 - Social Media # Recording post-show
Day 3 - Social Media # Recording post-show
Day 4 - Social Media # Recording post-show
Day 5 - Social Media # Recording post-show)

COPE Confirmation
Request Data
Receive Podcast link to share

9

No on-air translations
were a specific request from

Ris
ks

COPE. It slows down the flow
of the interview and can be
confusing for the interviewer
and audience. Possibly the
most difficult aspect of the
session planning was making
sure that at least one
featured student would be
able to speak Spanish. While
there are many Spanishspeaking students, it does,
unfortunately limit the
diversity pool, and would
made the task of genre
variety increasingly difficult.
The same issue arose with
guest speakers. The selection
of Spanish-speaking faculty
is far smaller, and will
present a potential issue in
the future should the show
continue, as most Spanishspeaking faculty members
have been utilized as guests
for the show. An added
benefit of the students is
that there is the rotation out
of undergraduate studyabroad students, which
provides additional options
for each month

Though acoustic, an
effort was made to
showcase a variety of
genres. At least one
performer needed to speak
fluent Spanish in order to
converse with the show
host, Carles, in a casual
manner. The session was
roughly thirty minutes long
of music and conversation
where the performers and
guests answered general
questions about their
background, musical
influences, as well as life in
Valencia and their time
spent as a student at
Berklee. Most of the
performers had never done
anything like it before,
which made it an exciting
learning opportunity for
them. Nervous and full of
anticipation, each executed
a fantastic interview and
experience, regardless of
inexperience.

10

Outcomes

December 11th, 2017
Session
Performers: Nan MacMillan & Sam Amos
Instruments: Voices, Guitars, Banjo, Mandolin
Genre: Folk
Guest Speaker(s): Polo Orti & Enric Alberich
Event Promoted: Discover-i Berklee Concert
Performer Selection Reasoning:
Nan is a Performance graduate student and Sam is a
Performance Fellow and have an already established
gigging routine. Both speak near-fluent Spanish
Music is easy-listening and family friendly; good place
to start our initial relationship: COPE is a Christian radio
station and is owned by the church
Both are friendly and outgoing personalities from
interesting backgrounds – makes for good radio
conversation
Both performing in the Discover-I concert that we plan
to promote during the session

Speaker Selection Reasoning:
Polo and Enric are two of the most-famous faculty
on campus
As the first trial-run of the radio collaboration, it is
important to make an impressive impact and hit
the ground running – all other programs depend
on if this one goes well
Organizers of the Discover-I concert, know Nan &
Sam and can promote the event
This session went extremely well! There was a surprise turn of
events as the performers who were supposed to show up after our
segment, did not. This worked in our favor. Since Nan & Sam
regularly gig together, they had a set of repertoire that was ready
to go, and were more than prepared when COPE asked if we
would be able to stay and fill the second 30min segment of the
show. This reflected great on Berklee, with the radio host event commenting on how impressed he was with
our flexibility. From this they approved sessions for us through June. This was the first session and now,
knowing what to expect from the questions and structure, I can better meet with students ahead of time and
prep them for the session since COPE doesn't provide interview questions ahead of time. Overall Nan & Sam
had a great time performing and Polo and Enric were able to discuss the Discover-i performance and their
amazing work as musicians and professors at Berklee.

11

Outcomes

January 29th, 2018
Session
Performers: Eva Villalba & João Bouhid
Instruments: Voice, Clave, Guitar
Genre: Spanish/Brazilian
Guest Speaker(s): John Leavitt
Event Promoted: Voices of Love Concert
Performer Selection Reasoning:
Eva & João duo the only applicant to Google Form
Regularly perform and gig together, have upcoming
shows to promote
Contrasting genre and backgrounds from previous
session

Speaker Selection Reasoning:
John is a Scoring for Film, TV, and video games
fellow organizing a concert event - Voices of Love
It was difficult to find a speaker for this session due
to the changed schedules of faculty. This is when I
made the decision to start including others
(besides faculty) to speak on the radio about events
being organized.
Performance was great! Eva has a really outgoing personality
which was great for the radio and everyone got along really well.
Unfortunately the upcoming event did not really match the music
that was on the air so note for next time: It will be better and more
stream-lined if we make sure that the performers and the
speakers line up together. It was initially an issue because COPE
ended up changing our pre-set date around, this threw off the
faculty speakers who I was looking to feature, as their schedule
was not compliant with the new dates for the performance. After
this session, I decided that It would be good to start collecting
information on the performers' social media accounts to see if
their performance gained them any exposure on their professional
platforms. Eva and João did not have any professional social media
accounts, so it would be good to request that information from
future performers. Also for this session, there was a poor response
on the Google Form, so for coming sessions I will modify my
selection process and begin to also attend performance events
and approach people directly.

12

Performers: Mohannad Nasser & Sergio Martinez
Instruments: Oud, Cajon
Genre: Syrian
Guest Speaker(s): N/A
Event Promoted: Upcoming live performances

Outcomes
February 12th, 2018
Session

Performer Selection Reasoning:

Sergio Martinez is a Berklee Faculty and well known
throughout the flamenco community in Valencia, gigs
occasionally with flamenco ensemble member and
Performance grad student Mohannad Nasser, who
plays the Oud.
Sergio is also an alumnus of the Berklee Valencia
campus, providing opportunity to feature on-air the
talent of a faculty member and alumnus
Mohannad is a very talented performer and Syrian
refugee and are able to promote upcoming
performance

Speaker Selection Reasoning:
Sergio is the Performer and speaker in one.
Mohannad does not really speak Spanish, so Sergio
would do most of the talking.

There were some unexpected variables that came
up with this session. Mohannad showed up with an
electric Oud that he needed to plug into an amp
because he didn't have his acoustic. I had not been
told in advance. Sergio also brought a very large hand
drum, in addition to his Cajon, that I was not
expected. However, the session went well once we
figured things out by mic-ing the amp with the desk
microphones and COPE was able to manage the
volume of the Oud and the Cajon and drums. Once
everything was set, Mohannad was actually able to
speak some Spanish which improved the overall
session.
This was a really cool opportunity to show
something really different, luckily it worked out
because it could have gone really badly! Sergio and
Mohannad both had established artist social media
accounts which I recorded and monitored over the
next few days.
13

Outcomes

March 12th, 2018
Session

Performers: Faride Blanco & Martín Levallois
Instruments: Voice, Guitar
Selecting undergraduate musicians was a
Genre: Pop/Singer-Songwriter
good idea! The session went extremely well and
Guest Speaker(s): Shana Swayne & David Pozuelo
Event Promoted: DIY Musician Conference Europe COPE was very impressed with the level of talent
from Berklee, even from someone of such young

age. They made sure to comment about it live on

Performer Selection Reasoning:

the air. This was one of the best sessions so far in

I saw Faride and Martín perform at an open-mic
night at Ubik Café, a popular gig spot for Berklee
students
Both undergraduates so they could give a new
perspective to the Berklee Valencia experience,
having come from the Boston Campus.
Contrasting genre and backgrounds

terms of overall quality of conversation and
performance. Faride had a lot to say about her
time at Berklee. Additionally there was a lot of
great feedback from Faride, she had never done
anything like this before and really felt like it was
a great stepping stone and something awesome
that she could put on her artistic resume. This

Speaker Selection Reasoning:
Shana Swayn is the Global Entertainment & Music
Business Fellow, David Pozuelo is a GEMB student
working with her on the DIY Musician Conference
EU project
This project is a huge event for Berklee and a really
big deal that it is happening for the first time ever
on our campus. This is an excellent opportunity to
feature exciting content about the projects some
students are working on campus

was also a great moment for me because it was a
true testimonial that this process has been
proving beneficial for all parties involved.
Note: Having trouble getting
COPE to send me information
about their listeners. We have
requested many times, still
waiting. Not refusing. Saying yes
but then not sending. Decided it
would be interesting to see if the
engagement was higher on
podcasts.

14

Outcomes

Performers: Andres Llano
Instruments: Recorded Music (DJ/Producer)
Genre: Deep House/Electronic
Guest Speaker(s): Olympia Ornelas
Event Promoted: MUSAICO Festival

April 16th, 2018
Session

Performer Selection Reasoning:

Andres Llano is a Dj/Producer Music Production &
Technology Innovation grad student here and I
have seen him perform several times at the
Berklee Lagos concerts and Discover-i
This was a great opportunity to feature something
really different NOTE: several months in with an
established connection with COPE I felt like it was
okay to take a risk on some music that was a little
more experimental

This Berklee session went way better than
expected! COPE really liked how different the
music choice was and Carles, the radio host,
had a lot of interesting questions about Dj-ing
and electronic music in general. Andres was

Speaker Selection Reasoning:
Struggled to find someone who could speak to the
festival, limited on Spanish-speakers who were
involved in the planning, but also hadn’t already
spoken on the radio
Olympia is a GEMB grad student working on the
committee organizing the Berklee MUSAICO
Festival, a huge first-time concert event for Berklee.
This is a great opportunity to promote this exciting
event to the Valencian Community

able to shed some light about its true
complexity, so it was a real learning experience
for the host and hopefully listeners as well.
Carles often commented about how shocked
he truly was by the diversity of the performers
who have been on the air with them from
Berklee. Olympia was also able to relay the
interesting details about the MUSAICO Festival
that was happening later that week in the City
of Arts and Sciences. It was a great moment to
promote the event and help spread the word
about the exciting activities and music for
FREE!

15

Outcomes
Performers: Cristy Alover
Instruments: Voice, Guitar, Recorded Music
Genre: Blues/Jazz/Pop
Guest Speaker(s): Clara Barbara
Event Promoted: Women in Music Berklee Album

May 7th, 2018
Session

Performer Selection Reasoning:
Found Cristy through Women in Music Events
and posts
Selected for WIM Album and would be featured
in the upcoming Album release event
Has a decent established social media following
Varied genre from previous session

Speaker Selection Reasoning:
Clara Barbara is a Berklee Faculty member that
has been heading the student committee
leading the Women in Music Initiative here on
Berklee’s campus
With the release of the WIM Album this week
and the release party event, this is excellent
timing to promote this initiative at Berklee and
to highlight the issues faced by women in
today's music industry.

This was probably one of the best sessions overall. It was really
awesome to have Clara and Cristy on. Cristy’s accompanist turned
out to also know a little bit of Spanish, so it was an added bonus to
have his input on his time at Berklee as well. Cristy was the perfect
person to have on. We played her single off of the WIM Album and
she performed one original song, in Spanish, as well. When it was
all over she got a little emotional with the realization that she was
hearing herself on the radio for the first time. We had a short
discussion about the Berklee Women in Music initiative and Clara
had some great insight about the WIM movement and had a lot of
wonderful things to say about what is happening here at Berklee
to bring attention to the importance of WIM. Carles had a lot of
really interesting things to say on the topic as well, resulting in a
really interesting discussion on air. The WIM Album launch and
release party was taking place at the end of that week.

16

February Results
Mohannad Pre-Show/Post Show
Facebook: 4,997 / 5,028
Instagram: 330 / 343
Sergio Pre-Show/Post Show
Instagram: 938 / 951

March Results
Faride Pre-Show/Post Show
Instagram: 1,350 / 1,373
Martine Pre-show/Post Show

May Results

Instagram: 938 / 951

Cristy Pre-Show/Post Show
Instagram: 1,138 / 1,138
Facebook: 160 / 164

April Results
Andres Pre-Show/Post Show
Instagram: 1,189 / 1,194
Facebook: 83 / 89
MUSAICO
Instagram: 89 / 93
Facebook: 420 / 433
Pre-show and post-show
social media numbers were
collected from each artist in
order to gauge if any
noticeable difference could
be determined in correlation
17

with the session.

Though there are many musicians who
perform acoustically, it did present another
problem and limiting factor to the
selection process. Many of the on-campus

Conclusions

musicians perform in large ensembles, as
well as using non-tradition instruments for
performance. To combat this, I was able to
arrange with COPE the potential to feature
“live listening” of featured student
performers. This allowed a performer(s)

This project, at the execution level,

that required more instrumentation to still

immensely exceeded expectations. I couldn’t

be featured and answer questions. The

have found better performers. Though stressful final two months of sessions took
at times, everything worked out at the end of

advantage of this new arrangement and

each session. If I were to pinpoint an area that I resulted in excellent discussion content.
April’s student feature was an aspiring

struggled with, I would say it was the actual
selection process of the musicians. The Google

DJ/Producer who was being featured at
the premiere of Berklee’s MUSAICO

Form, great in theory, did not get as many
submissions as expected. In fact, as was often
the case, there were 0-2 submissions per form.
This lead me to lean heavily of a more

Festival. May’s feature was an
undergraduate jazzy singer-songwriter
who was promoting her featured single on
Berklee’s Women in Music Album project.

traditional approach of seeking out the

COPE was able to play their recorded

musicians myself and familiarizing myself with
the assets around me, on my own. It was a

music, which would have otherwise been
impossible due to instrumentation

difficult situation at the time, but it ultimately
worked in my favor and it became much
easier to connect with the musicians.

18

limitations.

Each performer was encouraged to

Those with higher follower counts, like

share their social media handles on the

Mohannad, showed the most significant

show. As previously mentioned, I

increase after a week with no other posts

monitored their social number growth

that could have potentially skewed the

over the five days following the radio

numbers.

broadcast. From this collection, I noticed

This was a tremendous experience for

that it really depended on the platforms

all parties involved, each having gained

that the artists were already working with

invaluable assets along the way. Each

and their own interaction with their

student performer claims to have added

current followers. For example, each artist

this experience to their own artistic

gave a shout-out for listeners to follow

resumes, proud of the experience they

them on their social media. Upon review of

have gained from performing with COPE.

follower count, on average, it did not

They attest that it was an invaluable

change much in the hours following the

stepping stone to prepare them for future

show. Contrary, each artist who chose to

similar experiences.

take advantage of the photos I provided to

By result of this collaboration, COPE

them of the sessions posted to their pages

Radio has decided that they would like to

and stories about the experience. To this

continue their partnership with Berklee in

their followers responded very well.

the future and schedule radio sessions in

However, no definitive number growth was

the following school year. It is my hope

noticed out of the ordinary in the following

that this relationship continues for many

days post-show. Ultimately any significant

years to come, continuing to grow and

change of their socials was completely

allowing a countless number of students

dependent on how much each artist chose

the opportunity to showcase their talents

to engage with their followers about the

and the many different cultures, genres,

radio show event.

and backgrounds that come together to
create amazing music at Berklee Valenica.

19