The Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music ( es, Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico) is a public conservatory in

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the ...

.Conservatorio de Musica de Puerto Rico
SOBRE EL CONSERVATORIO DE MÚSICA DE PUERTO RICO: Información General del Conservatorio.
Retrieved: February 14, 2008. It has hosted a number of international musicians as students as well as faculty, and has a longstanding relationship with the classical music movement in Puerto Rico, including the annual

Casals Festival The Casals Festival is a classical music event celebrated every year in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in honor of classical musician Pablo Casals. Background The festival was founded in 1956 by Pablo Casals. It was promoted by Teodoro Moscoso and Davi ...

and the

Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra The Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO) (''Orquesta Sinfónica de Puerto Rico'' in Spanish) a musical ensemble sponsored by the Government of Puerto Rico. It has 80 regular musicians from around the world performing a 52-week season which in ...

(PRSO).

History

Following the success of the Casals Festival held in San Juan in 1957, state legislator

Ernesto Ramos Antonini Ernesto Ramos Antonini (April 24, 1898 – January 9, 1963) was the President of the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico and co-founder of the Partido Popular Democrático de Puerto Rico (Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico). Early yea ...

proposed several laws which would create the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra that same year, and the Conservatory of Music in June 1959. The conservatory was originally envisioned as a school for preparing musicians for the PRSO and for preparing music teachers for the state public education system. Throughout the years, however, the conservatory has become a musical landmark in the Caribbean, providing advanced academic studies in various music areas to local students as well as international visitors. Since its inception, the conservatory has been under the administration of state government agencies, including the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (''Compañía de Fomento Económico''), the Administration for the Encouragement of Arts and Culture (''Administración para el Fomento de las Artes y Cultura''), and the Musical Arts Corporation (''Corporación de las Artes Musicales'', or CAM). It remained a part of the CAM until 1995 when a state law granted it fiscal and administrative autonomy. Since then, the conservatory has been autonomously run by a

board of trustees A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit org ...

appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate.

Academics

The conservatory offers a variety of post-secondary degrees in music, the post-graduate program offers

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to si ...

s in:

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an original piece or work of music, either vocal or instrumental, the structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new piece of music. People who create new compositions are called ...

music education Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as elementary or secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a research area in which scholars do origin ...

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound producti ...

classical guitar The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor o ...

, symphony instruments,

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

Caribbean music Caribbean music genres are very diverse. They are each synthesis of African, European, Arab, Asian, and Indigenous influences, largely created by descendants of African slaves (see Afro-Caribbean music), along with contributions from other comm ...

, and

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

. The graduate program consists of:

master’s degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

s in

, symphony instruments and

, as well as artists

diploma A diploma is a document awarded by an educational institution (such as a college or university) testifying the recipient has graduated by successfully completing their courses of studies. Historically, it has also referred to a charter or offici ...

s in

, symphony instruments,

, and

. It also offers

continuing education Continuing education (similar to further education in the United Kingdom and Ireland) is an all-encompassing term within a broad list of post-secondary learning activities and programs. The term is used mainly in the United States and Canada. ...

programs, and teacher certifications. In addition to its regular academic programs, it organizes various international student exchange programs with music schools all around the world. The Conservatory's Preparatory School offers programs for children, teenagers and adults with the purpose of encouraging music appreciation within the local community. These programs do not offer degrees or certifications, but provide basic to near expert level teaching to regular citizens who are not in its formal academic program.

Accreditations

The conservatory is accredited by various federal and state educational associations, including: *

National Association of Schools of Music The National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) is an association of post-secondary music schools in the United States and the principal U.S. accreditor for higher education in music. It was founded on October 20, 1924, and is based in Reston ...

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools The Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (Middle States Association or MSA) was a voluntary, peer-based, non-profit association that performed peer evaluation and regional accreditation of public and private schools in the Mid-Atl ...

* National Guild for Community Arts Education * Puerto Rico Education Council

Campus

Patio Norte del Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico

From 1960 to 2008 the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music was located in

Hato Rey Hato Rey is a former barrio located in the northwest part of the dissolved municipality of Río Piedras. It now stretches over three barrios, of the municipality of San Juan, Puerto Rico: Urban landscape Its name means "king's cattle farm" (' ...

, in the former facilities of an old

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. ...

. In 2009 they moved to the new facilities in the Miramar section of the island's capital. The conservatory is composed of three main buildings: # The Historic Building. Formerly known as ''Mothers of the Sacred Heart Private School'' (Spanish: Colegio de las Madres del Sagrado Corazón) and ''Miramar's Old Refuge for Girls'' (Spanish: Antiguo Asilo de Niñas de Miramar), is part of the United States

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. The building's reconstruction lasted from 2001 to 2008, and it has been operating since 2009. It hosts the administrative offices, computer and piano labs, classrooms, practice rooms, the

Luis A. Ferré Don Luis Alberto Ferré Aguayo (February 17, 1904 October 20, 2003) was a Puerto Rican engineer, industrialist, politician, philanthropist, and a patron of the arts. He was the governor of Puerto Rico from 1969 to 1973. He was the founder of the ...

Patio (north), and the

Pablo Casals Pau Casals i Defilló (Catalan: ; 29 December 187622 October 1973), usually known in English by his Castilian Spanish name Pablo Casals,

Patio (south). # The parking lot and green-roof. Hosts the Rafael Hernández Amphitheater and the Laguna Plaza which offers to the academic community and visitors an incredible view of the Condado lagoon, and it's the biggest green-roof in

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

. # The Academic Building. Inaugurated in August 2012, consists of the following facilities: #* First floor: The Amaury Veray Library, a unit of the Ángel Ramos Foundation Center for Learning Resources (Spanish: Centro de Recursos para el Aprendizaje Fundación Ángel Ramos), the Cecilia Negrón de Talavera wing, practice and rehearsal rooms. #* Second floor: The Bertita & Guillermo L. Martínez Theater (Concert and rehearsal halls: Jesús María Sanromá Concert Hall, the Anthony "Junior" Soto Hall, and the José "Pepito" Figueroa Hall), individual classrooms, practice cubicles, and lockers. #* Third floor: More individual classrooms, practice cubicles, and lockers. The facilities host a variety of concerts for the nearby communities featuring students, teachers, the

, and famous international performers.

Affiliates

The conservatory is a participating member of various US, Puerto Rico, and international music and arts associations, including: * American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers * Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities * Puerto Rico Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators *

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...

Music Library Association The Music Library Association (MLA) of the United States is the main professional organization for music libraries and librarians (including those whose music materials form only part of their responsibilities and collections). It also serves corp ...

* Puerto Rico Librarians Society (Sociedad de Bibliotecarios de Puerto Rico, in Spanish) * International Association of Music Libraries * ARCHIRED of Puerto Rico * Caribbean University Research and Institutional Libraries Association * MENC: The National Association for Music Education * Suzuki Association of the Americas * Kindermusik International * Association of Fund-Raising Professionals * International Personnel Management Association *

Steinway and Sons Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to the opening of a ...

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control Miramar (Santurce) Music schools in Puerto Rico Education in San Juan, Puerto Rico Government-owned corporations of Puerto Rico Educational institutions established in 1959 Buildings and structures in San Juan, Puerto Rico 1959 establishments in Puerto Rico