Enrique Hernandis

Associate Professor Berklee Study AbroadFirst Year Abroad

In Their Own Words

"I want my students, young people with high expectations, to enjoy the same experience that I've lived in my growth as a musician. I believe that happiness and effectiveness in the progress of a student is not caused by the student’s musical level, but by the direction and speed of their educational experiences. So the secret of happiness and motivation is not a point of musical level: it is the slope on which the student is advancing."

"When I’m teaching composition or any related subject, I am looking especially at motivation and involvement of each member of the class, however large it may be, and however high the musical level we are talking about, either in tonal harmony or orchestral composition. My deep involvement in the class has to be exactly the same with each one of my students. Each student is a new world that I have to discover."

Career Highlights

  • Over 10 years as head of the Composition Department at the Valencia Professional Conservatory of Music
  • Professor since 2003
  • Curricula developer for public conservatories
  • Author of two harmony books published by Impromptu: Ejercitacion Armonica, Book 1 and Book 2
  • President of the Valencia Composers Association (COSICOVA), 2005–2007
  • Guest composer for 5 Tage fur Neue Musik festival in Zurich with soloists Branimir Slokar, Claude Delangle, and Mel Culbertson
  • Private lessons of contemporary composition in London with Hilda Paredes and psychology at Valencia University

Awards

  • Recipient of over 20 composition awards, highlighting “Hellenikon Idyllion” (Olympic Games, Athens, 2004)
  • City of Madrid Award (2005)
  • European Young Composers Award (Belgium, 2007)
  • Daniel Young Composers Award (Israel, 2008)
  • City of Alicante Award
  • Villa de Benidorm First Prize and Special Prize by audience rating 
  • Fallera of Valencia Prize
  • Tolosako Musika Banda First Prize
  • Hellenikon Idyllion Award for the Olympic Games in Athens 
  • Second prize in Castellon Government Contest, conducting the Navajas Wind Band

Education

  • B.A., Valencia Conservatory of Music, composition and percussion
  • Berklee College of Music, Boston, film scoring

Teaches in:

  • Berklee Study Abroad
  • First Year Abroad