Cleveland Institute of Music to Launch Partnership With Dominican Conservatory

The Cleveland Institute of Music and the Conservatorio Nacional de Música of the Dominican Republic, represented by its Ministry of Culture, marked the beginning of a new international partnership Thursday with a signing ceremony and concert celebrating the shared power of music education, artistic collaboration and cultural exchange.

CIM President and CEO Paul Hogle, Executive Vice President and Provost Scott Harrison, Dean Jennifer Call, and Distinguished Professor of Piano Antonio Pompa-Baldi joined Roberto Ángel Salcedo, Minister of Culture of the Dominican Republic, and Amaury Sánchez, Vice Minister of Creativity and Artistic Training, for the event.

The new partnership builds on several years of relationship-building, spearheaded by Pompa-Baldi, and includes a CIM faculty delegation to Santo Domingo last spring and Vice Minister Sánchez's visit to CIM last winter. The collaboration will create new opportunities for faculty development, curriculum building, artistic exchange, and student training between the two institutions.

Over the coming years, CIM faculty will work alongside their counterparts at the Conservatorio as it strengthens its academic and artistic capacity and moves toward becoming a degree-granting institution. Together, the institutions will explore curricular partnerships that draw on the distinctive strengths of each school while creating pathways for talented Dominican students to pursue their studies at CIM.

"There is a Dominican saying that captures the spirit of this moment beautifully: 'Quien a buen árbol se arrima, buena sombra le cobija — 'He who leans against a good tree is sheltered by good shade." Shared Hogle at the ceremony: "In choosing to walk with the Conservatorio Nacional, we lean into a strong and rooted institution, and together we create shade—opportunity, mentorship, and artistic growth—for talented young musicians on both sides of the Caribbean."

The agreement establishes three areas of cooperation: promoting the exchange of faculty, students, and academic programs between CIM and the Conservatorio; developing joint degree pathways between the schools; and identifying and preparing top students to enroll at CIM. Additionally, the Ministry of Culture and CIM will seek to promote cultural and artistic exchange between the Dominican Republic and Cleveland.

The initiative is led by the Dominican Ministry of Culture with further support from the Fundación Sinfonía, in partnership with the Cleveland Institute of Music. Pompa-Baldi's participation is supported in part through the U.S. Department of State's Fulbright Specialist Program.

The signing ceremony concluded with a brief concert, underscoring the partnership's central purpose: bringing musicians and institutions together through the shared language of music.