EL NORTE, by Luis Raul López, 01/25/15
English Translation
During almost 15 years, Alejandro Ramirez Cisneros lived with one goal in mind, study at Berklee College of Music. Today after accomplishing a dual major from the best music school in the world, his goal has changed; his goal now is to coach and mentor others to find their call in life.
The 28-year-old young men, who in last May graduated from Music Production and Engineering and Film Scoring, came back to Monterey for few days to give conferences and motivational speeches in different venues like the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Police of Monterrey and different churches. Alejandro currently is working as a photographer, lead audio engineer, videographer and graphic designer for Berklee College of Music, where is famous for it’s distinguishable alumni, like Juan Luis Guerra, Diana Krall, Esperanza Spalding, and Pat Metheny.
After receiving a revelation when we was 13 years old he started singing and playing guitar, he self- thought how to play the instrument, until one day he knew that he had to get into the prestigious school.
“I asked to my private instructor, where is the best place to study music? And he answered, there’s a place in Boston called Berklee, but I don’t think you can make it, it’s very expensive and almost impossible to get accepted. Even friends and colleagues told him that it would be almost impossible to make it to Berklee. 10 years after he set his goal, and after studying high school at the Universidad de Monterrey, and Mass Communication in the Tecnológico de Monterrey and also after getting his diploma from the Escuela Superior de Musica y Danza de Monterrey, the musician made the big leap to Boston.
Even though it was his dream to get there, it was in his first semester that he realized that studying at this school was not easy, the competitive level was very high, and the demanding classes and curriculum made everybody falling into very intense stress.
“You have to work really focus, I arrived to Berklee at 25 years old with already two degrees, but there are 17 year old kids that they been in the road for years, and they are monstrous musicians, that makes the environment very competitive, and kind of difficult”, explains.
In order for him to change that feeling, the “regiomontano” founded in the year 2011 “The Ubuntu Family”, formed with the intention of offering the students the opportunity of having a family oriented
relationships, rather than just academic relationships.
At the beginning the group had few members where they were offered a space to meet, today there are almost 300 members from Berklee, Harvard and MIT.
At the same time Alejandro inside the group, his purpose is also to awaken the artistic vocation in young students, like the case of “Bence Peter” from Hungary, who achieved the world record Guinness, becoming the fastest piano player in the world.
“He was a very shy person, who didn’t want to show himself as a piano player, but one day I told him, very few people from your country have the opportunity to study here, why are you here? That awoke him and today it’s a great pianist”, Alejandro comments.
“It made me really happy because his success is also my success”. Besides his motivational speeches and music production, work that he does regularly in Boston, Ramirez Cisneros keeps going with his work as a lead composer in film protects, television and video.