"Musicians are artists, music compositions are objects of art and we who study and display them are some sort of 'museums of sounds'."
At the China-Europe-America Museums Cooperation Initiative: Fourth Dialogue, Julia Sánchez Abeal, CEO of the Reina Sofia School of Music, introduced how this Madrid-based music institution has long worked to combine music education with the preservation, presentation, and sharing of musical heritage. The school’s Archives and Documentation Center exhibits many museum-like features, such as a vast collection of valuable musical materials, public access, and regular exhibitions to promote musical knowledge.
Full speech by Julia Sánchez Abeal
The Archives and Documentation Center at the Reina Sofia School of Music houses over 200,000 documents, including recordings, letters, manuscripts, and photographs of renowned musicians, providing rich material for cultural heritage research. For instance, its Rubinstein collection is a major source for studying the famous Polish pianist Arthur Rubinstein, second only to the Library of Congress in Washington DC. The collection includes manuscript memoirs, thousands of letters, artistic contracts, and photographs. There are also collections dedicated to Spanish pianist Isaac Albéniz and Spanish composer Federico Mompou.
A telegram from Arthur Rubinstein to Benito Mussolini, condemning the dictator’s unjust actions towards Italian Jewish citizens
The materials at the Archives and Documentation Center are accessible to the public both online and offline. The center collaborates with two major online cultural institutions to digitize a large volume of documents for public viewing. For example, the large-scale digitization project, the Cervantes Virtual Library, offers online access to over 40,000 documents from the school.
Cervantes Virtual Library
Moreover, the center collaborates with cultural platforms to more vividly spread musical knowledge through online exhibitions. It has previously partnered with Google Arts & Culture to present exhibitions such as Arthur Rubinstein, Jewish Pianist and Small School, Big Opera; the latter tells the story of the school’s memorable production of Mozart’s opera Così fan tutte led by Spanish mezzo-soprano Teresa Berganza.
Teresa Berganza (left) with Ana María Häsler (right) rehearsing Così fan tutte
Additionally, the center was preparing an exhibition on Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz, which includes a free downloadable score of his masterpiece Iberia for pianists worldwide.
Online exhibitions produced by the Archives and Documentation Center on Google Arts & Culture
As Julia Sánchez Abeal mentioned in her speech, the Reina Sofia School of Music is not only a higher education institution that trains musicians but also a museum that collects, studies, and displays musical heritage. Balancing the roles of both an academy and a museum, the Reina Sofia School of Music is dedicated to bringing music into everyone's life, creatively and innovatively connecting hearts through music.
Julia Sánchez Abeal CEO of Reina Sofia School of Music
Julia Sánchez Abeal has been CEO of the Reina Sofía School of Music since 2014. Achieving social, cultural, and educational impact has been the goal of her career. Before that, she was Director of Operations and part of the founding team of Empieza Por educar, a programme focused on fighting educational inequalities. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Management from ICADE, an MBA from the Columbia Business School and a scholarship from the Barrié Foundation. Ms. Abeal has been selected by Mujeres & Cïa. as one of the Top 100 Women Leaders in Spain.
