The Cleveland Institute of Music and the Conservatorio Nacional de Música of the Dominican Republic began an international partnership in September 2026, building on several years of relationship-building, spearheaded by Distinguished Professor of Piano Antonio Pompa-Baldi. The collaboration creates 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.
The partnership 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.