Iberia Airlines is sponsoring a new scholarship in the name of late guitar great Paco de Lucia at Berklee College of Music, open to guitarists from Spain or Latin America.
According to Berklee, Juan Cabezon Oppici of Madrid is the winner of the 2016 scholarship, which covers tuition, travel and board for a five-week summer program. The Spanish airline will fund the scholarship in 2017 and “would like to establish this scholarship as a long-term offer for young talented guitarists.”
Paco de Lucia Receives Heartfelt Funeral in Spain
The new scholarship was announced at the same time as the first screening, in Madrid, of a new Iberia-funded documentary that features the last guitar owned by De Lucia in the starring role. In La Guitarra Vuela (The Guitar Flies), the Spanish guitar master’s instrument, known as La Maestro, literally flies as a passenger on flights to nine countries — courtesy of Iberia.
The guitar reached the hands of over a dozen musicians, including Brazilian great Caetano Veloso, flamenco guitarist Tomatito and Portuguese fado singer Mariza.
The documentary was directed by Javier Limón and Jorge Martinez.
Iberia will screen La Guitarra Vuela on its flights starting July 1.
De Lucia died of a heart attack at age 66 in 2014.