Seneca College - RED 2017 - 25

1970s

From King's first
cohort, a music business
rebel emerged

PHOTO: MONTCLAIR STATE UNIVERSITY/MIKE PETERS

Val Azzoli
VAL AZZOLI LOVES MUSIC. Loves what it says, its cultural
power and how it makes him feel.
Like very few, he had the courage to make his passion his career, and what a career he has made: Val has
managed hall-of-fame rock bands like the Rolling
Stones and Rush, eventually becoming CEO and
Co-Chairman of Atlantic Records, where he signed
artists including Aaliyah, Lil' Kim, Jewel and LeAnn
Rimes. He has also served as Director of the Apollo
Theater Foundation.
Today, retired from the industry, when he's not
playing tennis (his other passion), Val is a professor at
Rutgers and Montclair State University. He is teaching a
music course called "Rock to Rap as a Social Phenomenon." No surprise, it has a waiting list.
Val is quick to tell you that none of his accomplishments would have been possible without Seneca. A
self-described "misfit," he had dropped out of high
school and was looking for a less-traditional learning
environment with more freedom for creativity. Seneca's
new campus in King was the fit he needed.
"If it wasn't for Seneca, I wouldn't have had any of
those jobs," says Val. "It enabled me to stay off the
streets and figure out life."

Val, a Business Administration graduate, was part of
the first-ever cohort at King. Garriock Hall had yet to
be built, so classes were held in majestic Eaton Hall.
Class sizes were small, helping create a family-like,
conversational atmosphere that really appealed to Val.
"King felt like a boarding school and everybody was
a part of everyone else's life," he says. "We'd have lunch
with our professors, we would play Ping-Pong with the
janitors and the kitchen staff. It was unique, because
we were all pioneers, without knowing that we were
pioneers. It was very special."
Val appreciated, too, the alternative approach
professors took to their lectures. He related to them
because, like him, they were "rogues," willing to buck
the mainstream and conventional teaching structures,
instead drawing on their life experiences. In this environment, Val obtained business skills and insights that
stuck with him throughout his career.
"Although I didn't know it at the time, everything I
learned I would use later on in life," says Val. "I never
thought I'd use accounting. But 20 years later, I'm in a
board meeting at Atlantic Records and they are talking
about balance sheets. Not only did I know what a balance sheet was, I knew how it worked."
Most importantly, it was at Seneca where this future
Premier's Award recipient gained the self-confidence
to follow his passion for music and learning for its own
sake-something he tries to share with his students.
"If I didn't go to Seneca, I would not have appreciated the art of learning," says Val. "I also discovered that
I had potential and that it was a bigger world out there
than I thought."

We were all
pioneers without
knowing we were
pioneers. It was
very special.

RED

2017 25

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Seneca College - RED 2017