1970s

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

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

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.”