As the new semester begins, a new dean comes in and fills the missing void of the fine arts department after El Camino’s old dean retired.

The new Dean of Fine Arts at EC is Berkeley Price, who was originally from Antelope Valley College where his role there was Chair of the Performing Arts.

Before Price came to EC as the new dean, former Dean of Fine Arts Connie Fitzsimons retired and was later replaced with Choral Director Joanna Medawar Nachef as the interim dean.

With all of Price’s past experiences in performing arts at Antelope Valley College, he said he was ready to take on his new role as the Dean of Fine Arts at EC.

“I am just getting acquainted with my role for just over a month after I started in January with so many fine programs like music, dance, theater, communication studies, photography and all arts visual and historic,” Price said.

Following his interview with Vice President of Academic Affairs Jean Shankweiler, Price was the only candidate qualified to be the Dean of Fine Arts over several other candidates from other colleges.

“When we asked him questions during the interview, his ability to answer the questions made us believe that he would be the best person for the job,” Shankweiler said. “He had the best ability to do the best out of all the people we interviewed.”

Shankweiler declined to comment on how many people competed to be the new Dean of Fine Arts.

Associate Dean of Fine Arts Walter Cox said Price brings a lot to the table due to his “previous job as the department chair at Antelope Valley College.”

“I am excited about the new dean because we had a little bit of a transition after our old Dean of Fine Arts left, and we had an interim Dean last fall ,” Cox said. “Now our new dean is here and he’s able to get the work going and learn his job the way he did things from his previous school.”

Other than being the new Dean of Fine Arts at EC, Price is also a musician who likes playing many instruments such as the little foot long clarinet, the saxophone, to the 8-foot contrabass clarinet and also the piano.

“I consider myself as far as a performer goes, a clarinetist,” Price said. “That’s probably my favorite because I could do most with it touring all over the world making records and lots of memories with friends.”

Price said he also likes to travel with his mother and wife, as well as perform with many bands all over the world

“In high school and college I was able to travel to places like the United Kingdom, Japan several times, China, to all over the United States and Canada,” Price said. “I performed in Australia, New Zealand, Panama, Greece and several trips to England and It’s been really fun.”