Nickolai Podvin Royal Academy of Music-London Fund

I am Nickolai Podvin and I have dedicated my life to serve music and become the best musician and conductor that I can be. I was the only one of 360 applicants to be accepted to the Royal Academy of Music in London, UK for their Artist Diploma program in conducting. It is a one-year intensive study of the art of conducting, helping aspiring conductors prepare for a professional career. I am asking for your help to pursue my dream and my passion. I am working hard to cover my university fees and hope to use the money raised here to cover my living expenses so I can completely focus all my time and energy on my studies next year.

The road that has led me to the Royal Academy of Music has been filled with many challenges that tested my faith in myself, my faith in music, and my faith in God. But as I stand here, at the precipice of my future, I am sure. I have found my purpose. My passion, my voice, my experiences and hardships have all brought me here: I am an artist with a voice that is non-verbal. My gifts allow me to become a tool to help shape lives through music, a tool to take down hate, fear, negativity, and discrimination. My journey has only just begun and your support means the world to me.

Here is a little more about me and my story:

I was born in Kubrat, Bulgaria and spent the first five years of my life living in an orphanage. Those years were filled with loneliness, poverty, fear, depression, pain, and abuse. I was haunted by the question “Why?” Why was I here? My only solace was a second-hand radio that played classical music each night before we went to bed. It allowed me to escape my reality and find sanctuary in my dreams.

When I was five, I was adopted by an amazing and loving couple from Minnesota in the United States and given a chance to have a completely different life. The day I arrived at my new home, I was instantly drawn to the piano. I struggled up the stairs and, with just one touch of an ivory key, I learned I could create music, the thing that had provided me such comfort. All through that first evening, I played with the piano – experimenting with different sounds, octaves, chords and even my first scale. Understanding that their son had a gift, my parents Lorna and John quickly set me up with Suzuki piano lessons. Though music, I learned how to communicate and deal with my feelings.

It would be easy to say my life was instantly better after this moment, but that wouldn’t be true. I struggled to adjust to this new American culture I had been thrown into. I had to learn an entirely new language and customs, combined with the fact that I didn’t have the skills or experiences most American children would have at my age. I was bullied throughout school, which made adjusting to my new life and learning in school even more difficult.

Here too, I was able to find myself in music. I was intensely curious and in fourth grade began to experiment with other instruments. I learned to play the trumpet and joined the concert band. Here I found friends and was able to be myself, and I wanted more. I learned to play the clarinet and fell in love with its sound. I joined the boy’s choir and learned to see my voice as an instrument. Next, I learned the bass clarinet and became even more at home, spending more time in the band room than with other kids. Finally, in middle school I was introduced to the bassoon and from the first squawk I was in love. I focused solely on it and joined multiple orchestras through my middle and high school careers, winning awards for outstanding musicianship and musicality with an instrument.

But I learned something critical at the week-long Minnesota All State Symphony Orchestra camp hosted at St. Olaf College in 2006: my calling. For the first time, I saw a professional conductor directing titan pieces and inspiring the orchestra of students to play and create music, just like the professionals. I heard the orchestra I was a part of sound almost identical to the recordings I grew up listening to. Through dedication and leadership, the conductor created an environment that allowed the musicians to explore, experiment, and grow. That is when I realized the instrument I had been looking for was the soul of the orchestra – the people who make it up and give it life. I left this experience as a young musician striving to become a conductor.

Everything I have experienced between that moment and today has led me to this moment. I can't wait to see where music takes me.