Help Spencer Get Back to Berklee

Hey everyone! :) My name is Spencer Nicholson and I am a singer/songwriter from Bracebridge, Ontario.  I have been playing music and singing for as long as I can remember and knew at a very young age that it was something I had to pursue.


Once I was in high school, I loved every opportunity to sing and perform.


I found out about the music school Berklee College of Music and as soon as I did—I was hooked. Berklee College of Music is a well-known music school stationed in Boston, Massachusetts and is unique because of its focus and approach on contemporary music studies. Many famous artists such as Quincy Jones (Producer of Michael Jackson), John Mayer, and Lalah Hathelway have attended. Passionate people from all over the world audition and, although it is expensive, I knew it was the place for me. 



I had my sights set from then on; practicing, performing, and writing songs constantly every day to get better.
 

In 2014 I applied, and after a long extensive application and audition process, I got accepted!! :)

It was a dream come true! The idea of being surrounded by others who are as passionate about music as I am was so exciting.  But unfortunately, because of my financial limitations, I couldn’t afford to go then, and had to take a year off to save up as much money as I could to hopefully attend. 

It was a long year working a total of five different jobs, multiple jobs at once, and constantly searching for outside scholarships, grants, and other sources of funds. Through the money I saved, outside grants I received, as well as some extremely generous gifts from amazing people, I successfully raised enough money to attend Berklee for an entire year!!!

It was hands down the best year of my life!

I learned and grew some much more than I ever thought I would; both in knowledge and ability. I got to work with so many amazing, talented professors

(The Great Livingston Taylor)

and musicians; and met so many incredible people who have become some of my best friends today. When I left Berklee—I left as a new person, completely inspired and even more driven to succeed, realizing I had so much more to learn.

Since my year at Berklee, many amazing music opportunities have come my way. I was able to perform music full time this past summer, I am currently working on a full-length, self-titled album



that will be released this year, and there are talks of an album tour this upcoming summer! :) I’m loving life and looking forward to the future.

Although things musically are going well, I believe with more time studying I would be able to learn and improve even more.

So I decided to look into some of the programs Berklee offers and found out about a Study Abroad program in Valencia, Spain. 


Berklee opened a second campus in Valencia in 2012 as a place for Masters students to study, as well as undergrad students to have a chance learn about music in another part of the world. This intrigued me, so I decided to apply and after a week of waiting, I found out that I got accepted l! :)

With some more research I even found that (although the tuition cost is the same as Boston) the housing and living costs in Spain, are much more affordable.

In the Study Abroad program I will get the chance to live in another country, travel throughout Europe, get a Berklee education, and write and record music in professional studios in Spain. 


With only 196 students on the campus, this allows me to work very closely with some of the Masters students and have more one on one interaction with the professors. All in all, I think that this opportunity would be so amazing and great path to take.

Main Goal:

Through this GoFundMe campaign, I’m trying to raise at least $10,000 to help with the tuition costs, and any other comprehensive fees that come my way. All funds raised would be used solely for these reasons. With a little bit more hard work, a small loan, and the scholarship given, I may be able to attend Berklee again and study in Valencia!

The program start date is January 7/ 2017 and the bill has to be paid before then!!!!

If you do chose to donate, I have some awards in place to say thank you!!!!

 
Rewards:

 ~If you give $20 or more, I will be doing weekly draws and it if you win, I will write a brief song specifically about you, saying thank you and will be posting it on my Instagram page every week! So maybe you’ll get a song written about you J

 
~If you give $50 dollars or more I will be doing weekly draws and the winner each week will receive a free download of my new upcoming album when it comes out in December. They will also receive a signed personal thank you note.

 
~If you give $100 or more, there will be a big draw at Christmas time and the winner will win a free day pass for 2 to go rock climbing (on a REAL rock wall), and high ropes course at Camp Mini-Yo-We in Port Sydney, Ontario. In the spring time of course haha.

 And the grand prize!!

 ~If you give $150 dollars or more and live in Ontario, Canada you will be put in a draw and the winner will win a exclusive 1 hour concert from myself in August 2017! I will travel to where you are and serenade you for the evening :)!

 
If you chose to donate I just want to thank you so much for your interest and investment in my musical journey.  This really means so much to me and I am so thankful.  If this opportunity comes alive, I look forward to sharing any and all the music that comes out of this experience.

 

Be sure to SHARE this link on Facebook, twitter, and anywhere you can! :)

 THANK YOU!!

Click here to see my Facebook artist page
Click here to see me Instagram page
Click here to go to my Youtube channel


Here is a single that I released last semester! This song will also be in my album!