Project Report
| Sep 23, 2022
A Kenyan Musician Whose Dream Came True
![Adrian arriving to Boston!]()
Adrian arriving to Boston!
We met Adrian Atonya back in 2020 in a MFW masterclass with the Nairobi National Youth Orchestra violinists. We were blown away by his playing and signed him up to play in one of our first every Masterclass Series with violinist Anton Polezhayev in December of 2020.
Anton was impressed by Adrian’s level, especially considering he was self taught and had only played for 4 years, and began offering him free, private lessons through MFW.
After some lessons with Anton, Adrian won the scholarship award with our educational partners, Concert Festival, and competed in their Spring 2021 International Competition - he was awarded Grand Prix winner (a special thanks to Concert Festival for giving our students the opportunity to enter your competitions free of charge)!
Fast forward to October of 2021: Adrian played in another one of our Masterclass Series for Boston Conservatory at Berklee professor Saul Bitran. Impressed by Adrian’s performance, Professor Bitran prompted the idea of Adrian studying with him at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Adrian later told us that his dream was to study at BoCo - a few years prior, he had actually filled out the entire application, then stopped due to the request for an application fee.
Obviously we said, “ok, let’s do this thing” and proceeded accordingly. We immediately contacted the Boston Conservatory at Berklee for assistance in the fees and began planning for Adrian's application and audition repetoire. This time around, Adrian’s fees were waived thanks to the kindness of Dean Michael Shinn, President Kathy Young and the admissions office. Step one, down! His application was in, got approved and he was all set for an online, live audition.
Now, I would like to fast forward to the very best part: Adrian did not only get into BoCo, but he was awarded the Presidential Scbolarship which covers tuition, a meal plan, housing, an iPad, and more! He is currently in Boston now attending his dream school!
We are so proud, so happy, and so grateful. This is undenyable proof that great talent is everywhere in this world and great things can be accomplished with support. This incredible talent of a violinist went from an unfulfilled application to receiving the most rare and generous scholarship provided by a prestigious conservatory of music, all because we came together. The power of community is stronger than anything else, and we're so grateful you're here with us.
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