So…why did I chose Germany anyway?

During my Junior year of college, I participated in a study abroad program in Freiburg, Germany, located in the Black Forest. The city and the location were quite dreamy, to say the least! I not only studied German at the university, but also music performance at the conservatory. I played in a few student orchestras, with rehearsals in the evenings after classes, and also went on a few tours with these orchestras (like to Prague and Russia).

I got a chance to really see what the music scene was like in Germany first-hand (also in comparison to other European countries), what the level and style of playing was, what it’s like to study at a German conservatory, and how deeply German culture is seeped with classical music. Seemingly every town and village has an orchestra or opera house, and the professional orchestras are even subsidized by the government! So many opportunities.

That year whetted my appetite for travel and life in Europe, and spurred me to want to once again spend some time in Germany – I felt like this was something I had to do again or I would regret it. I also knew that if I was going to spend more time abroad, I needed to do it right after I finished my Bachelor’s degree. I decided to apply to do my Master’s in music performance in Germany, a hotspot for famous professors and world-renowned conservatories. In addition, tuition was practically free, offering a solution to the biggest hindrance to further studies in the States (seeing the mound of debt I’d already accumulated and lack of time to devote to practicing because of needing to work to earn money)! It seemed an almost unbelievable combination.

And so the adventure began!

As I finished my degree in the States, I scrambled to meet deadlines for conservatories abroad, trying make international phone calls and figuring out what documents they needed and if translations of those were needed. Luckily my German was solid this time around, so I was able to communicate directly with school officials. I finally got letters inviting me to audition at 5 conservatories, as well as a promise from one professor with a small studio to accept me if I came over. That acted as a security blanket for me and eased my nerves a bit about the whole move…what if I packed my bags and didn’t get in anywhere in Germany? The little savings I had would have been shot and I would have had no further plans. Game over. So that promise was so critical, and while I ended up not going to school there, and I am still very thankful for that help!

I went on one last trip that summer, a camping trip with two college friends to Devil’s Lake State Park in Wisconsin, about a week before I packed all the basic necessities and a few special reminders of home into one suitcase.

Europe was my oyster.

After I arrived in Berlin, my home base for the summer, I traveled around auditioning, staying at youth hostels, booking cheap train tickets, and eating at bakeries. I subletting a dorm room with only a table and a bed from an African guy in the building where my friend lived. The remainder of the summer consisted of: hanging out with my friend, entertaining a visitor or two, reading books I could borrow or find for free, working on learning some coding since I also had a laptop, scouring Berlin for things to do for free or very cheap (since I had almost no money), and waiting until I got my acceptance letters to find out where I could to move to.

Finally, the results were in:

2 acceptances and 1 waitlist, which soon turned into an acceptance as well. I easily made my decision, which seemed clear to me to be my perfect fit – I chose Hamburg, a big, beautiful harbor city with hopefully lots of opportunities to gain playing experience and hopefully support my studies by gigging.

To say that I was excited, proud, and nervous would be understatements; there were still a lot of variables that I needed to figure out…

Stay tuned to more from my “In the Beginning” series to learn how my arrival in Hamburg turned out, how I navigated moving abroad, and much more!