Young guitarist Mircea Gogoncea has been admitted to an MA programme at the Royal Academy of Music in England, for which he is to receive a scholarship of 4.000 pounds. The sum is insufficient to cover the tuition fees and the expenses that the musician has to cover, so Mircea Gogoncea has put out a call for aid on his website, aimed at anyone who might be able to help him. You can visit his website here

So, Mircea Gogoncea, known to the Romanian public as the student with the highest amount of prizes ever obtained through contests and competitions, after graduating in Germany, you would like to continue your studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London where you have been admitted into the class of famous professor Michael Lewin, and for which you have been offered a very generous scholarship. Please tell us what are the obstacles on your path to study there?

Even the most generous grants tend to cover less than 10% of the total costs of the study period. So in other words, even the students who receive support from the institutions where they enrol find themselves in need of substantially more financial backing in order to truly continue their studies at those institutions. We're talking about MA programmes whose total cost would amount to nearly 40.000 pounds, so these issues are far from being resolved. I managed to secure a sponsorship that came out of nowhere, from a person I hadn't been acquainted with before and who I believe wishes to remain anonymous, and that will cover my remaining tuition fees for the first year. Even under these circumstances, with a grant and a personal sponsorship, I still don't know how I'm going to be able to complete these studies.

How long does the MA programme last for?

A period of two years is the standard for an MA programme there.

What would these studies mean for the guitarist Mircea Gogonea? Why are you so intent on studying in London, under the guidance of Michael Lewin?

The main reason is that professor Michael Lewin and the institution itself offer an exceptional level of education at an international level. The most well-known guitarists of the last few decades were educated there, in Great Britain.