Presenter: Hello and welcome back! Our guest today is Andrea Carrera, a music major at the Juilliard School of Music. In addition to being a professional pianist in training, Ms Carrera is a well-⁠known music blogger whose subscribers have reached the number of 3 million last summer! Good morning, Andrea! Thank you for joining us today!

Andrea Carrera: Good morning! Thank you for inviting me.

Presenter: Could you tell us how a blog about classical music can be so popular?

Andrea Carrera: Well, I would say, that was a very gradual achievement. I first started my blog when I got enough courage to apply to the Juilliard School.

Presenter: Courage? I didn’t know music was such a dangerous trade that it would require courage!

Andrea Carrera: Oh, it can be! The world of musicians is very competitive from the time you start as a young child, and then apply to college, begin your career as a graduate  — you name it! And while you won’t face any death threats or dangers of criminal kind, you will have to realize who you are competing against  — people who devote their entire lives, their entire well-⁠being and existence to the pursuit of music. These are people with a passion, people who would not be tempted by watching Netflix or playing a video game after a really hard day. They would not be hanging out with their friends over the weekend. Instead, they would put in those extra couple of hours of practice that they always need. And yes, it can be quite scary to realize that these are your rivals. It’s easy to be intimidated.

Presenter: Wow! That sounds like a different species! But sorry for having interrupted you. You were saying that you started your blog when you were applying for Juilliard.

Andrea Carrera: That’s right. There were so many questions that I had, so many worries and uncertainties, that I decided that no matter what the outcome, I would start a blog where I would document my whole application process, including auditions, to make it easier for others who apply to the best music school in America. And when I did get in, I continued describing all my experiences as a student.

Presenter: So, this is how your audience grew?

Andrea Carrera: Yes. After all, music students from all over the world are curious about Juilliard. It’s like Harvard or Yale in the world of performing art. Just in a year the number of my subscribers reached a stable 500 000 and stayed that way for quite a while.

Presenter: And then what happened?

Andrea Carrera: Then I had an idea to go to Moscow for the 16th Tchaikovsky Competition.

Presenter: As a participant?

Andrea Carrera: No! No… I wish… You do have to be rather talented and hard-⁠working and really lucky to get into Juilliard, but you have to be so much more to be selected to something like Tchaikovsky Competition. Competitions of that level are like the World Cup or the Olympics to us. No. I decided to go as a blogger and as a fan!

Presenter: A fan?

Andrea Carrera: Yes! Out of 25 pianists selected to participate, 6 were Juilliard alumni. I wanted to support them.

Presenter: Really? I thought there were only 2 participants from the United States, and only one of them went to Juilliard.

Andrea Carrera: That’s true. The other 5 were from different countries  — Canada, South Korea, Spain and two from China. But they still went to Juilliard. In fact, the Juilliard School of Music and the Moscow Conservatory supplied 15 out of 25 participants, 6 and 9 respectively.

Presenter: Fascinating! How did you like the competition?

Andrea Carrera: I loved it! The legendary hall of the Moscow Conservatory, fantastic pianists, an impressive jury… But I especially liked the audience. They were so sincere in how they expressed their emotions, it was very touching. So I tried to write about it all in my blog, and I also conducted interviews with the participants and the jury members and videoed all that. And that’s when my audience grew to 3 million subscribers. So you see...