At HVS Conservatory, you can develop the necessary tools to succeed in the music industry. Based in Los Angeles, our faculty of music industry expert and mentors help to coach aspiring artists by passing on real-world training from their personal experiences alongside necessary musical training. Check out our schedule of masterclasses and free community events happening this Spring 2025.
We recently had an interview with one of our students, Alex Cheng, and he shared about the events that HVS Conservatory offers that influenced him the most. Read his answer below!
Which of our special events and/or masterclasses have impacted you the most?
There are so many amazing opportunities and master classes at HVSC that all of them completely changed my life so powerfully. I can think of working with Stefano Langone who was a finalist on American Idol. Just a beast of an artist, just incredible. Sizzy Rocket’s songwriting master classes, she’s phenomenal as well. Sam DeRosa, phenomenal as well, they’re all incredible, but I will say that the opportunity that impacted me the most was the initial acoustic session with Nikki Flores.
I remember it was the first time that I had really sung in front of a live audience. This acoustic session took place in my third week at HVSC. Up until then, oh man, I was shaking in my boots on stage. Just working on these songs that I had no idea what I was doing. I was just trying my best to remember the lyrics and and just keep my cool on stage. I had only performed in class for the teachers and for the other students in this acoustic session we had a live audience and we had this guest Mentor Nikki Flores coming in to perform for us and give us feedback as well, and I can just remember I sang “Love Yourself” by Justin Bieber.
I was still scared, I was still shaking on stage, I couldn’t feel my legs. I didn’t know what to do with my arms, sweating, and afterwards the feedback that she gave me was just so open, it was so kind, it was so encouraging and that just gave me so much belief because to have such an incredible, professional artist come and reinforce and encourage what you’re doing, that just changed my mindset.
It gave me so much hope, it gave me the belief that yeah, I can do this. It might not be perfect right now, but I can keep moving forward on this path, and since then I’ve been able to work with Nikki on various occasions. She just helped me record and produce my very first single which is coming to Spotify and Apple Music later this year called “Falling Up.” What a dream of an opportunity and it wouldn’t have happened without that very first acoustic session at HVSC.