Russo's Singer Accepted To Berklee College Of Music, Uncertain How He'll Pay For It

Barbara Howard: Now he is left with a difficult choice. Back at Christmastime, a store clerk at Russo’s Market in Watertown opened his mouth, and what came out went viral.

(GUILHERME ASSUNCAO SINGING)

There he is, dressed in a white uniform, singing into a microphone as astonished shoppers take it all in.

(GUILHERME ASSUNCAO SINGING)

Howard: The man, Guilherme Assuncao, or "Gilly" — he's 23 years old — is joining us in the studio. Thanks for coming in.

Guilherme Assuncao: Thanks for inviting me.

Howard: Well, can I call you Gilly?

Assuncao: Yeah (laughs).

Howard: Well after that video went viral, you did end up getting an audition — I want to get a little update on what's going on with you. That was at Christmastime. You got an audition at Berklee College of Music, and I hear you've been accepted. Where were you? What happened? How did you find out?

Assuncao: So I was home. It was after midnight, and I checked my e-mail, and it was an e-mail saying Your decision is ready. And my heart stopped. It said Log into your account, then there was another button saying View your decision. That was the point that I was like I don't want to do this, I don't want to open it, I don't want to find out. But after I opened it, the first word I saw was Congratulations. I got my phone and I called my grandma because she was the first person I wanted to tell. And I woke her up, of course, and like, she was like, so happy. She thought something bad happened because I was calling her at 1:30 [a.m.] So she was, like, super proud.

Howard: So you came to the United States from Brazil, what, two years ago or so?

Assuncao: Two and a half years ago.

Howard: When did you realize you had this gift of a wonderful voice?

Assuncao: I sang my whole life in the bathroom.

Howard: In the bathroom?

Assuncao: Yes.

Howard: Did any of your family say, "Hey, what's that?"

Assuncao:  No.

Howard: Even your grandmother? It sounds like she's very supportive.

Assuncao: She liked to hear me, but she always kept in her head, too, that, like, don't follow music because it doesn't take you anywhere. But there was a Mother's Day event [in] my second year of high school in Brazil and they invited me to sing a song. And I remember she was sitting on the first seat of the first row, and I was going to come down the aisle, singing the song, and then get on stage. And I remember I was coming down the aisle singing and then I passed in front of her. I just remember her face like, she opened her eyes like, What? And that was the first time that, like, I realized that music, it's so important to me.

Howard: So take me back to that day in December at Russo’s. They're setting up a sound system for some live music, bringing in some professional musicians to entertain the customers, and you decided to give them a little sound check.

Assuncao: Yes, so when the guy came to set up the sound system, he was alone, and I said, "Do you need help? I can sing a song and you can equalize the sound if you like to." And he asked, "Do you sing?" I was like, "Kind of." After I was singing, the owner — which is Tony Russo — he came and he made everybody that was working stop to watch me, and he asked if I wanted to sing a couple of songs the next day, I was like sure. So I did it.

Howard: What kinds of comments were you getting from customers?

Assuncao: Oh, I had, like, so many comments. There was a moment that I sang a song from "Les Mis," “Bring Him Home.” There was one customer that came to me and said "That was the song from when I came back from the war," and it was like — I wasn't expecting that.

Howard: So Berklee admits you?

Assuncao: Yes.

Howard: Did they give you any money?

Assuncao: No, they didn't give me any scholarships. Two days after I found out I was accepted, I went to the financial aid office and they told me, like, to look at the website for outside scholarships. But for international students, there's not a lot of outside scholarships. It's really complicated.

Howard: You don't qualify for them, in other words.

Assuncao: No. And like my grandma was really like, "Oh, I hope you got a scholarship." I was like, "Well I didn't get any scholarships." So, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to attend.

Howard: So what are you going to do?

Assuncao: Well, I'm trying my best to raise as much money as I can to be able to afford it.

Howard: So do you, what do you have — a GoFundMe, or something like that?

Assuncao: Yes, there is a GoFundMe page going on.

Howard: How much money have you raised so far?

Assuncao: So far we've raised $8,000.

Howard: But what does Berklee cost?

Assuncao: It’s around $260,000 for the four [years of] study.

Howard: Did you approach Berklee, or did they approach you?

Assuncao: They approached me. They came and said, hey, [we] heard it's your dream to study here — we would like you to apply.

Howard: I know you're a student taking classes, but what's your immigration status?

Assuncao: I'm an international student. I'm legal as long as I'm studying. So that's what's something that scares me right now, because if I put a deposit down, like, and started to transfer from my school to Berklee, and by September I do not have enough money for it, I lose my visa and I would have to go back to Brazil.

Howard: You mentioned earlier the song “Bring Him Home.” Can you give me a few bars of that?

Assuncao: Yeah. (Singing) He is young. He's afraid. Let him rest. Heaven blessed.

Howard: Thank you, that's so beautiful. Thank you so much.

Assuncao: Thank you.

Howard: That's Guilherme Assuncao. When he's not singing, you can find him working at Russo’s Market in Watertown. It was last winter — videos of him singing at Russo’s went viral and now he's been accepted to Boston’s Berklee College of Music. He's hoping to find a way to pay for it, he has to let Berklee know by May 1. It's unclear what's going to happen.