I’m so grateful for this opportunity to express my thanks to Fulbright Austria As I look back, along with my mentors, I have Fulbright to thank for transforming my life more than anything. My path was an unusual one, and far from easy. As my graduation in piano performance from Penn State approached in 1998, I didn’t so much as have 50 dollars for a bus ticket to New York to audition for graduate schools. I struggled hard to put myself through college and had extreme opposition from my family. My dream was to live and study in Vienna, the world-famous City of Music where countless of my musical idols lived and worked. I couldn’t afford to apply to grad schools, so I burned my bridges. Fulbright was a shot in the dark and my only hope.

I could hardly anticipate how Fulbright would transform my life and my identity. Fulbright gave me no less than the chance of a lifetime. Coming from small town Pennsylvania, I grew up without classical music. Now I was suddenly enveloped by it, and Vienna became part of who I am as I gradually absorbed the language and culture.

My path turned out to be beset with obstacles, from my late start at the piano at age 17 (formerly considered “impossible”) to my parents’ selling the piano to debilitating injury and chronic pain, poverty, and getting hit in the face by a tram that broke my wrist and could easily have taken my life. I always stood my ground and slowly recovered my ability to play piano no matter how hopeless the effort seemed.

I became a Bösendorfer Artist, and in 2012 I released my debut CD, of music considered unplayable for over a century. It was the official selection for the best piano album of the quarter by the head piano critic of the German Record Critics’ Award, among the most prestigious distinctions in the music industry. I also became an amateur (very amateur!) race car driver and an IRONMAN triathlete. I’m honored to have given the most TED Talks worldwide, recently discussing a major human rights issue at TEDxSanFrancisco to an audience of thousands. My next step is to address the United Nations Human Rights Council.

I had the honor of having my story told in a documentary that has already inspired thousands.

Without Fulbright, none of this would have been possible. My deepest, sincerest thanks to Lonnie Johnson and the whole Austrian-American Educational Commission. You helped me to become who I was meant to be.

Albert Frantz is a graduate of Penn State University and was a US Fulbright Student at the University of Vienna from 1998-2000.