Počkaj became interested in classical music at an early age, even though no one in the family had particular interest in music. The only opera voice that would be occasionally heard in the home of the Počkaj family at Veliko Ubeljsko, a small village under the hill of Nanos, was the famous Luciano Pavarotti. “My first contact with opera singing filled me with joy and already as a young boy I wanted to study opera singing. This desire emerged spontaneously.” As Počkaj notes, people generally like opera but the majority find the idea of someone choosing a professional career in opera “fairly fantasy-like”.

In his teenage years he founded a rock band with his friends. “I like all kinds of music but I’m more intimately connected with opera. I’m more engaged in it: you have to invest something in this kind of art and I like to do that. In pop music this inspiration fades away, other things besides music are important as well, but with opera you somehow get immersed and can’t get out anymore,” he adds with excitement.

The idea of studying in the USA slowly formed during his studies in Slovenia, when he sang various opera roles in the opera houses of Ljubljana and Maribor. In February 2012, he set off to an audition at the University of California in Los Angeles and passed it successfully.

Where to next?
He perceives his going abroad as a very positive experience, since he felt that he ran out of new opportunities to progress at home. “Perhaps the decision wasn’t as difficult as it may seem at first sight.” And what happens now that he’s completed his studies? “I’ll spend a month at home, and everyone’s starting to panic about what I’ll be doing now. I don’t think this is such a huge problem, one can even find some work here, but first and foremost I’ll focus on opportunities in the USA,” he explains about his future plans. He still has a valid visa, which enables him to extend his stay up to a year following his graduation and do a so-called optional practical training on condition that he finds training in the music genre he graduated in.
Therefore, he plans to audition for the position of a young artist at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and then he intends to participate in similar auditions in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Florida, perhaps also Arizona. “It’s a wonderful if you achieve a big breakthrough in the USA, but I also think that the quality of life in Europe is higher and it’s better to be home,” he adds.