Nikolai Grozni, who lives in Providence, was a gifted pianist from Bulgaria who, in the midst of absorbing Coltrane, dope, and booze at Berklee College of Music, suddenly decided to leave behind materialist, “finish line” careerism and head to India to train as a Buddhist monk. His Bulgarian parents were not pleased, having nurtured his musical genius as a ticket out of Communism and the limits of a childhood reading Das Kapital.

Full story: projo.com