No matter where he lands, however, he makes music.
"I keep returning here, apparently," Nathaniel Otley said.
Mr Otley studied music at the University of Otago music department, receiving a bachelor of music (honours) in performance and composition in 2019.
After that, the Fulbright Foundation recognised his promise and awarded him a scholarship to study musicology in the United States.
He and his violin travelled there in January 2020 for auditions at the Eastman School of Music in New York State, Indiana University and New York University.
Mr Otley chose the Eastman School of Music, returning to New Zealand in February 2020, eager to begin the next stage of his career.
Then, Covid-19 burst over the United States, and Mr Otley made the difficult decision not to pursue his Fulbright.
He was in the middle of preparing for a concert in Christchurch when a Level 4 lockdown was declared. He took a nearly empty plane back to Dunedin.
"This was frustrating.
"But given the suffering elsewhere, getting worked up about it would have been self-indulgent."
Mr Otley said lockdown gave him time to "sit with things".
"This was actually a fruitful time, as I explored my options."
Then, it looked as though Mr Otley’s education had gained traction again. He reached out to the Australian composer and professor Liza Lim and was awarded the prestigious William Georgetti Scholarship to study towards a master’s degree at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
He moved to Sydney in May last year, but in June, the day after he had submitted his last assignment of the first semester, Covid-19 unravelled his plans again as the Delta outbreak swept through Sydney and a lockdown was declared.
By August, he was on a plane back to Dunedin, with more than three months left on his Sydney apartment’s lease.
Now that he is back home again, Mr Otley is far from idle. He is working on his master’s thesis long-distance.
"I am happy to be studying with Prof Lim. This has been unquestionably the best possible decision for my learning," he said.
Mr Otley said his current musical research focused on performance techniques that usually operated in the background.
"My work explores transitional processes and sonic in-betweens," he said.
He has also arranged a concert for the public on March 6 at 2pm at Hanover Hall in Dunedin.
Although another Covid-19 variant threatens his work yet again, Mr Otley expected under Red traffic light restrictions to have an audience of 100 listeners.
Together with Tessa Petersen, Ngaru Martin and Heleen Du Plessis, all members of the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra, he will be performing the works of New Zealand composers Peter Adams, Gillian Whitehead, Leonie Holmes and Anthony Ritchie.
