Kamen Nikolov

Pronouns: He/Him

Staff Position: Director, Production Operations at the Green Music Center 

Hometown: Sofia, Bulgaria

My favorite experience working with students is to follow them from the moment we hire them on our GMC Production team to the moment they graduate. I am happy to share my knowledge and skills and help them learn and grow. Converting a freshman into an audio/lighting professional is no easy task. It takes a village! The GMC Production team consists of many entertainment industry veterans who have great cumulative knowledge and experience one can learn from. I am very proud to watch our student assistants graduate, spread their wings, and go get great jobs!

We live in dynamic times with rapid technological changes. In my short time at SSU, I have seen the transition from using Wite-Out on faxes to setting up face recognition just to look at my phone. Not that long ago, the facial scan was seen only in spy movies! In my line of work, there are new technological challenges every single day, but I have gotten used to running into tech issues, and I’ve learned how to resolve them.

I come from very humble beginnings. My path to SSU has been very dynamic. I started playing the piano when I was four years old, went to music high school, then attended the music conservatory in Sofia, Bulgaria. There I worked many nights at the recording studio assisting in making albums for classical artists – mostly after midnight until the early morning hours. In 1998 I was accepted at Sonoma State University and was awarded piano scholarships and a full tuition waiver in exchange for being available to perform at all fundraising events for SSU. The phone rang frequently, and I would go play the piano at a donor’s house either by myself or with a singer, hoping to inspire donations for an idea called the Green Music Center, which existed only on paper at that time. I met many wonderful people who donated and supported Sonoma State University.

As far as what motivates me to stay—I am continually inspired to provide service to GMC artists, students, faculty, and staff. I take great pleasure in seeing happy audience members and helping create unique and lasting memories.

Sonoma State University has many amazing faces! We all read the SSU News and see the vast human capital we have here on our campus. I constantly see familiar faces and also meet new students, faculty, and staff who innovate and make a difference. Seeing other people strive to make a difference inspires me to look and find new ways to do better in my own area of responsibility.

I very much enjoy the friendly environment at Sonoma State University! One of the great benefits of working on a small campus is that one gets to know lots of other employees very quickly. I strive for and enjoy having friendly work relationships a lot!