Emma Clark is a female vocalist to help people understand the passion, love and complexity of music through education. With a strong willpower to pursue the end goal, her chapter of collegiate life is soon to close.
“I love working with students and having an education of impactful educators that incorporates the blend of passion and life skills,” Clark said.
The life skills incorporate the discipline with oneself, the collaborative experience in music and creating something memorable and valuable. Music wasn’t just a hobby to Clark; it was the start of something bigger.
“Growing up, my siblings and I would host concerts and continuously sing in the car to music,” Clark said. “It’s a joy to go through the rehearsal process and dig deeper into the meaning of the lyrics and notes on a page.”
Singing is very different from playing notes on an instrument; it involves a lot of preparation of the singer to give meaning to the text, and then be able to convey that very meaning to the audience.
Through Clark’s collegiate experience, she has been taking vocal lessons along with piano, while having some past lessons with the clarinet. Not only is she attending these lessons to strengthen her musicality, but she is also teaching others within the community.
Though she has attained some of her own accomplishments through the journey of becoming an educator.
“I have received awards and scholarships, but I have grown a lot as a teacher,” Clark said. “Being able to absorb music and study under professors who want you to succeed and create a classroom for students’ success helps pursue my love for music.”
That doesn’t mean that the music education degree was an easy task for future educators, as they have to keep a continuous balance of their own instrument, whether that is voice or not, and the ever-growing assignments in and out of the music building.
“What helped keep me motivated was knowing my friends and family were there to support me, even when times were hard, as it’s not easy to feel the same motivation every day. But, they were my reason to do my very best through music,” Clark said
A few of her friends within and outside of the music department complimented her when asked how they would describe Clark as a person and a soon-to-be music educator.
“Emma Clark brings light and joy to every room she enters,” senior Cora Schutte said. “Her love for music and those around her shines brightly. She doesn’t just care about music and teaching, but lives it in everything she does. Emma Clark is a wonderful musician, future educator and friend. I am lucky to call her my friend and classmate.”
Schutte is working towards an education degree in choral, like Clark, but another friend of hers is within the music education field, just not for voice.
“Emma is a wonderful individual,” junior Mel Prince said. “She’s able to bring so much joy, just with her presence alone and the teaching she does. Her musicianship is always there and she will make an amazing music educator. I am glad that I got to meet her and see what she is capable of doing in the classroom.”
Our last friend of Clark isn’t in the same field as her, but has been with her for a longer period of time. From meeting another in their freshman year to now living together their senior year, this bond has continued to grow.
“Emma Clark is honestly one of the most amazing people that I’ve ever met,” senior Lucy Jungles said. “She is so kind and will make a great teacher!”
As the end of Clark’s collegiate life approaches, she has expressed her hopes to create her own identity as a teacher and to experience other music programs through trial and error. She describes her hope of impact through her future students as a music educator.
“I want them to know that they have a safe space while being able to lock in and try their best every day with the music I give, but I want them to know that they are valid to be who they are as we make beautiful music together,” Clark said.
