Music Educator Profile: Tracy Ward, Music Specialist

In honor of Arts Education week, local music educator Tracy Ward has shared with us how she became involved in making music and sharing her passion with students for almost three decades.

 It is not difficult to explain the impact arts education has had on my life. Arts education IS my life! 
I had a lot of support and encouragement from my parents, who were artists in their own right, although they were not musicians. I began taking piano lessons in third grade, and Dad would mute his football games just to listen to me practice. I’m sure I thought I would become a concert pianist. Then a family friend suggested to my parents that I might enjoy attending the Sewanee Summer Music Center. Sewanee changed everything for me! I had never really been around an orchestra, and instead of spending as much time in the practice room as I should have, I sat and listened to orchestra rehearsals, absorbing the wisdom of conductors like Hugh Wolf, Amerigo Marino, Henri Temianka, and Karel Husa. I developed a real passion for orchestral music and also for chamber music. We were expected to learn and perform a new chamber work with a new group of people every week, and the give and take of performing with other musicians became much more interesting to me than performing by myself ever was.

I did not become a great pianist, but that’s okay. I have spent 28 years sharing my love of music with my elementary-age students. My school choir even sang with the Knoxville Symphony in a performance of Carmina Burana. More recently, the musical pieces of my life have come together in a delightful way: I help to create the teacher’s guide for the Young People’s Concerts that the Knoxville Symphony presents every year. I hope my students grow to love the orchestra as much as I do.

My arts education is continuous, though, because I never want to stop learning! I have recently earned my Kodaly Certification, and I am learning to play the dulcimer. My husband (a wonderful baritone) and I have decided that we want to begin doing recitals of art songs together, so I’m sure you’ll understand if I excuse myself now. I need to go practice...

Tracy Ward is a Music Specialist who works with elementary school students ages K-5th grade at Sequoyah Elementary. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Music Ed. from UT-Knoxville, full Kodaly Certification from UT-Chattanooga, and Orff Level I Certification from Belmont University.  She continues sharing her passion for music by singing in the choir of St. John's Episcopal Cathedral.