Photographer Juan Alvendano Fonseca
Grace Kuo’s wanderlust has taken her to three continents. Born in Taiwan, she has lived in England, Hungary, Singapore, and is currently in the United States at the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance for her PhD in music education.
Grace moved to England for college, and she graduated from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in 2010 with a Bachelor of Music (honours). Then, she trekked across the English Channel with her sights set on Hungary. “I had always seen Hungarian singers at our school in England, and they sang brilliantly,” Grace said. “I wanted to know their secret! So, I went there.”
After a year at the Kodály Institute, she pursued her master’s in Oratorio and Lieder in vocal singing at Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest. “I was very grateful that I got into Liszt,” Grace said. “I spent two years in Budapest learning amongst all the great singers and musicians.” She graduated in 2013 and went back to England for her postgraduate certificate of education at the University of Reading.
Next, she journeyed back to Asia to teach students music in Singapore. “I worked at school during the day and attended rehearsals at night,” Grace said. “Being both a music performer and music teacher has given me a sense of meaning in both jobs and has granted me a balanced life as a musician.”
“CabaRed” at New Opera Singapore
Performance in Kuala Lumpur, Photographer Aldwin Lee
After teaching for seven years, she followed her desire to get back into academia. “I wished to explore not only the breadth but also the depths of my musical knowledge” she recalled. “Writing a dissertation about music education is something I have not done yet in my life. This is one field that I have not fulfilled yet.” Seeking a school that was surrounded by nature, she looked into the University of Oregon School of Music. “You only live once so I wanted to venture out a bit and look for a place outside a city where I could be in nature!” she said.
After researching more about the school and the professors, she took the plunge and moved across the world again! She flew across the Pacific to Eugene in September 2022. "I am really grateful that I made this choice,” she said. “I feel intellectually enriched through my studies here. It is different from teaching, so it is a refreshing moment to get more out of my career in this way.”
In addition to her studies, Grace is a graduate employee and teaches courses like music education foundations. “It has been a wonderful experience,” she says. “I really enjoy working with all these student teachers. It is so interesting teaching adults because they have more to share. For example, they can recall certain concepts they learned during their time as a music student in high school and use that as a foundation for discussions on intellectual topics.”
Grace eventually sees herself in academia teaching future secondary school music educators. Ideally, she would love to also teach voice. “Above all, I want the flexibility and freedom to be able to keep performing. You need to keep on practicing, or else how do you apply the theory to your teaching? If you stop practicing it, then you are teaching from, essentially, an archive of your past memory.”
She is currently seeking her next opportunity to perform in Eugene professionally. In the meantime, she has participated in concerts at SOMD like the Oregon Composer’s Forum. Her performance begins at timecode 1:32:21.
Composer: Connor Wier, master's in composition, Accompanist: Andrew Cannestra, Piano DMA
Grace’s love for music and singing grew as a child when her mom introduced her to folk songs and nursery rhymes, which she memorized and sang for years. In elementary school in Taiwan, a Milano Conservatory-trained teacher came to her school to teach singing technique, furthering her interest in music.
Grace playing with her toy guitar as a child
Her musical intrigue deepened as a teenager when she discovered that singing is much more complex than meets the eye. "You must train yourself to be so calm outside, but everything is working so hard inside!” she laughed. “That is something that really excited me, and still does. I started to learn that it is a craft to understand your body. It is a lot about control and mastering yourself physically and psychologically.”
Grace also finds such joy in singing and participated in choirs growing up. Now, for fun, you can catch her sewing and boating when she is not performing or studying. She eventually wishes to learn to sail.
