Huy Tran is an accidental musician. As a high school student in Blaine, Minnesota, he planned on going into the medical field. Then in 10th grade, he joined the choir and everything changed. His teachers encouraged him to audition for the concert choir, then the chamber choir. “It started to play a really big role in my life really fast,” he says.

The University of Minnesota Morris junior is now majoring in music education. “I realized music is what I enjoy and what I see myself doing,” he says.

Do you play any instruments?

A little saxophone and piano. It’s required for music education majors to learn a little bit about most instruments so we can teach them.

How did the move to distance learning last semester affect you?

Music is hard to teach via distance learning. It’s hard to learn to conduct when you don’t have a conductor telling you what you need to do in person. Also, my friend and I had a recital planned in April. We’re pushing it to fall.

How important was the Clyde E. Johnson Music Scholarship?

It gave me the opportunity to take voice lessons, which I had never done before. Being able to explore that is astoundingly beneficial, especially as I’ll be teaching students to sing.