“NEC gave me a lifelong process and a lifelong curiosity.”
Alex Gilliam ’15 appreciates NEC’s intersectional approach to music education. Her studies in music history, music theory and solfege equipped her with a solid foundation that prepared her as a performer after graduation. “NEC’s curriculum focused on what it meant to be human. It taught me that, while artists paint on canvas, musicians paint on time,” she said.
Now a self-described “operapreneur,” Alex has combined the musician and entrepreneur within her to establish a correlating career in web development and virtual concert production. “A piece can be sung by any number of singers, but every one of them has their own voice and interpretation,” she said. “When I’m designing a website, I ask myself how to immediately communicate in a tangible way what a person is all about. Personality is found in color and tone, both in music and in design. These are all things I learned at NEC.”
Every day, Alex takes time to reflect on what she is grateful for, calling it her “gratitude practice.” Reminiscing about her time at NEC, Alex said that “in order to move forward, you have to know where you’ve been. I’m grateful for the colleagues and faculty, along with the opportunity to grow. I wouldn’t be the same person I am today without my NEC education.”
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