Voice, Piano

Emily Worzalla, a former student of Mickey Lytle, first started playing the piano when she was in first grade. A few years later, as if by fate, a friend-of-a-friend gifted Emily’s family with an upright piano they no longer had use for. Pretty soon, Emily, then only in fourth grade, was teaching herself how to play using old beginner’s method books left behind in the piano bench. Emily didn’t have formal lessons with a private teacher until she was in high school, when caring family friends introduced her to Mickey Lytle, and what was then “Music by Mickey”.

Playing the piano was Emily’s first musical passion, but she also sang in choir and played cello throughout elementary, middle, and high school. She also taught herself how to play beginner’s acoustic guitar, and has dabbled in pop music. Emily earned her bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire, and enjoyed many musical experiences in college. Emily had voice and piano lessons, sang in several collegiate choirs, took part in a women’s a cappella group, conducted music research, and performed in Opera Workshop and in University Opera productions. Even though Emily has studied piano longer than she has studied voice, singing is quickly becoming a musical passion equal to her love for the piano. Emily will begin her master’s degree in vocal performance in the fall of 2010 at UW-Madison and will study voice with Julia Faulkner.

Emily considers teaching to be one of the best ways to motivate her passions for music and life-long learning, and she looks forward to working with voice and piano students at Rhapsody. She strives to help students develop into well rounded musicians who have fine technical aptitude with their instrument, the freedom to express themselves through music, appropriate knowledge of music theory and history, confidence and satisfaction in performance, appreciation and curiosity for music, and enthusiasm for sharing their musical abilities with others.