Senior Eunice Pak will be attending the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance at the University of Michigan this upcoming fall to further her music career. There, she will be majoring in percussion performance and she is considering minoring in German, but she has not yet decided.

Pak has had many teachers that influenced her and helped her along her musical journey, such as her previous band teacher who got her interested in playing in percussion, as well as some private teachers. Some teachers currently teaching at Westford Academy that guided Pak were Mr. Michael Soo and Mr. Kenneth Culver. Soo is the Westford Academy Band Director and Culver is the Westford Academy Orchestra Director.

Both Soo and Culver feel that Pak is a dedicated musician that does everything she is capable of to improve and exceed expectations.

“I’m sure if you asked one of her peers they’d say she’s just a nice person, but it comes across in a way that she can criticize and offer feedback to others inside and outside of class and just be honest and forthcoming with what she thinks, but she does so in a way that it’s still respectful towards other people,” Soo said.

In addition, Culver said that Pak is always trying to make things better for her fellow musicians in any way she can.

“Eunice is a standout because she’s a wonderful, instinctive musician, she’s very involved and she plays with a lot of commitment. She always seems to make a connection to the piece to show that mood or emotion” Culver said.

Initially, Pak was waitlisted at the University of Michigan, so she had committed to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Once she had been accepted to Michigan, Pak had to decide whether she was going to stay committed to UMass or switch her commitment to Michigan.

In Pak’s perspective, UMass was a great option; it is a state school, it has a really good music program, and it is close to home. On the other hand though, UMich has incredible facilities, a great faculty, and it is located in a beautiful area. On top of all of this, Pak’s older sister goes to school only an hour and a half drive from Michigan. In the end, Pak’s final decision was UMich, where she will spend the next four years of her life.

In her future, Pak sees herself pursuing music one way or another. She said that since she had such great teachers, she would like to pay it forward and become a professor of music at a university.

While she is not sure exactly what the road ahead of her holds, she is certain that it will have some element of music in it.

“I really want to thank all of the teachers that I’ve had, specifically here at WA, because even academic teachers I’ve had, they’ve always been so supportive of how music has been my first priority when it comes to my workload. The people in the music department have really pushed me towards doing what I love. I went through this whole phase of like ‘Oh I don’t know what I want to do, like I know I love music’. All of the teachers, Mrs. Saint-George, Mr. Culver, Mr. Soo, Mr. A, all of them have really guided me towards finding what I’m actually passionate about and going for it,” Pak said.