Stories by Amy Wolf
At Vanderbilt, collaboration is more than a word-it's an inspired action. Collaboration includes opening up to new ideas and perspectives, challenging each other and innovating while working toward a shared purpose.
Meet some members of the Class of 2024 whose thoughtful collaborations within Vanderbilt and beyond are helping heal, advocate and inspire.
Tatum Earp is a musical storyteller, and her memories are her muse.
The music composition major credits her time at Vanderbilt and the Blair School of Music with cultivating her craft and honing her ability to shape raw emotions into sophisticated multi-instrument narratives.
"Art, especially music, definitely has the power to carry stories," the north Texas native said. "I think opening up to that level of vulnerability and saying, 'I am going to write about a story-a real life experience,' has really been my biggest transformation."
COLLABORATION AND COMMUNITY
Earp said collaboration and community are keys to her personal and academic success. She first found community as a percussionist in her Texas high school marching band. That experience helped her step out at Vanderbilt-building an inspiring community among her classmates and connecting with valuable mentors, specifically music composition professors Michael Slayton and Michael Alec Rose.
"My professors really care about all of their students-and not just about the material that they teach, but about the well-being of their students and about creating spaces for them to become articulate people, critical thinkers, and to really challenge them and ask them to grow," she said.
Earp has a strong Christian faith and has been focusing part of her studies on sacred music. She said Rose has challenged her in ways that have greatly improved her music.
"As well as being a passionate advocate of immersion in music of every kind, Professor Rose is Jewish, and we've been able to interact in this interfaith space," she said. "It has actually made me better as a person and a musician. I hope that my life and my career in the future can be a larger version of that, where I can interact with people-Christian or not, religious or not, and we can come together to create more goodness in people's lives."
