Lose yourself to the music: Professor Emily Ezola

Emily Ezola started young. In addition to playing the piano for over 23 years, she runs the Youth Conservatory and is a professor in the music department here at Utah State University.

But more than anything, she loves music.

“It is an escape,” Ezola said. “You get to be creative. Everyone has a need to create, and music is everyone’s to be had, no matter what skill level.”

Ezola is an avid believer of the benefits of playing music, from the simple joys of having it in the home to the scientific benefits on the brain. In fact, she said, playing music can actually make the listener smarter.

For this reason, Ezola recommends that everyone play music, even if they’ve never touched a key or a string, or if it’s been a long time since they’ve practiced.

“What instruments are available to you? Maybe it’s just your voice, and that’s awesome,” she said. “What you put in is what you get out of it.”

To all her students, music majors or otherwise, Ezola says the benefits of playing music has enormous benefits for years to come.

Her experience with the piano started at just five years old when she begged her mother for lessons. When Ezola was nine, after being in lessons for four years, her mother had a chance run-in with the famous Five Browns, a classical piano ensemble featuring five siblings. They directed Ezola’s mother toward USU to find a proper teacher who could help Ezola progress and it was through that reference that Ezola began to find her love and passion for the art.

An Aggie through and through, she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees here before beginning her career as a professor.

Her passion for music is in every aspect of her life, from teaching to playing to running the YC, a conservatory that creates an opportunity for music majors to teach people from the community.

“When I was younger, I said always wanted to run a conservatory. That was my goal,” she said. “And the fact that I’m doing that now is something that I never thought I would actually get, and I love it.”

She’s been able to teach all kinds of people through this program and her own private practice, from as young as two years old to an elderly woman of 64.

Concerning her older student, Ezola said, “She started two years ago… She said, ‘I’m starting to lose my memory. And I’ve read studies that say that music will help fight it.’ And she is proof that that it is true. She can feel how much it’s helping her.”

Along with memory improvement, studies have also shown that playing music increases intelligence by using parts of the brain that aren’t used by any other activity.

“The benefits you get from playing an instrument spill over into all your other efforts,” Ezola said. “In playing an instrument, specifically when you’re practicing efficiently, you are exercising your entire brain. There are so many studies that explain that with consistent playing of an instrument, your IQ increases.”

Professor Ezola believes everyone can create this benefit for themselves, whether through simply singing or finding a piano to practice on. Today, Ezola is still teaching about the benefits of music to her classes and students, with a strong belief that playing an instrument can truly change a person’s life.

“Everyone is capable of making beautiful music,” she said. “You just have to figure out how to unlock it inside of that person. And then it’s theirs.”

—Katelynn.bolen@aggiemail.usu.edu

@kate_bolen