Cynthia Xie

After teaching at Harker for 23 years, vocal music teacher Susan Nace retires this year. “It’s not about what I teach or even how I teach, it’s about who the student I teach is,” Nace said. “I don’t teach music — I teach about life.”

The opening notes to “How Can I Keep From Singing?” drifted through Patil Theater at the spring choral concert as auditioned music group Capriccio sang in harmony. Midway through the piece, over 20 former students of vocal music teacher Susan Nace walked onstage as part of a heartfelt surprise to commemorate Nace’s legacy as an educator. Emotions overflowed as they serenaded Nace one last time to the anthem of her career. 

Now, after 23 years of teaching at Harker, Nace is retiring. Her lifelong passion for music began as a child.

“Music’s always been a part of my life,” Nace said. “I remember being three years old and playing my grandmother’s piano, which nobody could play, but it was in the house. As far as teaching music, it felt like even in junior high and high school, I was always helping people with their music, whether it was accompanying or with a theory or whatever it may be. So it was inevitable what I was supposed to do.”

Following a series of part time jobs teaching at private studios and schools, Nace moved from Colorado to California and joined Harker in 2002. She taught Study of Music and led vocal choirs Bel Canto, the former introductory choir, as well as Cantilena, the former advanced classical ensemble. From the start, she held her students to high standards, believing strongly in their potential.

“My favorite part of teaching is always the students,” Nace said. “They’ll say, ‘Ms. Nace, how far do you want us to go?’ And I’ll say, ‘I want you to go here.’ And they always clear it by a lot. This year, I gave Capriccio a piece that most people wouldn’t sing until they get to college. They had to work hard, but they did it, and it became one of their favorite pieces.”

Director of Journalism Whitney Huang (‘08), a former student in Nace’s Cantilena class for all four years of high school, thoroughly enjoyed her teaching style and the stories she would tell in class. She appreciated how Nace saw the potential of her students but also allowed them to be themselves.

“When I was in Cantilena, she would push us to be our best, but she wouldn’t make kids uncomfortable,” Huang said. “She would see students for what they would become in ten years as opposed to just seeing what they were right then. She treated students like adults — they were responsible for their own uniforms and management of time. That’s something that I’m trying to move more towards in my teaching now, as I’m getting more comfortable with journalism.”

Nace’s influence on her students extends far beyond high school, as Huang credits Nace’s mentorship as the reason she pursued conducting. Nace remained a steady anchor of support for Huang even throughout college and into her current role as a choral conductor at Crystal Choir. Huang continues to look to Nace for guidance in choosing repertoire and creating choreography for her students, inspired by her bravery to take songs to the next level.

“Ms. Nace has never limited the choir’s ability to perform something just due to language barrier or due to inability to understand what’s in the music,” Huang said. “Even if it’s a different language, she’s never spoken before or even heard of before, she’ll go figure out what that piece is about and walk her students through what that means and how they could relate it to their lives.”

Nace has expanded the horizons of Harker choral music, and not only by selecting a variety of songs from around the world. When she first started working at Harker, the existing groups Bel Canto, Cantilena, Downbeat, and Camerata provided limited options for many tenor and bass voices who wanted to be part of a choir other than Downbeat. As a result, Nace created Festival Chorus and Capriccio, which welcomed soprano, alto, tenor and bass voices. 

Capriccio member Carissa Wu (12) highlighted how Nace not only advocates for her students but also encourages their creative input to shape their choir experience and ensures they’re always heard and comfortable.

“In class we’ll suggest a song or something to do with that song, and she always really takes the time to consider our opinions and make sure they all come to fruition,” Carissa said. “I really admire that because I think that being able to listen to everyone in choir and being able to synthesize these ideas together is really unique, and I’ve never really had a teacher who’s put that type of effort into her students.”

Nace’s role as a teacher has required her to adapt to different methodologies year after year, a challenge she meets with both grace and curiosity. Although she constantly looks into new music apps and embraces evolving technology, the essence of her teaching remains the same: to focus on the student.

“When I would teach kids piano, there would be a kid, say, who loved basketball. The way to communicate with that student was to make basketball analogies, in terms of piano touch and how you play the music,” Nace said. “It’s not about what I teach or even how I teach, it’s about who the student I teach is. I don’t teach music — I teach about life.”

Capriccio alum Fern Biswas (‘25) echoes this sentiment, emphasizing how Nace views each student as a whole person, not just a voice in the choir. When Fern first met Nace as a frosh in Signature, the choir club, a miscommunication left them as one of the only members attending the meeting that day. Rather than ending it early, Nace took advantage of the time to help Fern explore and understand their voice, making Fern feel supported as a new singer. Fern later joined Cantilena, which eventually became Capriccio, and continues to rely on her as someone to talk to no matter what is going on in their life.

“Ms. Nace is honestly more than just a choral director or a teacher: she’s a mentor, she’s a guide, she’s a friend,” Fern said. “Even if I seem to have had a slightly bad day, she would always check in with me and always made sure that I was comfortable and happy during every one of our classes. In the four years that I have worked with her, I’ve seen her bring a smile to students’ faces so often, encouraging people to think for themselves, but to also think positively.”

As Nace departs from Harker, she aims to continue spreading music by starting a women’s treble choir to foster a supportive community.

“I’m not done — I still have more people I need to touch,” Nace said. “There’s more people who are going to come into my sphere of influence or my sphere of loving. I really feel right now that women need a safe space to be, but also to speak and speak out. They just need somebody to hug them and to have a shoulder to cry on and to stand next to them when they’re standing up and not be alone. I’m very excited to work with them about this because it’s about possibilities. And we’ll just see what life brings me and the people, mostly importantly, that come at my door.”

Although Nace’s teaching at Harker has ended, her legacy has not. To students and teachers alike, Nace offers one final piece of advice.

“Life is a paradox,” Nace said. “Plan but don’t plan. Love, but don’t be too particular in your love, because otherwise you’re going to shut out a lot of people. Seek truth, verify, so that you know that what you’re speaking is truth. Know yourself. Celebrate yourself. Take care of yourself. Everybody has something different that we have to tell them.”