Students Reflect: Amber Ginmi Scherer

Reflecting on a Thrilling Year

Just after spring break, we asked students—some graduating, some staying on—to reflect about what they’d been doing lately, their hobbies, and some highlights of their time at Juilliard. In addition, some shared how scholarship support has helped them and what they’re doing this summer.

Amber Ginmi Scherer, Music 

Highlights

• Falling in love with art song.
• Taking African American Music History I with Fredara Mareva Hadley. It opened my mind to genres of music (hip-hop, jazz, gospel, blues, R&B) I love to listen to but have little context or understanding of. This class added so much humanity, heart, and intellect to genres that classical musicians sometimes miss out on.
• My studio mates.

Spring break
I spent a few days rehearsing with prospective clarinet students for their admissions auditions and then a few days playing the auditions. Then I had a few days of rest before playing with a friend for a concerto competition (he got second place!). The second week, I did an artist residency with four singers and two Juilliard coaches, rehearsing and presenting a program about love that we performed at Caramoor and Merkin Hall.

Hobbies
I love reading and am an avid watcher of TV shows from the ’90s (Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my absolute favorite). I’m also a fairly big gamer and have been very into Stardew Valley lately.

Scholarship support
I was determined to pay for my own rent, food, and expenses when I moved to New York City. My parents had already given me everything a child could dream of or need, and to honor their hard work, I wanted to be able to be financially independent. Because of my scholarship, I’ve been able to pay for my own tuition, expenses, rent, utilities, food, and everything else by working jobs at school and the Brooklyn Music School. It’s been really meaningful learning this responsibility.

Second-year master’s collaborative pianist Amber Ginmi Scherer, who’s from Winnetka, Illinois, will split her summer among working as a music director and teacher at Osceola Arts in Florida, working for the new Juilliard Summer Voice program, and taking a course in NYU’s music therapy program

These pieces are adapted from a special feature that originally appeared in the Summer 2024 issue of the Juilliard Journal