Alumni Spotlight: Nicole Lassiter

Nicole Alana Lassiter was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. Her love for music began when she started playing flute in elementary and middle school. She went on to study vocal music at Cass Technical High School. There, she found passion for singing in Harp and Vocal with Lydia Cleaver.

Lassiter decided to continue her studies at Wayne State University. In her time there, she studied voice under the direction of Dorothy Duensing and then Frances Brockington. In the beginning, she took courses in Music Education, courses that would go on to be applied to the children's choir she conducts at the Wauwatosa United Methodist Church. However, Nicole later switched her major to a Bachelors of Arts in Music. With this degree, she took a variety of music courses to find what she wanted to do with her music career. After researching different jobs in the field, she combined her love of music theory and technology.

Nicole became interested in the process of creating and producing sheet music her sophomore year and turned her interest into a career. She is now an engraver at Hal Leonard Corporation, a name many are familiar with since the beginning of their music experiences. Everything she learned in her theory classes and music technology course prepared her for this position.

"The music department gave me opportunities to not only grow as a musician, but also as a person." says Nicole when asked about how Wayne State University's Department of Music prepared her for her new professional role.

There is a lot of technology and thought used that goes into creating music for people that want to learn. Because of her position, Nicole has a newfound appreciation of the process it takes to get sheet music into a student's hands. There are people that work day in and out to provide accurate music for people to learn and enjoy, and now she is one of them.