Emily Mariko Eng is the Director of Wind Bands at UNC Asheville. She also directs the pep band and various ensembles on campus.

“My parents played a lot of music at home. I am a product of local public television and so I heard a lot of music on shows growing up like ‘Arthur,’ ‘Mister Rogers’ and ‘Sesame Street.’ I just grew up in a space where music was always encouraged,” Eng said.

Eng’s mother was a musical individual, playing clarinet in high school, taking piano lessons as a kid and singing in choirs. Eng says this atmosphere drew her to taking piano lessons at the age of five, before branching out to play the cello.

“I realized my high school didn’t have an orchestra. I really wanted to be in a large ensemble, and so I started playing the saxophone so I could be in band while still taking cello lessons and playing some chamber music,” Eng said.

Eng says this experience led to appreciate music on a higher level, leading her to study composition in college.

“I wanted to have a hand in putting the parts together, but then that was kind of lonely. It was a lot of time by myself and not really interacting with other folks. So I started to think more about music, directing and conducting,” Eng said.

Eng later became involved in theater production, along with some musicals.

“Then I was like, ‘That’s it! That’s the thing I’ve always wanted to do!’ To bring everyone’s energies and motivate others toward a common goal, a common finished musical product. That’s when it first started, me wanting to be a music director and conductor. It was a winding journey to set the foundation for my career,” Eng said.

To pursue this, Eng attended Brandeis University, a small liberal arts research university in Massachusetts.

“I took a little bit of time off after that, because I was 21-22, and didn’t know what I wanted to do. I’m still figuring it out, and I figured out a lot just through being here in this job. I think even thinking you’re gonna figure it out by the time you graduate undergrad, that’s wild. There’s still so much life and time,” Eng said.

After this break, Eng began working in alumni relations and development at the New England Conservatory.

“I ended up realizing music was the thing I wanted to do, so I ended up working for two years and then applying for a master’s program, and fortunately I got in,” Eng said.

Eng received her master’s degree at the New England Conservatory in conducting, then attended the University of Georgia for four years, earning a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting with a Minor in Music Theory.

”I consider myself so lucky UNCA had a vacancy in the year I was applying, because it is a college band directing job, but I also get to do so many other things that keep me really fulfilled, musically and creatively,” Eng said.

Eng is also the director of the songwriters ensemble, also leading different undergraduate research projects, composition, songwriting and oral skills.

“My department is just amazing. I found it on an open job posting. I remember I was in Chicago for a band clinic, where you get to go to these giant conferences with everyone in your field. It can be really, really overwhelming. All these people are in comfortable positions, and I was about to leave my somewhat comfortable life as a graduate student. The future was so unknown and it was really overwhelming,” Eng said.

This meeting in Chicago led to the moment Eng would first begin her journey to working at UNCA.

“I was just scrolling on my phone, eating deep dish pizza in Chicago, and I was by myself. It was really lonely. Then I saw this job posting, and I was like, ‘Man, this sounds like a really great job!’ I applied, and I got to know the fellow faculty and I just had such a good feeling about it. I think I would have been devastated if I hadn’t gotten this job,” Eng said.

Eng said her journey has not been easy.

“I think the biggest hurdle for myself was just kind of accepting those facts about myself and not trying to force myself into this kind of cookie cutter, college band director mold. I’ve been able to lean into the things I bring to the table and the way I teach and think that they work really well here,” Eng said.

Eng describes moments of self doubt being her biggest hurdle in her life. She says another hurdle for her was the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was just so much time away from music and conducting. There was a point in my doctor program where I was like, ‘I don’t know that I want to be a band director.’ I was thinking about going into the music business and production and recording, because I was like, ‘wow, I really think I would enjoy being a producer,'” Eng said.

Eng describes who and what inspired her to continue on her path.

“One of my biggest inspirations was my doctoral advisor, mentor and teacher Cynthia Johnston Turner. She’s a band director but she is so much more. She’s actually in Canada as a dean of the music school there. She’s always just looking beyond the box, for ways to increase the meaningfulness of different experiences through music, and just kind of finding our humanity and doing what’s right. She constantly pushed me to think beyond whatever parameters I was setting around myself,” Eng said.

Eng herself has been an inspiration to many students under her at UNCA, notably a clarinet player in the UNCA pep band, Kaitlyn Kerr.

“She is fantastic, I love professor Eng. She has also been really supportive of my personal journey. She has recommended me for different ensembles. I’m actually auditioning for an ensemble right now that I originally wasn’t going to audition for, the North Carolina Intercollegiate Honor Band. She has really pushed me to work on stuff outside of my comfort zone. She has also been helping me prepare for my master’s audition. When I had her for a different class other than wind ensemble for oral skills, she was more than willing to give feedback and help me out through things that I really struggled with. I’ve really enjoyed having her here,” Kerr said.