In the YouTube video of her New England Conservatory senior recital, Maryann Han, M.S.W. ’26 sits at a grand piano on a shadowy stage in a shimmering gown, playing Chopin mazurkas and a Schubert sonata with fine expression and exquisite technique. She appears poised, intent, absorbed in the music, showing no sign of the nerves one might expect on such an occasion, despite her being as nervous that day, she’ll tell you, as she’s ever been.
That aplomb no doubt stemmed from Han’s studying music from an early age. She began playing piano at age five; her first solo performance was when she was in third grade. She is now certified in the Suzuki method for violin. “My dad played violin,” she said. “He started me on that instrument and always encouraged me to include music in my life.” She has performed on both instruments as a chamber musician, soloist, and accompanist. As a collaborating musician with the Boston-based nonprofit Project STEP (String Training Education Program), she has worked with highly motivated music students from backgrounds underrepresented in classical music.
After graduating in 2019 from NEC with a Bachelor of Music in piano performance, she spent five years teaching music, two of them remotely during the pandemic, before deciding to go back to school—for social work at Smith College.
Going from music to social work might seem a big shift; she said it’s been both a change and a continuum. “I tell my students as they’re preparing for performances that this act of sharing one’s creations is highly psychological,” she said. “Complex emotions can come up when you’re playing and inspire doubtful thoughts as well as meaningful music-making. It’s like facing your demons each time you perform, a mastery of the soul.” She added, “Music can be an effective way to play to someone’s strengths, a preferred way to explore these oft-less-tread pathways. I’ve seen students of mine gain more confidence in themselves not only as musicians but also as people.”
“It’s like facing your demons each time you perform, a mastery of the soul. Music can be an effective way to play to someone’s strengths, a preferred way to explore these oft-less-tread pathways. ”
Han was motivated to study social work by the fact that her students liked talking to her more than playing—and by her own positive experiences with therapy. When her therapist, an SSW alum, learned Han was applying to schools, she urged her to consider Smith College School for Social Work (SSW).
Asked what elements of her SSW education have been most valuable, she said, “Learning from my professors’ expertise and the connections I’ve made with the faculty and, especially, with the students, because we will be in the field together.”
A surprising and valuable benefit she derived from her first practicum, at a private school’s counseling center, was realizing what she didn’t want to do: “Working full-time as a school counselor, in an institutional setting—I decided that wasn’t for me. Your time with students is limited, and I don’t think I’d be able to do the kind of work I want to do.” Her current practicum is at a community mental health center in Quincy, Massachusetts, providing in-home therapy for children and young adults. Even in her first weeks, Han said, “I felt much more comfortable than I did last year. And I’m working with families and kids, which are a couple of the populations I want to serve after I get my degree.”
Despite her musical expertise, Han doesn’t see herself offering music therapy. “I see my background as a resource, a way possibly to develop a rapport with clients. I’ll be engaging in integrative psychodynamic therapy, and my approach will be more about exploring clients’ history, a present crisis, to help them make sense and, eventually, meaning out of feelings, of life, whatever they bring in. A lot of putting feelings into words. I think naming emotions is very therapeutic.”
As the child of a couple who came to this country from China, Han said she can also see herself working with immigrants, helping them to cope with the challenges they face and the sense of dislocation they feel, the question of, as she put it, “Where is my home?” She said, “Some people who come to the States feel like some parts of their home are here, some back in the country where they grew up. And for kids who have grown up here, there are often conflicts between the home culture and American culture.”
With her SSW degree, Han will be able to help people like her parents and her students find ways to work with their struggles and live meaningfully, even in these very troubling times.
