Profile Story

“Music is my backbone to everything, it is always there for me whether I am happy or sad,” said Amy Tang. Tang is a sophomore at Saint Louis University who is fascinated by the music industry. 

Tang plays a variety of instruments including the piano, guitar, and most recently she taught herself how to play the ukulele. “I’ve always been passionate about music, it’s always been in my life,” she said. While Tang loves music, she was unsure of what to do with it and struggled to determine what she wanted to do later on in her life. 

With Saint Louis being her hometown, Saint Louis University fit the bill for Tang as it was close by and had a great medical program. Tang entered the school last year as a pre-med student. However, she quickly became unhappy with this course. She struggled to decide what to do after realizing that medicine was not for her. It wasn’t until this past December and January where Tang realized what she wanted to do with a little help and guidance from her friends. 

Tang said, “Originally, I never thought I’d be able to work in music, but recently I have been thinking that I can incorporate my passion and still have a job that can get me by”. Tang now aspires to turn her love of music into her job and work in PR for the music industry. She currently writes blogs and articles about new albums and songs in both her own blog and in a couple of small magazines. 

Outside of school and music, Tang is an executive board member of the Vietnamese Student Association. Her parents immigrated to America with their families around the same age she is now. While growing up, she learned of her Vietnamese culture at home and would compare it to what she had learned at school. “As I’ve gotten older I’ve definitely grown to appreciate being an Asian American because I am able to experience and be a part of two diferent cultures at once”, Tang said. She helped to build the new Vietnamese Student Association from the ground up as the secretary and now serves as the senior advisor for the upcoming executive board. The Vietanmese Student Association is a brand new organization that has not been chartered as of yet. Tang was a founding member and has been influential in its creation. 

Tang also dabbles in photography on the side of her writing. She photographs things like parks and nature. She also attends live performances of her favorite artists often and will take her own pictures at their shows. “I really love going to concerts, I am really a concert buff, I go to them all the time” she said. Being in St. Louis, Tang had a variety of venues with different shows going on around her. She often goes to the Pageant at the Loop to see a lot of different artists in action. She also takes the occasional drive to Chicago to meet up with friends and watch performances there. 

Tang noted how important her friends are to her. “My friends have been so influential and helpful in my decision to pursue a career in music, they talked me through it and gave me the confidence I needed to think that I could do something in music and be successful” she said. They told Tang of how many different ways there are to find her place in music. As long as she put her heart and mind to it she could find a way to be successful in the music industry, whether be through magazines, PR, or more they said. 

Tang hopes to soon intern at a music magazine or within the music industry to get hands on experience with it all.