Music has always been the common thread in Clark Boettger’s life. Now a senior at Hastings College, that early curiosity has grown into a busy, hands-on path. Between band and choir rehearsals and a packed daily schedule, you’d be hard-pressed to find a corner of local music he hasn’t touched.
Hailing from Grand Island, Nebraska, the music education major stays moving. Off campus, he sings with the Chorus of the Plains barbershop group and the Chancel Choir at First Presbyterian Church. On campus, he leads the Xi Alpha Sinfonia chapter as president—all while finishing his student teaching placement at St. Cecilia Middle School.
When you ask him how he keeps up with the pace, Boettger chalks it up to a habit of dividing and conquering that started back in high school. The secret ingredient, though, is the music itself.
“Just hearing music most of the time gives me the energy to get through the day,” Boettger said.
That soundtrack started early. “Music has been a part of my soul from the beginning,” he said. “My mom sang lullabies and made up songs for each of her kids.”
By elementary school, he was singing with the South Central Nebraska Children’s Chorale. In middle school, he picked up the trombone. While both instrumental and vocal music shaped him, singing remains his true home. With the trombone, the pitch is set. With your voice, everything is vulnerable, responsive and completely your own.
“My favorite is definitely choir, as it’s such an expressive experience,” he said. “Vocal music to me is so powerful, and I remember so many of the songs that I’ve sung throughout my life.”
These days, Boettger brings that perspective directly into the classroom at St. Cecilia Middle School, working with sixth graders in both band and choir. Guiding young musicians has also brought back lessons from his own mentors at Hastings College—especially former choral director Dr. Brett Epperson.
Epperson once told him, “It’s okay for your choir to be 80% ready for a performance.” For a young educator wrestling with the perfectionism of stage performance, that advice was freeing.
“Acknowledge what they need to work on, but don’t stress yourself out that they have to be at a certain percentage,” Boettger said. “Trust the process and just enjoy making music with your students. It’s a passion you’re helping cultivate in them, and that’s what’s important.”
As graduation approaches, Boettger encourages younger students to lean into the community around them—getting to know faculty, alumni and local musicians, and soaking up every teaching technique along the way.
“Pay attention to the strategies that your professors use when teaching music,” he said. “Especially in choir and band, take those warm-ups and exercises and write them down so that you can use them in your future classroom.”
After graduation, Boettger plans to stay close to home, stepping into his own K-12 music classroom in Central Nebraska — ready to pass on the same spark he found at Hastings College.