Portraits of Impact
Logan Brazeal
Musician Finds Community, Mentorship on Path to Becoming Educator
Logan Brazeal wanted to attend a school where he could connect with his professors on a deeply personal level. During his initial search for the perfect college, he quickly learned that this was a difficult thing to find. Eventually, he discovered the music program at The University of Texas at Dallas and realized it was the community he needed.
“At other schools it can be hard to know the professors, be recommended for opportunities or even get letters of recommendation,” Brazeal said. “At UTD, there’s a smaller, more tight-knit community of musicians. There’s a great culture here.”
Brazeal is now a junior visual and performing arts major with a concentration in music. He walked onto campus with a passion for acoustic guitars, but when his professors introduced him to more classical sounds, he was smitten.
“Classical guitar strings are easier to put your fingers on and press the frets,” Brazeal said. “It might be a little rough at first, but not nearly as rough as when you start playing acoustic guitar, which brings a lot of calluses on your fingers. There’s also the sound difference. I personally really like the sound of the nylon strings on a classical guitar versus the steel ones on the acoustic.”
Brazeal has been the recipient of the Sabine Madriguera Student Support Fund, the Barb and Bob Sypult Scholarship in Music and the Jonelle and Bryce Jordan Scholarship in the Arts.
“The scholarships have mainly covered tuition for me,” said Brazeal. “That’s a huge expense on its own. Receiving these funds also means that the University recognizes my accomplishments, which is very validating and helps motivate me to keep going.”
Brazeal’s professors also encouraged him to fine-tune his guitar skills by performing at a variety of gigs across campus. Some of his noteworthy performances include the 2024 UT Dallas Awards Gala, the naming celebration for the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology and multiple presidential gatherings.
When the time came for him to pick a topic for his capstone project, Brazeal wanted to combine his music skills with his love for music theory. He’s planning to perform either five or 10 songs, each purposefully selected as a representative of the century from which they originate. He is considering pieces composed between the 16th to 21st centuries.
“My plan is to find songs through scholarly sources,” Brazeal said. “I’m trying to be as diverse with my sounds as possible because I want to showcase the differences in sound from century to century. I didn’t want this to be a regular concert. A capstone is supposed to be a challenge.”
He hopes to one day follow in his professors’ footsteps and become an educator himself.
“I’ll likely apply to a private music school after graduating from UTD and get a teaching certificate in music,” Brazeal said. “Teaching is the end goal for me. I want to be a professor, specifically, especially because there’s a good market and a need for music professors.”
Brazeal is set to perform his capstone and graduate in fall 2024.
