Tacoma native toured with Hozier. Now she’s set to deliver lecture at UPS
A Tacoma native who began her decade-long music career at the University of Puget Sound is returning to the school as a guest speaker.
Grace Youn graduated from the university in 2013 and has gone on to establish herself as a multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer. The university announced Youn will deliver the Spring 2026 Susan Resneck Pierce Lecture in Public Affairs and the Arts on Feb. 10. She will also host two master classes for students and the community.
“In her lecture, Youn will explore the intersection of rigorous technical training and the preservation of creative curiosity. Through a unique blend of live musical performance and personal storytelling, she will examine how embracing uncertainty and following one’s ‘pull’ can lead to transformative creative paths both on and off the stage,” according to a university news release.
Youn told The News Tribune it was an honor when her alma mater asked her to deliver the lecture. She said she enjoyed her time at the university as she had a lot of freedom and was encouraged to explore her music. She also got the chance to sub with the Tacoma Symphony.
“Even stuff I had to study outside of music kind of opened up my world view,” she said.
Youn, now based in Los Angeles, said she grew up in Tacoma, and her parents live in University Place.
“I’m the only artist in my family and only creative in my family, extended family included,” she said. “My parents didn’t want me to be a musician, they just wanted me to be a doctor who appreciated classical music.”
Youn’s mother put her and her siblings through classical music lessons where she gained an appreciation of the genre. Youn said she knew she wanted to be a musician when she was 13 years old but did not vocalize it until she was 17.
Youn said her lifelong goal is to be musical in any capacity that she can be. There are certain genres she might gravitate towards, but she loves the process of learning.
Throughout her over decade-long career, Youn said she has been open-minded with opportunities. She has managed a violin shop, worked and helped build curriculum for an app that teaches people violin and taught at a studio. Her work has been featured in film scores, music recordings and live shows.
She said she also had a six-month long side quest when she toured with artist Hozier for his “Unreal Unearth Tour” at the end of last year. Hozier is an Irish singer and musician known for songs, “Take Me to Church” and “Too Sweet”, among others. She toured as a multi-instrumentalist as she not only played the violin, but viola, guitar and sang back-up vocals.
Youn said she got to the opportunity to join the tour after a friend, who was also part of the tour, called her to say that Hozier’s team was looking at her social media accounts. There was a position in the band that needed to be filled, and Youn’s name came up in the conversation.
“They made the band bigger [last] year, and they were looking for someone who can write new parts,” Youn said.
Though she was used to sheet music, she had none for that job. She listened to live recordings from Hozier’s previous shows and to his album to understand where her part could fit in. Youn said everything on stage was made live, and there was a lot of support within the musicians.
Youn said she is now focused on production and is also writing a solo album, which she hopes to finish this year.
‘Nobody has it entirely figured’
In Youn’s lecture, which is titled “The Art of Not Knowing Yet,” she will delve into the topic of creative curiosity, a practice she said that can be trained out of artists. She also hopes the lecture will get across the message that not everyone has it figured out.
“Nobody has it entirely figured out. A lot of people reach out to me because they think I have it all figured out, but truth is I don’t,” Youn said. “Curiosity takes a lot of time, and that time looks different for everybody.”
Youn said curiosity is something she tries to cultivate every day, and she wants to encourage people to be brave enough to follow what holds their interest in any given time.
The lecture will include a live musical performance, and some students are performing an arrangement she has written.
Youn will also host two master classes, which are open to students and the community in the university’s music building at Room L6.
The first master class is Feb. 10 from 11 a.m. to noon, which will be a hands-on workshop “focused on creating pop cover arrangements for strings, concluding with a live performance of the arrangement,” according to the university.
The second class on Feb. 11 from noon to 1 p.m. will be a professional development session that focuses on building a reputation and presence in the music industry without having to have “influencer energy.”
Tickets for the Pierce Lecture and Master Classes are free but required for entry. Tickets can be reserved through the university’s website or at the Logger Store in the Wheelock Student Center.
