Living out a calling: how Elizabeth Gerken ’24 uses her musical gifts to serve others

When Elizabeth Gerken ’24 sat down at the piano during a Bethel talent show her first year, she had no music prepared.

She had not told her friends or her parents. She didn’t know what she was going to play. She only knew she needed to find out if music was the path God was calling her to follow.

“I just prayed, I sat down, and I played,” Gerken says. “I don’t even remember what I did.”

Someone recorded her performance, and when Gerken later heard it, she could hardly believe it was hers. “When I played it back, that could not have been me,” Gerken says. “It sounded like an epic film score.” 

She won the talent show.  

A sign to follow music

For Gerken, it was an answer to prayer that helped her recognize a gift she had long carried.

“I was just like, ‘God, if you want me to go the music path, give me a sign’… and that was a sign,” she laughs.

Gerken had come to Bethel planning to study biochemistry. She had a background in STEM through an online Harvard Medical School certificate program she’d done in high school, and chose Bethel because of its science programs, community, and sense of student community. But two months into college, she realized biochemistry did not feel like the path she was meant to pursue.

“It was like an identity crisis,” Gerken says. “I can do this, but it doesn’t feel like my passion. What am I going to do if I’m not doing STEM?”

The talent show helped her confirm the next step, and Gerken changed her major to music composition.

Learning the discipline behind the gift

That decision to switch academic paths started a season of intense growth. Gerken realized she had a strong musical instinct, but Bethel's supportive music faculty and training gave her the structure to understand and strengthen it.  

“I had plenty of musical background, but not specific theory,” she says. “I could improvise an entire song, but I had no clue what key I was in.”

Professors helped Gerken develop her gift with discipline, structure, and skill. They recognized her natural ability, but they also challenged her to put in the work. One of those opportunities came when former professor Nicole Mattfeld encouraged Gerken to write a piece for the choir. Gerken not only composed the song, but taught it to the ensemble and conducted it in concert.

Her experience with the music department helped her see her gift in a new light. What had once felt like something personal could become something shared with a community. “My professors recognized my gift, but they also showed me I had to put in the work,” Gerken says. 

Using music to teach and comfort

Today, Gerken keeps doing that work. 

She teaches flute, piano, voice, and composition at Inspire Academy of Music, where she works with about 50 students each week. She also volunteers in hospice care at Presbyterian Homes while working toward certification as a therapeutic musician through the Music for Healing and Transition Program.

Working in two roles ask different things from her. As a teacher, she coaches students through technique, creativity, mistakes, and performance. As a therapeutic musician in training, she uses music to support rest, comfort, and peace.

“I switch between a teaching brain and a comforting brain,” she says.

In hospice rooms, Gerken’s music becomes deeply personal. She listens for what brings each person peace—the music they love, the keys they respond to, the melodies that seem to belong to them. Sometimes, when someone is nearing the end of life, she composes something in the moment that feels entirely their own.

“I get to know someone really well, what key they prefer, and what music they like,” she says. “This is your song. I know this is yours. This is your melody.”

The work can also be emotionally difficult. Gerken has walked with patients for months, then learned they passed away. She has attended bedside memorials and knows this line of work requires both presence and strength. But she also sees deep purpose in it.

“It can be hard, but it’s very fulfilling,” she says. “I want to continue to do this work for end-of-life care, because I think it’s very important.”

Bringing science, service, and music together

Her interest in therapeutic music began while she was still at Bethel. Gerken wanted to study abroad and joined a Bethel nursing trip to Taiwan, where she shadowed music therapists and learned about holistic medicine, acupuncture, and medicine.

That experience helped her see how music, science, and service could work together. It also helped clarify something Bethel had been preparing her to understand: God could use the full range of her gifts in one calling. “I pray before each lesson in my head—what does this student need, and how can I help them?” she says. 

Helping students grow through doubt

Now, Gerken uses music with people in many stages of life. With her students, she teaches technique and confidence. One student began with voice lessons, then decided to learn piano and write original worship songs. Gerken helped coach her through the process, and the student went on to compete internationally.

“That was just so incredible to nurture her growth,” Gerken says. “That’s all her, and I just got to coach her.”

Through teaching and hospice work, Gerken has learned that fear often shows up right before growth. “There’s always a little element of ‘I have no clue what I’m doing,’ but I think everyone hates to admit it, she says.”

That insight shapes how she teaches. She lets students see her make mistakes. She plays hard sections in front of them and shows them how to keep working. When they are close to giving up, she reminds them that fear does not get the final word. “The whispers of fear are the loudest when you’re closest to victory,” Gerken says.

Composing a life of purpose

Gerken continues to compose, too. She is building a website and hopes to publish her music, collaborate with other musicians, and make space for the melodies that are always forming in her mind. Sometimes they come while she is cooking, driving, or running. Sometimes she has to stop and record them before they fade.

“I constantly have a melody or some type of music in my head,” she says.

That steady stream of music has become a way to serve. Whether Gerken is helping a young student write a worship song, composing for a choir, or playing beside someone in hospice care, she hopes her music gives people a moment of peace in a hectic world.

“Life can be so stressful, and we’re always questioning whether we’re doing well,” Gerken says. “I just hope my music gives people a moment of peace where they can stop thinking, rest, and just feel held.”

For Gerken, her calling became clear through prayer, practice rooms, and one improvised talent show performance. Since then, that calling has carried her music into classrooms, care facilities, and quiet bedside moments—places where a melody can become someone's encouragement, comfort, or peace.

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In Bethel’s Department of Music and Performing Arts, you’ll learn in a supportive community where dedicated students are encouraged to push boundaries and enhance their musical capabilities, with a focus on honoring our Creator.

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