Carley Jo Goggans, who will earn a master’s degree in choral conducting at SIU Carbondale commencement exercises on May 10. (Photo by Russell Bailey)
April 28, 2025
Finding her voice: SIU School of Music’s Carley Jo Goggans sets career path
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois University Carbondale music student Carley Jo Goggans is reaching what she once believed was an unattainable dream.
A journey that started with thoughts of working in international affairs and possibly the U.S. Department of State ultimately led to a different path for Goggans, who will receive her Master of Music in choral conducting during 9 a.m. commencement exercises on Saturday, May 10.
“It’s just something I’ve always loved,” said Goggans, of Siloam Springs, Arkansas. “I literally never entertained the idea of being a singer, performer or musician in any way. I was like, it’s just not practical. Whether I planned for it or not, music just remained in my life the whole time. At some point I was like, ‘Why am I fighting this?’”
Goggans, 25, graduated with honors from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, in international relations and affairs, Russian studies and music in May 2022. She taught English in Estonia as a Fulbright teaching assistant for 10 months before enrolling in the SIU School of Music in August 2023. While in Estonia, Goggans began to realize the importance of music and singing in her life and wanted to do “something that brings me joy.”
“International relations didn’t bring me joy. I thought it was interesting, but it didn’t inspire joy for me. So, I decided to pursue music,” she said.
Early introduction to music
At a young age Goggans began singing as a child, and she started piano lessons for 10 years when she was 5 or 6 years old. Her mother, Pam, a music educator in the public school system for 20 years, was Goggans’ first voice teacher as she sang around the house, also entertaining her father, Cliff. She began singing in choirs in grade school and has been in a choir ever since.
Goggans enjoys the collaboration of recitals.
“It’s like a musical conversation,” she said. “It’s very much the same way with your pianist, but sometimes I think that it’s easy to forget it’s a conversation with your pianist versus when it’s with a whole group of musicians. It has to be a conversation.”
Heavily involved while at SIU
While at SIU, Goggans has been involved in several chamber recitals and performances. Her final graduate recital was April 19, where she performed 15 pieces “for fun,” which followed her master’s degree recital for choral conducting just two months earlier.
“My philosophy is that you just say yes to everything,” Goggans said. “You never know when saying yes to this one random opportunity that you are like ‘Why am I doing this,’ turns out to be the opportunity that leads you down this path to your meaning in life.”
Goggans said she “genuinely enjoys” learning music.
“I do think there is something to be said for finding things that are really hard, but you enjoy the challenge,” she said. “Learning music is really challenging, but I enjoy the challenge.”
SIU faculty played pivotal role
Goggans credits School of Music faculty Susan Davenport, David Dillard and Richard Kelley for playing important roles in her success. All three show a love for their profession. Goggans first met Davenport over Zoom while she in Estonia to discuss the choral conducting program, and “you could tell that she was the kind of professor that if you wanted to learn something, she was going to help you learn it,” Goggans said.
“It really is the professors that make the programs. The curriculum is the curriculum. But if you have a professor who genuinely loves teaching it and loves what they do — Dr. Davenport, there is nothing about choral conducting that she does not know and that makes a big difference when you are studying. And she holds her students to a really high standard.”
Davenport, a professor and director of choral activities, is retiring from teaching at SIU after 20 years. Davenport said she feels “blessed to be finishing my career at SIU with students like Carley Jo.”
“When she got here, I think she was very much ‘in search of what’s next’ as so many students are,” Davenport said. “I knew she would be a great student, and I was OK with her search. If I can help the young adults who come to graduate school find their passions, help them set goals for the future and zero in on their strengths, then I feel like I’ve served purpose in their lives.”
Dillard “is a very good vocal technician,” Goggans said. “He can diagnose what’s happening to your voice just by listening. He always has ideas of things to try.”
Goggans “is an outstanding student on a number of fronts: She excels academically in her coursework, but also sings beautifully and conducts, and is a capable graduate assistant,” Dillard said.
Future plans
Goggans will pursue a doctorate in vocal performance at the University of Northern Colorado beginning this fall. She said she would love to continue teaching voice but would also like to perform and is “open to whatever that looks like, whether it be in opera or chamber music.”
Davenport said Goggans’ mastery of the choral conducting curriculum “has given her a vast tool chest to be successful in that. When she finishes, she’ll be broadly trained and extremely marketable in the higher education arena. And she’ll be a highly trained artist too.”
The choral conducting program also helped Goggans gain confidence.
“If you don't believe in yourself when you get in front of a choir of 15 people, they are not going to come along on this journey with you." They will see through you so fast if you are not confident in what you are doing,” she said.
Goggans said performing makes her happy.
“I think that maybe in some ways that’s kind of a key to success as a performer,” she said. “If you are looking to please others, you are going to be chasing an unattainable dream your whole life. So, I think if the focus is that this makes me really happy to make music and it inspires creativity in myself and brings me joy, there is nothing like the physicality of singing.”