There’s a good chance that you have heard Ellen Musick’s voice before.
For 30 years, she sang in Nashville’s recording studios for artists such as Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Donna
Summer and Roy Orbison and on jingles for clients such as McDonald’s, CITGO and hundreds of other banks and retailers across the country.
You may also recognize her as one of the vocalists for Fifth Avenue, a 13-piece
orchestra that performed for national conventions as well as local events,
including the first Fourth of July celebration at the opening of Riverfront
Park in downtown Nashville.
Musick had a job that many in Music City would envy, but as she neared her 50th
birthday, she made the bold decision to change careers and become a nurse.
“There was a part of me that wanted to do something that had meaning,” she said. “I knew I had sung on projects that had meaning and where the music touched
people, but I wanted to do something more direct and personal.”
Musick said she also realized her time was almost up in such a youth-oriented
business.
“At 30, I said no way will I be doing this at 40, and then at 40 I said no way
will I be doing that at 50,” she recalled. “I wanted to quit while I still had work. I didn’t want to just wake up one day to find the phone had stopped ringing. I saw that
happen to many people, and I just think that would be so hard. I wanted to do
something new and use my brain in a different way.”
Once Musick decided she was ready to leave the music business, she briefly
considered using her sewing and interior design skills to start a business
called “The Ottoman Empire” to make custom ottomans, but admits she was mostly attracted by the clever
company name.
While in her 20s, Musick had discovered she liked being in a medical
environment, but there was no question that her career would be in music. When
it came time to choose a second career, however, medicine was the obvious
choice.
“This sounds crazy, but I liked being in the hospital, and I was always
interested in medical problems. When we got our first computer and had access
to the Internet, I stayed up until 2 or 3 a.m. reading medical research.”
After receiving a degree in music from Belmont University in 1977, Musick
graduated exactly 30 years later with a nursing degree. The second time around,
one of her daughters was also a student there and she was often mistaken for a
professor.
“If I went to get a soft drink between classes, the cashiers would want to give
me the faculty discount,” she said.
