Fatima: Finding Grace for Oneself

Chicago, IL (December 2026) — When Fatima Perez joined ArtSmart her junior year of high school, she didn’t think of herself as a singer. She loved music privately, humming to herself and taking karaoke a little too seriously, but performing for others felt out of reach. Two years later, she stood on stage in front of friends, family, and teachers, delivering her most vulnerable and powerful performance yet. Today, she’s a first-generation college student at Yale University.

The through-line between those two moments is her ArtSmart Maria Manetti Shrem Mentor, Matthew Brennan.

More Than a Vocal Coach

From the very first lesson, Fatima felt at ease. “I often battle with thinking my interactions with people are awkward,” she says, “but the first day I met Matt, it felt comfortable from the get-go.”

Their weekly sessions quickly became more than vocal training. Matt made Fatima feel like she could be honest — about the music, and about everything else — working through technical challenges, but also talking through a senior year that felt like too much.

“It wasn’t just about practicing music,” she says. “It was a time to let everything out. Especially senior year, when I was really stressed. I was able to use my vocal lessons to express what I was going through. Matt helped me look at my situation in a more positive light.”

Inside the Lesson

Each session followed a rhythm: catching up on life, warming up, then diving into the music. What set Matt apart was how intentionally he guided Fatima through her repertoire. At the start of every new piece, they mapped out goals together, whether she wanted more power in a difficult passage, or to stop singing the notes and start meaning them.

“On my own, I would just try to sing a song as well as I could,” Fatima says. “Matt taught me to take the song apart and understand what I wanted to get out of it, piece by piece. That changed how I approach everything.”

He also pushed her past her own limits. When she told herself a note was too high, Matt showed her how to approach it differently. “I found so many times I thought, ‘I can’t hit that,’ and then he’d adjust how I was thinking about it, and suddenly I could sing in a more powerful way than I ever thought possible.”

Outside the Lesson

The growth didn’t stay in the studio. Matt’s belief in Fatima, and his honesty that failure is part of any process, reshaped how she carries herself.

“He was very adamant that I should always believe in myself,” she says. “He never made me feel like I was doing anything wrong. He taught me that there could be a lot of failing before you succeed. Your voice can crack, anything can go wrong, but if you keep working, it comes into something beautiful. I apply that to academics, to life. If I’m struggling, it’s not because something’s wrong with me. It just takes time.”

She carries that with her at Yale, where the academics are harder than anything she faced in high school, and where she’s one of the few in her family ever to set foot on a college campus.

“ArtSmart gave me a boost of confidence not just in my musical ability, but in everyday life,” she says. “Knowing I had Matt, someone I could trust and confide in, I always looked forward to those lessons. I really felt like I had a friend.”

A Final Performance to Remember

Her last ArtSmart master class was her most meaningful. She had been going through a difficult time personally, and she performed “Some Things Are Meant to Be” from Little Women, a song she loved for what it meant between its two characters, in front of more people than she’d ever invited before: friends, teachers, and her mom, who had come to nearly every performance.

“It was the hardest performance I had to do, but also the most special,” she says. “I was able to see that I could manage, even through a hard time.”

Her mom said it best afterward: “I didn’t know you could do that.”

Fatima smiled. “I didn’t either, until now.”

“He was very adamant that I should always believe in myself,” she says. “He never made me feel like I was doing anything wrong. He taught me that there could be a lot of failing before you succeed.