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Tyler Heard

Tyler Heard was a mixed-race Black and White pianist from Cleveland, Ohio. He studied piano performance at the Juilliard School and was in a relationship with fellow student Rowan Collins.

Education and Music

Tyler began classical piano training at approximately four years old. His later repertoire included classical music, jazz, swing, pop, and hip-hop.

Tyler entered Juilliard in fall 2021 as a piano-performance student and belonged to the class of 2025. He and Rowan were in the same entering cohort.

Romantic and Significant Relationships

Rowan Collins

Tyler was Rowan’s boyfriend and a fellow Juilliard student. In December 2024, when both were seniors, he held Rowan together in the residence-hall corridor after she broke down following four days without knowing whether Travis Yoon was alive.

Travis Yoon

After Travis’s death, Ezra paid for Tyler and Rowan to fly to Evanston for the funeral. Tyler later joined Rowan and Travis’s other Juilliard friends in participating in the New York City memorial.

Characters Minor Characters Living Characters Musicians Pianists Mixed Race Characters Black Characters Black American Characters White Characters