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Instrumental

Spring 2024

Sweet beats with the Cougar Marching Band

The WSU Fight Song, the roaring crowd, the electric atmosphere.

Washington State University’s Cougar Marching Band is often the heart and soul that connects WSU alumni and fans at these games.

In this episode, new Cougar Marching Band director Jon Sweet takes magazine associate editor Adriana Janovich behind the scenes. He talks about the music, the marching, the fans, and the incredible Coug spirit in the band.

This episode’s music is from the Cougar Marching Band at a November 2023 football game.

The Cougar Marching Band is raising money for new uniforms. Learn more or donate for the uniforms.

Transcript

 

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Eric McElroy plays piano in a studio
Fall 2023

A composer’s journey to poetry and music

Eric McElroy is an American pianist and composer who released his debut album, Tongues of Fire, in March 2023 on Somm Recordings. He wrote the songs to accompany poems from modern poets W.S. Merwin, Gregory Leadbetter, Grevel Lindop, Alice Oswald, and Robert Graves. The poems are sung by acclaimed English tenor James Gilchrist and McElroy performs on piano.

McElroy graduated from Washington State University and then continued his postgraduate education in Vienna and Oxford University.

In this episode, Washington State Magazine editor Larry Clark talks with McElroy about the new album, his creative process, poetry, walking, and his influences at WSU and beyond.

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Danh Pham conducting symphony concert
Winter 2020

Videos: Danh Pham conducts

Conductor Danh Pham, an associate music professor at Washington State University, brings joy and wonder as he directs various musical pieces.

Read more about Danh Pham’s work to introduce diverse and underrepresented composers.

 
Conducting the WSU Symphony Orchestra at The Fox [Theater in Spokane], 2019

 
Conducting Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin
Washington State University Symphony Orchestra, 2016

 
Conducting the Erhu Concerto “Jinghua’s Dream” (Mvt. 4 – Winter) by Guan Naizhong
Guang Xi Symphony Orchestra

 
Conducting the Clarinet Concerto (Mvt. I – Giocoso) by Philip Sparke
Seogwipo Philharmonic Wind Orchestra

 
Conducting … » More …

From the top
Spring 2017

From the top

It’s sunrise somewhere on the Appalachian Trail. Ruth Boden is sitting on top of a mountain, playing her cello as she gazes out at a sea of trees. A hiker approaches. “So that’s what I’ve been hearing for the past six miles!” he calls out to her, grinning from ear to ear.

Boden is the cello professor at Washington State University and the founder of Music Outside Four Walls. She is challenging the received wisdom that classical music is played in tuxedos in concert halls with whisper-quiet audiences who’ve paid big bucks for a seat. So she backpacks, with cello, … » More …