Presenter of the Distinguished Faculty Address

Professor, School of Music

Keri McCarthy has built global awareness of music from Asia and the United States. Her work has resulted in performances and presentations worldwide dedicated to Asian composers and their music. It has also yielded 18 newly commissioned works for oboe or wind quintet and four commercially-released albums sharing music from Asian and Asian-American artists.

In 2011 a Core Fulbright Scholarship took McCarthy to Thailand to study contemporary music. She later co-founded the Light through Music project, introducing oboe and bassoon to musicians in Myanmar. In 2016 she co-founded the Pan Pacific Ensemble, a wind quintet that has commissioned and recorded works from Asian and Asian-American composers. McCarthy founded OctOboeFest NW, which provides high-school- and college-aged oboists opportunities to learn from nationally recognized musicians. Institutions across the Northwest host the event. A service project that she co-founded brings instruments and education to underserved populations. McCarthy advises WSU’s Fulbright Student Association.