Cool Cat: Ryan Taylor-Schmid
Q&A by Quin Ford
Ryan is a third year Choral Music Education Major. He is a part of the choir on campus and is a member of the Conticus Vocal Ensemble of Yakima. The choir performs at a few different locations: Englewood Christian Church and Wesley United Methodist Church in Yakima. As for CWU’s choir, you can see them perform at the concert hall inside the Jerilyn S. McIntyre music building.
What are your career plans after you graduate?
“Hopefully teaching at a public high school. I’ll be teaching choirs, probably a tenor base choir, a treble choir, maybe a show choir and a jazz choir as well.”
What made you want to pursue Choral Music Education?
“In high school, especially, my music teachers were my rock… and I wanted to be able to provide that for the next generation of musicians.”
What are your favorite parts about singing in the choirs?
“It’s like a big family. You get to know everybody really well. It’s kind of the same thing as if you have a job you like, then you never have to work. That’s what it feels like to be pursuing a degree that you enjoy… singing in choirs feels like you never have to work.”
How do you feel you contribute to the choir/music society here in town?
“By showing up and doing my part. Harmony is a big part of music and if I’m not learning my part and harmonizing right, then we’re not going to make great music.”
What kind of music do you like and what are your favorite genres, artists and songs?
“I grew up on hip-hop, I enjoy classical music and classic rock… I love the Foo Fighters [and] in terms of hip-hop, I like Don Toliver, Playboi Carti, I’m a big Chief Keef guy… My favorite song of all time is ‘Everlong’ by the Foo Fighters… and my favorite song right now is ‘Bruddanem’ by JID.”
What are some of your hobbies outside of choir?
“I love playing basketball with my buddies… building legos… and sports video games like Madden and 2K… I like reading comic books, the ‘Batman Hush’ series is really good and ‘Absolute Batman.’”
Is there anything else you would like to share that we haven’t discussed today?
A big part of the community is… Dr. Scott Peterson. He just had his last concert here at Central. He was the first choral conducting grad student at Central. He created the university choral and now he’s moving on. He’s still going to be directing Conticus, but he was a big part of our community… so I just wanted to mention him.
Interview has been edited for clarity and length.