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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Cody Wymore delights in composing music

It’s as if Apollo, the Greek god of music, bestowed his gift upon Lewis and Clark senior Cody Wymore.

Wymore, who has played instruments since he was old enough to hold a trumpet, already has composed arrangements for the Eastern Washington University band and the LC choir. He also acts, sings, dances and is always willing to liven up a party, providing there’s a piano around.

“I like to play this three-note game,” said Wymore, who is graduating Friday. “Someone will give me three notes to play, and I can make a song out of it. It’s a good exercise for me.”

And even better entertainment for his classmates, along with one skeptic, one recent afternoon. A student chose the notes C, E-flat and F-sharp for Wymore’s “demonstratation.”

“Interesting, to say the least,” he said, sitting at the piano bench in a music room.

However, without hesitation, he began playing a melody with a ragtime beat. Applause followed his impromptu recital.

“I feel like ‘The Beautiful Mind” guy,” said Wymore, referring to John Nash, the math genius whom Russell Crowe portrayed in the 2001 Academy Award winning movie.

Sure, Wymore doesn’t see imaginary people, but he’s never far from hearing music.

“I love all music,” he said. “I can find something to appreciate in all songs.”

He said he’s inspired by David R. Holsinger, a band composer and hardly a recognizable name among his peers. On the end of the scale he also listens to popular bands like Ben Folds Five.

“He’s selfless,” LC arts educator Kathleen Blair said. “He gives and gives and gives.

“And he doesn’t put down people who are of lesser ability.”

Wymore, who went to Mullan Road Elementary and Sacajawea Middle School, said he doesn’t know where his passion and extraordinary ability for music came from.

His younger brother, Zachary also is a gifted musician who can play every band instrument, Wymore said. Neither their dad, Michael, nor mom, Jennifer, are musically inclined.

“He’s not the artsy type at all” Wymore said about his dad, an emergency doctor at Sacred Heart Medical Center, “Left to his own devices, he’d go out in the woods for a week.

“I like camping, but an 80-pound pack, walking through the sleet … not my deal.”

As an advanced-placement student, Wymore described himself as “unenthusiastic, at first, but now I gobble everything up.”

This fall, he will study music composition at Ithaca College, an upstate New York school, which is a four-hour drive from New York City. After one visit to Manhattan, during his family’s college exploratory trip last year, Wymore said, he was hooked.

Seeing four Broadway plays in four nights only enhanced the experience. However, he knows he’s in for a big adjustment, and there could be the matter of missing LC.

“There are some great, great teachers here, and I’ve been exposed to some of the best ones,” Wymore said. “They should be teaching college.

“It’s so easy to learn from them because they are so enthusiastic. It’s not hard to get caught up in it with them.”