Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/115080
The CMU marching band stops playing. And on a crisp, late fall afternoon, several hundred randomly assembled and untrained musicians form a makeshift choir that belts out an increasingly familiar chorus in perfect time ��� a cappella, picking up where the band left off. Tonight We are young So let���s set the world on ���re We can burn brighter than the sun It���s an anthem to innocence and freedom. And today it also is a song tinged with pride for the alumnus who went before them. For it wasn���t long ago that Andrew Dost, ���05, keyboardist for the 2013 Grammy award-winning band, ���fun.,��� marched on this very field. ���When I was in high school we used to come down for CMU Band Day,��� says Dost, who grew up in Frankfort, Mich., and played trumpet in the northern Michigan high school���s marching band. ���One of the greatest things I remember was when we���d go onto the field to play with CMU���s marching band. Best New Artist is incredible because ��� it represents us as a band and hopefully the fact that we���ll be an important part of music for a long time. ���To know that my music is now part of that tradition is something very special.��� From flugelhorn to fame Dost is proud of the path that led to his current success. He followed in his parents��� footsteps when he chose to attend CMU. Cheryl (Kozan) Dost, ���78, and Mark Dost, ���79, both received degrees in elementary education and recently retired after teaching throughout the Thumb and northern Michigan. ���When writing music it���s sometimes hard to cut away the lyrics you spent so much time putting together,��� Dost says. ���Then, going back to my journalism classes, I remember about writing compact sentences and editing out the fluff to make the songs better.��� As valedictorian of his Frankfort High School graduating class, Dost was a Centralis Scholar and Honors Program student at CMU. He���s musically gifted ��� playing everything from the piano to drums, flugelhorn and guitar ��� but Dost wanted to develop other skills and pursued a journalism degree. 26 Turns out, the journalism background played a supporting role in his music career. Dost remembers a senior Honors project that had a particularly profound impact on his career. Working with Ed Long ��� thenHonors Program director ��� and music theatre faculty members, Dost wrote a musical called ���Columbus��� about the life of Christopher Columbus. centralight spring ���13