Mount, a senior in the music technology and production program, finds common ground amongst his interests in violin and STEM
Evan Mount
By Taylor Pedersen, CLA Student Writer - November 7, 2025
When Evan Mount arrived at Oregon State University, he imagined a future filled with greenhouses and microscopes. A passionate gardener raised in Seattle, he chose OSU for its prestigious botany program after a short stint studying chemistry at UC San Diego. Music, though ever-present in his life, was still just a side project or an outlet, not a career.
Now, as an incoming fifth-year in the music technology and production program at the School of Visual, Performing, and Design Arts, Mount has traded soil samples for soundboards. He’s a violinist in the OSU Symphony, a DJ at KBVR-FM, a former Reser Creative Scholar, and a current PRAx student advisory council member, as well as a tutor at the Writing Center. For him, music is no longer a hobby in the margins but the center of his academic and creative life.
“I think I realized it when I stopped going to science advisors altogether,” Mount said with a laugh. “I was only meeting with Kristen Rorrer, the music advisor, every quarter. At some point it clicked: not only do I love the music, I love the people in the department. I wanted to be around them more. That was when I knew.”
Mount’s musical story began at age five, when his mom gave him a choice: sports or an instrument. He chose the violin, and though his early practice sessions were reluctant, middle school changed everything.
“My middle school orchestra teacher was incredible,” he recalled. “She got us playing in the community, going to conferences, and connecting with the local scene. That’s when I thought: ‘I want to do this for me, not just because I have to.’”
By high school, he was well known in Seattle’s classical and chamber music circles, performing in school and city orchestras and building a reputation. Still, when it came time to choose a major, presumed practicality won out. “I didn’t think music could lead to a stable career,” he said. “There was pressure to pick something STEM, and I was good at chemistry. But I eventually realized that being in a lab wasn’t the life I wanted.”
Though he pivoted away from science, Mount sees echoes of his chemistry and botany background in his music work. “It’s funny, waves show up in both fields,” he said. “In chemistry, you learn about molecular vibrations, and in music technology, you’re learning how sound waves move in a studio. Resonance, acoustics… There are surprising overlaps.”
Gardening, too, remains an influence. His family’s massive flower garden back in Seattle still shapes his creative process. “It reminds me to step back and not get too analytical,” he said. “Sometimes I’ll get stuck overthinking chords or production choices. But if I go outside, put my hands in the dirt, it resets me. It’s grounding, literally and figuratively.”
At OSU, Mount thrives on bridging worlds. He performs classical violin in the symphony, mixes pop and electronic tracks on his KBVR radio show, and even merged the two when he performed computer-based DJ music with the OSU Symphony last year.
“It’s fun finding threads between genres,” he said. “The same chords that show up in a symphony piece might also be in a Top 40 hit. Putting them side by side is really satisfying.” That sense of connection extends beyond the music itself. Living with fellow artists from the School of Visual, Performing, and Design Arts, Mount describes feeling “comfortable” in a way he never did in STEM fields. “These are people who care about art, music, and writing. They’re not just classmates, they’re collaborators and friends.”
Outside of music, Mount tutors at the Writing Center and helped to organize the Peer Educator Conference for fall 2025. He sees these roles as extensions of his artistry. “It’s about collaboration,” he said. “Music can be really individual, but tutoring and leading a conference remind me how to work with a team, set goals, and adapt when things don’t go as planned. Those skills carry over into the studio, too.”
Looking ahead to his final year, Mount is eager to dive deeper into music production, especially pop. “I’ve mostly focused on performance and simpler production so far,” he said. “Now I want to explore the more complex side of it, making tracks with friends and experimenting with new sounds.”
Technology is another point of excitement. Recently, one of his instructors demonstrated an eight-channel audio setup—music composed for a circle of speakers surrounding the listener. “It blew my mind,” Mount said. “The idea that sound could move all around you, even in a 32- or 64-channel space, feels like the future. I want to be part of that.”
For Mount, the journey from botany to music hasn’t been about abandoning one passion for another but about finding where different parts of his life intersect. Whether it’s the science of waves, the patience of gardening, or the collaboration of teaching, he sees his past as feeding into his present.
“I’ve gone all in on music, and I like what’s happening,” he said. “But I also know I can spread out, try new things, and make connections. That’s what excites me: the possibility that music can hold all of it.”