“If CMU was a piece of music, what would it be?”

Christian Kriegeskotte and Katherine Pukinskis crossed paths at CMU while Christian was pursuing his master’s and Katherine was an undergrad. Their paths diverged — Christian composes scores for film and music for symphony orchestras while Katherine has become a professor at CMU — but they reunited to reflect on how CMU informed their artistic and professional experiences.

CMU students, they agree, strike a different chord — they are willing to put in hard work, listen more than they speak and collaborate. Alumni, in return, are eager to reach back down the ladder to provide opportunities and mentorship. And overall, artists at CMU benefit from the cross-departmental collaboration and perspectives of other disciplines so close by.

And if CMU was a symphony? It would be Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” or Leonard Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms.” What do they have in common? Meticulous engineering, impressive scale and unmistakable reputation.

By Eric Hoffman and Kate Flynn