The KSU Orchestra has been in continuous existence since 1881. The Orchestra is an integral part of the cultural offerings at K-State and offers a creative musical outlet to over eighty undergraduate and graduate students. Nearly half of the members are non-music majors and pursue studies in areas as diverse as architecture, all branches of engineering, computer science, education, anthropology, biology, chemistry, English, modern languages, and human ecology. The KSU Orchestra tours several Kansas cities in alternate years. It was invited to perform at KMEA in February 1992 as well in Concordia, Clay Center, Beloit, Garden City, Salina, Hays, Topeka, Shawnee Mission, and the University of Nebraska during the past several seasons.
Members give five concerts each year with an opera or musical performance in alternate years.
For educational as well as aesthetic reasons, Dr. Littrell chooses compositions from a diversity of styles selected from the three hundred years of orchestral repertoire. Dr. Cora Cooper is a native of Vermont. An Associate Professor of Music at Kansas State University, she teaches violin, viola and string techniques. Before coming to Kansas State University, Dr. Cooper was Assistant Professor of Music at Montana State University in Bozeman. While in Montana she played with the Artemis Trio, the String Orchestra of the Rockies, and was concertmaster and soloist with the Bozeman Symphony.