Thomas LeClair

Visual and Performing Arts

• College of Arts and Sciences, Honors College
• Music, Biology
• Mount Vernon, Washington

Involvement

President and treasurer of Allegro: Student Association for Music Advocacy; president, vice president, and PR coordinator for Student Ambassadors at the College of Arts and Sciences; sang with WSU Madrigal Singers and Concert Choir; collaborative pianist and accompanist for lessons and performances; historian for the Honors Student Advisory Council; researcher with the Dowd Ecophysiology Lab

Favorite WSU experience

From singing with the WSU choirs everywhere from Reaney Park to his hometown, to presenting an organ recital and demonstrating the instrument to non-organists, musical performances were a highlight of LeClair’s WSU career. Seeing family, friends, and faculty in concert audiences made these events particularly special. LeClair was also instrumental in repairing a theater organ in the basement of Webster Hall, as well as restoring the Bryan Hall carillon. He says he was thrilled to get to play the bells for a variety of special occasions, including playing the Fight Song after WSU football home wins. “Just being on campus is special,” he adds, “there’s an infectious energy that is more than you can bargain for.”

Future plans

Music will always be a part of LeClair’s life, he says. “It’s something I can’t live without.” He plans to keep it up through church choirs and working as an organist. But he loves science, too, especially animals. Already accepted into the WSU College of Veterinary Medicine, the future vet hopes (pandemic permitting) to first travel to the United Kingdom to earn a one-year master’s degree in marine biology. Though he’ll never truly finish his education, LeClair wants to establish a veterinary practice serving both large and small animals, while working with wildlife rehabilitation projects and aquariums.