Before there were disc jockeys like Deadmau5 mixing songs together for audiences, there were classical composers blending styles and song movements into larger works of art.

Students will get a chance to hear this at work as The WSU Symphony Orchestra performs four classical songs Thursday in Bryan Hall, lead by Matthew Aubin, the director of orchestras for WSU and lead conductor.

The performance will open with Leonard Bernstein’s operatic “Overture to Candide,” which will be conducted by Assistant Conductor Rachael Kone, a graduate student mastering in violin performance and orchestral conducting.

The “Overture to Candide” is meant as an opener to a much longer work, so it contains many excerpts from the larger piece in a short amount of time, Kone said.

“It’s a technically challenging piece for all the students,” Kone said. “There’s not one part in it that isn’t busy.”

Danh Pham, the director of bands at WSU, will also be a guest conductor for the symphony.

Pham will perform a piece by Edward Elgar entitled “Pomp and Circumstance Military March, No. 4.”

This song will probably sound familiar to many listeners since it is heavily influenced by “Pomp and Circumstance Military March, No. 1,” the famous graduation march, Aubin said.

“Knowing about the history of these composers will really allow people to hear the resemblances to their other works,” Aubin said.

Aubin himself will conduct the other two pieces, which will include Dovark’s “Cello Concerto,” a romantic period piece, and Shostakovitch’s “Ballet Suite No. 1,” a more contemporary piece.

“Ballet Suite No. 1” is a coming together of six different movements, Aubin said, and includes waltz, polka, and romantic influences.

Ruth Boden, assistant professor of music at WSU, will be a soloist during the first movement of the “Cello Concerto.”

“I think this program will be full of crowd pleasers,” Aubin said. “I think people will come away really liking what they heard.”

The conductors and instructors put these performances together as a way for the students to finalize all the work they’ve been doing, and to keep the music fresh in their minds, Kone said.

“The colors and textures you experience in a symphony are different than you’ll experience with anything else,” Kone said. “You actually have to be engaged when you’re listening or you’ll miss something.”

The Orchestra Symphony will play at 8 p.m. Thursday in Bryan Hall and is free to everyone.