Unless one is familiar with orchestras, the general public often overlooks the unique sound of the oboe. Yet they are featured in many places, including movie and musical soundtracks.

A professor of oboe at WSU, Keri McCarthy, will perform a recital on Friday featuring conventional and unconventional pieces with six other faculty musicians at WSU and the University of Idaho. McCarthy will be accompanied by different musicians for each piece.

One piece is by H. James Harkins, an American composer based out of Guangzhou, China. McCarthy commissioned Harkins to write the piece, for oboe, bassoon and electronics.

“I am able to commission or play music from that region,” McCarthy said, “that oftentimes isn’t otherwise either available or distributed widely in the United States or the West … because I have connections in southeast Asia.”

The electronic portion will be controlled by a laptop and played through the speakers, McCarthy said. The Harkins’ piece is called “Meditations on ‘Myu Mhaung Wai Kin’” or “The Clear and Peaceful Mist,” which was inspired by the Burmese harp.

Ruth Boden, associate professor of cello at WSU, will accompany McCarthy on cello for the Bach piece with a pianist. Since the recital is focused on McCarthy, Boden will perform only one song in the concert.

McCarthy and Boden have a history of performing together, Boden said, but Boden usually plays bass with her. However, the oboe and cello have complementary ranges and naturally matching timbre, or quality of sound.

“You get a little low and a high, and you get a nice crossover of the midranges,” Boden said. “Something about the double reeds mix really well with the string sound.”

The assistant professor of bassoon at the University of Idaho Javier Rodriguez is teaching at WSU while the bassoon professor is on sabbatical, McCarthy said. Rodriguez will play bassoon for the Harkins piece.

Since McCarthy and Rodriguez both play double reed instruments, they both attended a conference in Japan last year. At the conference, McCarthy performed “Meditations” with a different bassoonist.

When Rodriguez heard the piece, he asked Harkins to transpose it for bassoon and soprano saxophone, which replaced the oboe. Rodriguez has performed the same piece many times, but this will be the first time with an oboe.

“I knew going in to performing it with Keri I would need to make sure that I was adhering to the composer’s intent,” Rodriguez said, “the way the composer wanted it to originally be performed and how it was meant to be written — which was for her.”

It is important for McCarthy to show the playing range of the oboe in her recital, she said. She will perform music by Bach, which she has played since she was an undergrad, in addition to a piece that she had written for her specifically.

“I really like the program itself,” McCarthy said. “I think that it has a lot of variety. All of the works are very approachable, they’re fun to listen to … it’s a really enjoyable concert program.”

“Oboe: Here and There” will be at 8 p.m. on Friday at Bryan Hall Theatre. The concert is free for WSU students. General admission is $10 and seniors are $5.