Wind Ensemble Chamber Winds

University of Washington Professor Emeritus Timothy Salzman served as Professor of Music/Director of Concert Bands and conductor of the UW Wind Ensemble from 1987 to 2025. When he was appointed to the position there were 11 students enrolled in one UW wind band – in his final year there were 335 enrolled in five bands. Former graduate wind conducting students of Professor Salzman have obtained positions at 73 universities and colleges throughout the United States and include past presidents of the American Bandmasters Association and the College Band Directors National Association as well as Jiannan Cheng, cover conductor for the Philadelphia Orchestra. During his tenure at the UW the band program was involved in commissioning and, in certain cases, the premiering of 38 new works for wind ensemble and undertook many concert tours including seven to Asia. From 1978 to 1983 he was band director in the Herscher, Illinois, public school system where the band program received numerous state, regional and national awards in solo/ensemble, concert and marching band competition. Immediately prior to his UW appointment he served for four years as Director of Bands at Montana State University where he founded the MSU Wind Ensemble and ‘Spirit of the West’ Marching Band. Professor Salzman holds degrees from Wheaton (IL) College, and Northern Illinois University, and studied privately with world-renown wind instrument pedagogue Arnold Jacobs, former tubist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has numerous publications for bands with the C. L. Barnhouse, Arranger's Publications, Columbia Pictures, Hal Leonard Publishing and Nihon Pals publishing companies, and has served on the staff of new music reviews for The Instrumentalist magazine. Professor Salzman has been a conductor, adjudicator, arranger, or consultant for bands throughout the United States and in Canada, England, France, Russia, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, China, and Japan, a country he has visited twenty-one times. He has traveled to China twelve times where he served as visiting professor at the China Conservatory, given master classes for numerous wind bands, and conducted several ensembles including the Shanghai Wind Orchestra, the People's Liberation Army Band, the Beijing Wind Orchestra, The China Conservatory Wind Ensemble and the Tsinghua University Band in multiple concerts. He also served on three occasions as an adjudicator for the Singapore Youth Festival National Concert Band Championships. He has conducted several of the major military bands in the United States including a 2019 world premiere with 'The President's Own' United States Marine Band. He was compiling editor and co-author (with several current and former UW graduate students) of A Composer's Insight: Thoughts, Analysis and Commentary on Contemporary Masterpieces for Wind Band, a five-volume series of books on contemporary wind band composers. The forwards to each volume were written by five Pulitzer Prize-winning composers. He was also a contributing author to a recent book (2022) about his former teacher entitled Arnold Jacobs: His Artistic and Pedagogical Legacies in the 21st Century. Professor Salzman is an elected member of the American Bandmasters Association and is a past president of the Northwest Division of the College Band Directors National Association. He is an elected member of the Drum Corps International Hall of Fame as well as the Santa Clara (CA) Vanguard and Cavaliers (IL) Drum and Bugle Corps Hall of Fame for his work as an arranger and brass instructor. In 2009 Nihon Pals, a music education resource company based in Osaka, Japan, released a set of instructional DVDs regarding ensemble musicality featuring the UW Wind Ensemble. The University of Washington hosted the 2011 National Conference of the College Band Directors National Association. 

Dan Fischer is in his second year in the Doctor of Musical Arts/Instrumental Conducting program at the University of Washington where he serves as the Graduate Assistant Director for the Husky Athletic Bands. He is also the conductor for Campus Band, and assistant conductor of the Wind Ensemble.

Dan Fischer earned his Bachelor of Arts in Music Education from Ottawa University (AZ), where he studied with Robert Hunter, Denny Monce and Josh Whitehouse. After earning this degree, he served as a band and orchestra director in the Scottsdale Unified School District (AZ) for three years. From there, he went on to earn his Master’s of Music Education degree at Auburn University, where he studied with Rick Good and Corey Spurlin. During his matriculation at Auburn University, he served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the band program - assisting and directing all three university concert ensembles, assisting with the 380-member marching band, and co-teaching undergraduate conducting courses. Prior to his doctoral studies, Dan served as the Director of Instrumental Music at John F. Kennedy Catholic High School (Burien, WA) for three years.

In addition to teaching, Dan Fischer has worked as a brass and visual clinician, guest conductor, and adjudicator in Arizona, Alabama, and Washington. He also had the honor of being a performer with The Arizona Academy Drum and Bugle Corps from 2005-2008. He currently is a member of the National Association for Music Education, the Washington Music Educators Association, the College Band Directors National Association, the National Band Association, the College Music Society, and Pi Kappa Lambda.

Originally from Maui, Hawai’i, Christopher V. Mathakul recently completed a DMA in Wind Conducting at the University of Washington. Prior to his doctoral studies, Mathakul served for seven years as a high school and middle school band director in schools on the island of O’ahu, Hawai’i. Mathakul earned a Master of Music degree in Wind Conducting from the University of New Mexico where he studied conducting with Professor Eric Rombach-Kendall and clarinet with Professor Keith Lemmons. During his time at New Mexico, Mathakul served as graduate assistant for the UNM bands, where his responsibilities included assisting and conducting the concert bands, marching band, and running the “Soundpack” basketball pep band. Mathakul also served as the music director for the Symphony Orchestra of Albuquerque, a community orchestra.

Mathakul received his Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa in 2009, where he studied clarinet with Henry Miyamura and James Moffat. While teaching in the public schools of Hawai’i, Mathakul studied conducting with Professor Grant Okamura and Dr. Jeffrey Boeckman at the University of Hawai’i. Through participation in summer workshops, Mathakul has studied conducting with Dr. Mallory Thompson of Northwestern University, Professor H. Robert Reynolds of the University of Southern California, Dr. Cynthia Johnston Turner of the University of Georgia, Dr. Sarah McKoin of Texas Tech University, and Dr. Leonard Tan of the National Institute of Education in Singapore.