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Seattle Symphony to conduct readings of student works

Submitted by Humanities Web Project on January 9, 2012 - 12:00am
Cello close-up

School of Music composition students will receive special attention at Benaroya Hall this month when the Seattle Symphony Orchestra devotes its January 31 rehearsal to readings of works by UW student composers.

“We are all truly honored that Maestro Morlot invited School of Music composition students to submit works for performance by the Seattle Symphony,” says School of Music Director Richard Karpen, also a professor of Composition at the School. “This is a first in the long relationship between the two organizations.”

Works chosen for the readings are “Khrysanthemums,” by Yiğit Kolat, a doctoral student of Joël-François Durand; “Wat wvor'n schoon Vagel,” by Josh Archibald-Seiffer, a master’s student of Professor Durand; and “Wildfire,” by Abby Aresty, a doctoral student who studies with Richard Karpen.

Kolat, a native of Ankara, Turkey, received his MM degree from the University of Memphis Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music, and his BA and MA at Hacettepe University State Conservatory in Turkey. His music has received several awards, including the First Prize in the Nejat F. Eczacibasi Composition Contest, the most prestigious composition award of his native country. His works have been performed by various groups and artists, including the Argento New Music Project of Columbia University, Peter Sheppard-Skaerved and Aaron Shorr of the Royal Academy of Music, the Athelas Ensemble of Denmark, and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Turkey.

Archibald-Seiffer received his bachelor's degree in music from Stanford University, graduating with Music Department Honors and with “University Distinction” - the highest recognition Stanford offers. He was also the recipient of the Carolyn Applebaum Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to the Department of Music and Stanford’s Robert Golden Medal for achievement in the creative and performing arts.  Among his many compositions, he co-wrote with Woody Paul the song “A Perfect Roar,” which appears on the Grammy award-winning album Monsters, Inc. Scream Factory Favorites.

Aresty earned her bachelor's degree in composition at the Eastman School of Music and her master's degree at the University of Michigan. Co-founder of the Liminal Project, a Seattle-based performance initiative, she has received commissions from the Hanson Institute for American Music and the Ossia New Music Ensemble at the Eastman School of Music, and her works and collaborations have been featured in the Visual Music Marathon, the International Computer Music Conference, in Montreal, and the ImageMovementSound Festival in Rochester, NY.

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