Jazz Studies Professor Marc Seales is the Western Washington University 2017 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year for the College of Fine & Performing Arts.
The longtime UW Music faculty member, a graduate of WWU’s music program, will be recognized, along with distinguished graduates of all of WWU’s colleges, in a ceremony at Western’s Bellingham campus on May 18.
The awards, established in 1980, are the most prestigious honors bestowed by the Western Alumni Association on alumni and members of the university’s community.
Seales’s accomplishments since his graduation from WWU include decades of professional music involvement, numerous recordings and performances with some of the leading musicians in jazz, and multiple awards from Seattle’s Earshot Jazz organization, which inducted him into its Jazz Hall of Fame in 2009. The first full-time faculty member in the UW’s Jazz Studies program when it was first established in 1990 and former chair of the program, Seales continues to teach and perform at UW and beyond. His next UW performance, Friday, Feb. 17 at Brechemin Auditorium, is a duo performance with friend and longtime colleague Tom Collier, vibes. Details here.