Honors, accolades, research highlights, and other news from the School of Music faculty.
Michael Brockman, Saxophone
Longtime UW saxophone instructor Michael Brockman was inducted into the 2019 Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame at the recent Earshot Golden Ear Awards ceremony on April 4. The award recognizes Brockman’s contributions to the Seattle jazz community through his work a saxophonist, teacher, band leader, and co-founder and co-artistic director of the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, celebrating its 25th anniversary season in 2020.
Patricia Campbell, Music Education, Ethnomusicology
Patricia Shehan Campbell has been named to the editorial board of Ufatiti: Journal of African Perspectives, adding to editorial board appointments with Ethnomusicology (the journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology), Research Studies in Music Education (Australia), and the British Journal of Music Education.
In February, she joined with UW Music Education faculty, students and alumni in Yakima at the 2020 Washington Music Educators Association (WMEA) conference. Former Huskies traveled to the conference from their school-teaching positions across the state of Washington, from Seattle to Spokane, and from the Canadian border to the Columbia River. UW Music faculty participants included Christopher Roberts, Kevin Weingarten, Giselle Wyers, and Geoffrey Boers. Recognition at the General Assembly went to Kevin Clayton (’98 Music Education) as the 2020 secondary school teacher of the year and to Professor Campbell, recognized with the 2020 higher education award.
Paul Harshman, Jazz Studies
Jazz Studies artist in residence Paul Harshman directed the Association of Texas Small School Bands (ATSSB) All-State Jazz Ensemble at the Texas Music Educators Association in February.
Kari Ragan, Voice
The artist-in-residence recently celebrated the publication of A Systematic Approach to Voice: The Art of Studio Application (Plural Publishing), a professional resource for voice teachers. Organized by the five voice systems—respiration, phonation, registration, articulation, and resonance—the book addresses technical challenges in each area and provides corrective vocal exercises aimed toward facilitation of more efficient singing. In her ongoing work with the National Association of Teachers of Voice (NATS), Dr. Ragan moderates online NATS Chats on topics of interest to singers and voice instructors. In March, she and NATS Executive Director Allen Henderson moderated seven special edition NATS Chats to help voice teachers—both academic and independent—retain income and class time during the COVID 19 pandemic. Sessions included two on mental health considerations for singers.
Bonnie Whiting, Percussion Studies
Chair of Percussion Studies/Assistant Professor of Music Bonnie Whiting is one of the 2019/20 Mellon Faculty Fellows in the Arts, working collaboratively with DXARTS Assistant Professor Afroditi Psarra and Design Assistant Professor Audrey DesJardins on an interdisciplinary project involving transcoding data from voice assistants and other IoT devices as performance. The artists presented some of their work in Berlin as part of a workshop, Adversarial Hacking in the Age of AI, at the Transmediale Festival. Whiting has continued her work with percussionist Jennifer Torrence, making two trips to Norway for performances of new commissions at the Arne Nordheim Festival, NyMusikk Trondheim, and VEGA Scene, and workshops with students at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Closer to home, she recently joined Seattle Symphony Artist in Residence cellist Seth Parker Woods in a duo recital at the SSO's new Octave9 performance space at Benaroya Hall.