School of Music students and alumni report recent academic appointments, performances, career milestones, and other notable achievements.
Tess Altiveros (’10 MM, Voice) is busy this season with roles and engagements nationwide. She sings Soldier in The Falling and the Rising with Arizona Opera, Intermountain Opera and Opera Memphis; Giannetta in Elixir with Seattle Opera; Nana/Wajma in the world premiere of A Thousand Splendid Suns at Seattle Opera. She also sings the Messiah with Boise Philharmonic, the Mozart Requiem with Evansville Philharmonic, and takes part in a tour and recording of Monteverdi’s Orfeo with Pacific MusicWorks, as well as performing Mozart's Mass in C Minor with Seattle ProMusica. She has sung the national anthem recently for the Mariners, the Kraken, Sounders, and the OL Reign. She serves as adjunct voice faculty at Seattle University.
Ryan Bede (DMA, Voice), who relocated to Nashville last year, recently finished a run of Menotti’s “The Medium” with Nashville Opera in his mainstage debut with the organization. He is currently engaged in teaching voice at both Belmont University and Lipscomb University. Upcoming engagements include a reprise of Jack Perla’s “An American Dream” with Opera Idaho in Boise in February 2023. He is active in the Tennessee chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and reports that several of his voice students received top honors in their categories in auditions this season.
Doctoral student Justin BIrchell (DMA, Choral Conducting) is a featured soloist this month with Seattle-based Harmonia orchestra and chorus, with whom he’ll be singing the Mozart Requiem bass solos. He conducted another rendition of the Mozart Requiem this past May at the Seattle Folklife festival.
Music Education alumni Will Coppola (’18 PhD, Music Ed) and David Hebert (’09 PhD Music Ed) report recent publications: Coppola’s article "Can Arts Institutions be Virtuous? Collective Virtues, Vices, and Epistemic Responsibility" appears in the latest issue of the Arts Education Policy Review. Hebert’s article “Nature conservation and music sustainability: Fields with shared concerns” appears in the 2022 issue of the Canadian Journal of Environmental Education. Hebert serves as professor of Music and Education at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.
Music Education students and alumni from the University of Washington presented at the National Association for Music Education National Conference in National Harbor, Maryland in early November. PhD candidate Clayton Dahm led a poster session, “Culturally Expansive Music Education,” PhD candidate Giuliana Conti presented “Free-form Radio DJs as Experts and Curators of Music Listening and Discovery,” and faculty lecturer Anita Kumar (’22 PhD, Music Education) presented “Perceptions of Trust in Conductor-Ensemble Interactions through Rehearsal Observation.”
Heather MacLaughlin Garbes (’08 DMA, Choral Conducting), founder and artistic director of the professional treble ensemble the Mägi Ensemble, reports that the Mägi Ensemble has been invited to perform at the 2023 American Choral Directors Association National Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio in February, 2023. The program "Nature's Song: Resistance Through Singing in the Baltic Region," features a premiere by Latvian-American composer Katherine Pukinskis as well as repertoire by Latvian composer Laura Jēkabsone, Estonian composer Evelin Seppar, and others.
Gabriela Garza Canales (DMA, Orchestral Conducting) maintains the role of Seattle Conservatory of Music Manager and Artistic Associate with the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra (SYSO) for a second year. In the summer of 2022, she was conductor of SYSO’s Summer Music Festival and was assistant conductor of the Marrowstone Music Festival. Additionally, she became a guest conductor for SYSO’s Junior Symphony Orchestra for the autumn 2022 term. Gabriela was recently invited to guest conduct the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in the group's celebration of its 50th year anniversary. She will also be guest conductor with the Whidbey Island Orchestra for two concert cycles this season, an ensemble with which she has had a long-standing collaboration.
Lorenzo Guggenheim (’18 MM, Orchestral Conducting) was recently appointed as Music Director of the Oakville Symphony in Oakville, Ontario. He recently founded the Canadian Studio Symphony, which subsequently released the album “Evocations," with music by composer Felipe Téllez. He conducts the University of Toronto Campus Philharmonic Orchestra in the Toronto premiere of Florence Price’s Symphony no. 1 in E minor.
Darrell Jordan ('20, DMA, Voice) made his Tacoma Opera debut as Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale in the spring of 2022 and his Barn Opera debut in Vermont as Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos in the fall of 2022. This fall he sings the part of Montano in Pacific Northwest Opera's production of Otello and performs the world premiere of you do not recognize the bodies in the water in NYC at Opera America, singing the role of Mark. Spring 2023 engagements include singing the roles of Diego/Eduardo/Bonito the Parrot in Seattle Opera's Frida Kahlo and the Bravest Girl in the World.
Meg Stohlmann (’18 DMA, Choral Conducting) recently accepted a new position as director of Choral and Vocal Studies at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. She was also appointed as the Spokane Symphony Chorale director starting in the 2022-2023 season and was selected to be part of the American Choral Directors Association International Conductors Exchange Program. As part of this program, she is scheduled to host a German conductor this winter and to travel to Germany for a residency in the spring of 2023. After completing her degree studies in Seattle, Stohlmann taught for four years as an assistant professor of choral music education in the Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.
Nanyi Qiang ('12 MM, Piano Performance) recently worked as the coach/pianist for Dayton Opera's production of "Charlie Parker's Yardbird" at the Schuster Performing Arts Center, Dayton, Ohio. Qiang serves as associate professor of piano at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, and is president of the Western District chapter of the Ohio Music Teachers Association.
The University of Washington Percussion Ensemble joined Sō Percussion, one of the country's leading percussion ensembles, in a celebratory performance of Amid the Noise at the Meany Center on Thursday November 10th. They were joined by Pulitzer-Prize winning composer/singer Caroline Shaw and guest musicians from the strings, winds, conducting, and voice areas of the UW School of Music.
Yongyun Zhang (’21 MM, Percussion Studies), former percussion student of Bonnie Whiting, is a recent recipient of New Music USA's Creator Development Grant, funding her ambitious project to collaborate with poet Autumn Tsai and composer Rachel C. Walker on a new work for speaking percussionist. This follows successful performances of her newest project "Dancing to my Shadow" (for percussion theatre, disklavier, movement, and lighting design) across China and the U.S. Zhang is currently on a full fellowship at the University of California San Diego where she studies with Steven Schick and performs with red fish blue fish percussion group.