Music alums return to teach, perform, inform

Longtime habitués of the Music Building will notice some familiar faces at the School of Music in 2022-23 with the return of several School of Music alumni as instructors, guest artists, and visiting scholars.

New faculty joining the School of Music in Autumn 2022 include alumni from several degree programs: Jeffrey Bowen ('15 DMA, Composition) in Composition, Anita Kumar ('22 PhD, Music Ed) in Music Education, Luis Rivera ('22 MA, Music Theory) in Music Theory, and Andrew Romanick ('08 DMA, Piano) in Voice/Piano (See story, here). 

Two alums return to the Music Building on Friday Nov. 18 in two distinct events.  At 1:30 in Brechemin Auditorium, alumnus Tigran Arakelyan ('16 DMA, Orchestral Conducting).participates in “Ask an Alum,” a discussion and question-and-answer session hosted by the UW Strings Program. Since completing his doctoral coursework at the UW, he has accumulated a number of regional appointments in his field of study. He is the newly appointed Executive Director of Music Works Northwest, Music Director of Northwest Mahler Festival, ORS of Tacoma, and Artistic Director of Port Townsend Symphony. 

At 4 p.m. in the School of Music Fishbowl, Music Education doctoral graduate Sarah Bartolome is the featured scholar on Nov. 18 in the 2022 THEME lecture series, a colloquium of faculty and students of Music Theory, Music History, Music Education, and Ethnomusicology (See story here).  Bartolome is an associate professor of Music at Northwestern University whose current research interests include participatory music making as social capital, world music pedagogy, gender expansive music education, and trauma-informed approaches in music education. Both events are free and open to the public.

Alumni activity in Winter Quarter includes two guest orchestra appearances—with both groups directed by School of Music alumni. On February 7, the Seattle Modern Orchestra performs music of UW Composers in a concert at the Meany Studio Theater. SMO was co-founded by alumni Julia Tai (’10 DMA, Orchestral Conducting) and Jérémy Jolley (’10 DMA, Composition). Tai is also music director of Philharmonia Northwest, which returns to the Meany Hall main stage on Friday Feb. 24, performing a concert of concerto movements with UW piano students.