Voice alumna Tess Altiveros (’10 MM, Voice) recently made her Seattle Symphony debut, stepping in as the soloist for three performances of Brazilian composer João Guilherme Ripper’s "Cinco poemas de Vinicius de Moraes.” The work, composed for soprano and orchestra, links together five poems by Moraes to create a biographical journey of the man nicknamed "O Poetinha." Associate conductor Lee Mills conducted the concert.
Doctoral student Cee Adamson (DMA, Voice Performance and Choral Conducting) was invited by Dr.Timothy Little Trần (‘22 DMA Choral Conducting) to be a guest artist-in-residence at Slippery Rock University in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. Dr. Little Trần is the Director of Choral Studies and Assistant Professor of Music at Slippery Rock. The artist-in-residency, led by Adamson, was titled “Gender and Performance from the Transgender and BIPOC Perspective." The three-day event consisted of lectures, an open forum, and a voice recital. UW School of Music staff pianist Dominico Reyes served as collaborative pianist and musical coach for music students during the residency.
Brian Chin ('06 DMA, Trumpet Performance), longtime chair of the Music Department at Seattle Pacific University, was recently named the new director of the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston.
Joel Horton, student of John DiCesare, advanced to the live semi-final round of the recent International Tuba and Euphonium Association Conference's Mock Orchestra Competition.
Alumnus Joe Dyvig ('98 BA, Music Education) was recently named Northwest Division President-Elect for the National Association for Music Education. Currently the orchestra teacher at Olympia High School, as well as the Music and Visual Arts coordinator for the Olympia School District in Olympia, Washington, he has held teaching assignments in Band, Jazz, and Orchestra in the Northshore School District, Ferndale School District, and Monroe Public Schools. As a performer, Dyvig has been a member of the Symphony Tacoma Double Bass section since 2011. He has also served as Assistant Principal Double Bass with Olympia Symphony Orchestra and Principal Bass of the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra. While an undergraduate student at the University of Washington, where he earned a degree in Music Education, he studied double bass with Barry Lieberman, and tuba and conducting with Tim Salzman.
Nissa Kahle (’09, Piano Performance), enjoying a vibrant freelancing career as a theater and opera pianist in New York City, is currently on rotation as a substitute and rehearsal pianist for the Chicago The Musical on Broadway. This holiday season she joins the Big Apple Circus at Lincoln Center, and The Christmas Spectacular Starring the Rockettes at the Radio City Musical Hall, as a substitute orchestral pianist.
Music Education PhD student Elisabeth Crabtree’s book, Tonarten I’m Orff-Schulwerk: New Entdecken, was recently published by German publisher Schott. An English edition is in the works.
Alumnus Kassey Castro (Music Education) has been selected as a featured composer for Seattle Opera’s Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab 2022-23, one of 12 young Washington state artists selected to write 20-minute operas for a concert performance later in 2023.
Music Education Alumni Alison Farley (’14 PhD, Music Ed), now assistant professor at the University of Georgia, and Jamey Kelley (‘15, PhD, Music Ed) assistant professor at the University of North Texas, recently published a new paper, “Music performance anxiety and self-compassion in college-level music majors,” in Psychology of Music.
Alumni Emily Moss (BM, Music Ed) and Erin Bodnar ('13 DMA, Wind Conducting) are conference headliners at the upcoming All Northwest division conference sponsored by the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). Moss is director of bands/professor of music at California State University, Los Angeles. Bodnar is director of bands and assistant professor of music at the University of North Florida. Also presenting at this conference are alums Shayna Stahl ('19 DMA, Wind Conducting), now associate director of bands at the University of Kentucky, and Anita Kumar (’22 PhD, Music Ed), currently visiting professor in Music Education at the UW.
Daren Weissfisch (DMA, Orchestral Conducting) has been named House Conductor for Tacoma Opera and will begin conducting the 2023-2024 season with works including Georges Bizet's Carmen and André Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire. He has recently conducted rehearsals for Harmonia Seattle and the Issaquah Philharmonic Orchestra as well as serving as conductor for the UW Opera Workshop January 2023 production of Joseph Haydn's opera Philemon und Baucis.
Northwest Opera in Schools, Etc. (NOISE), an opera outreach company directed by School of Music opera coach Rhonda Kline, is touring its production of The Magic Flute in area schools this season. Kline reports that of the 12 artists in this year’s company, half are current or former School of Music students. Participants include current students Rachel Huang and Colleen Kennedy, both pianists, and alums Ashley Biehl ('14 MM, Voice), soprano; Eric Jeffords ('21 BM, Voice), tenor; Madison Lombardo ('21 MM, Voice), mezzo-soprano; and Jared White, baritone.
DMA voice student Cee Adamson (third from left) led a residency recently at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania. She is pictured with (left to right): Ursula Payne, Interim Associate Provost, Slippery Rock University; Dr. Little Trần; Adamson, UW staff pianist Dominico Reyes, Dr. Christopher Scott, Music Department Chair, Slippery Rock University; Dr. Dan Bauer, Dean, College of Liberal Arts, Slippery Rock University.