Cellist John Popham and violinist Pala Garcia begin new faculty appointments in Fall 2025 at the School of Music. Popham will serve as assistant professor of cello and Garcia (his spouse) as artist-in-residence in violin performance.
“We are very pleased to have successfully completed our search for a new assistant professor of cello and to welcome John Popham to the School of Music faculty,” says Director Joël-François Durand. “We are extremely fortunate that a spousal agreement with the UW allows us to also welcome violinist Pala Garcia to the strings program.”
Popham’s responsibilities at the UW will include teaching individual cello lessons, pedagogy, studio, and repertoire classes; coaching chamber music and serving as the strings chamber music coordinator; building and maintaining a robust cello studio; mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, serving on graduate-level supervisory committees; and supervising graduate teaching assistants.
A critically acclaimed cellist and educator most recently based in Brooklyn, New York, Popham previously served on the cello faculty of the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, a program dedicated to nurturing the talents of students from backgrounds typically underrepresented in classical music. He also previously served as the Juilliard School’s Artistic Administrator for Community Engagement, where he mentored Juilliard teaching fellows; produced educational programs; and curated the school’s Young People’s Concerts series.
Popham has collaborated with a range of composers, musicians, and performing artists both within the United States and abroad. He is a founding member of chamber trio Longleash, whose debut album Passage earned wide critical acclaim. He also is a current member of Either/Or Ensemble and has performed with Klangforum Wien, Talea Ensemble, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. He has appeared as soloist with the Louisville Orchestra, the String Orchestra of Brooklyn, and the Kunstuniversität Graz Chorus. Popham’s work has received support from New Music USA’s Creator Fund, Music Academy of the West’s Alumni Enterprise Award, and Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning and Artistic Projects grants.
Popham received his BM and MM from the Manhattan School of Music, where he was awarded the Manhattan School of Music Full Scholarship. He continued his studies at the Kunstuniversität Graz as a Fulbright Scholar researching contemporary performance practice and pedagogy. He received his DMA from the CUNY Graduate Center where he was awarded a dissertation distinction for “Sonorous Movement: Cellistic Corporealities in Works by Helmut Lachenmann, Simon Steen-Andersen, and Johan Svensson.”
Pala Garcia
Pala Garcia is a critically acclaimed violinist recently named a 2024 National Arts Club Fellow. She was also featured as a leading innovative artist in the Washington Post’s “23 for ’23: Performers and Composers to Watch.” Garcia previously served on the faculty of The Juilliard School’s Preparatory Division, on the violin and chamber music faculty of Hunter College, and as a teaching artist with Carnegie Hall’s social impact programs.
Alongside spouse John Popham, Garcia is a member, co-founder, and co-director of the chamber trio Longleash, which specializes in commissioning, performing and curating contemporary music. Their trio has performed internationally at venues such as the TIME:SPANS Festival, Kennedy Center, Kaufman Center, Noguchi Museum, National Sawdust, EMPAC, Princeton University, and others. The trio’s discography can be heard on New Focus Recordings, Innova, and New Amsterdam Records. Garcia has also appeared as a regular guest with world-class ensembles including the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and on stages such as Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Guggenheim Museum, Met Museum, Skirball Center, Caramoor, and others.
Garcia received undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Juilliard School. She was also a Senior Teaching Fellow at The Graduate Center, CUNY, and an Academy Fellow with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
“We are so honored to join University of Washington’s vibrant community of artists and scholars," Popham and Garcia said in a joint statement recently. "We look forward to developing long-lasting collaborations with faculty and staff, fostering students’ talents, interests and artistic goals, and supporting the school’s commitment to musical excellence and creative exploration.”