School of Music students and alumni report recent appointments, performances, honors, and achievements.
Rachel Reyes (’26 DMA flute) is the 2026 winner of the National Flute Association Graduate Research Competition. She presents her dissertation, “Musikang Pilipino: The Development of Western Music in the Philippines and Select Contemporary Works,” at the annual convention in Portland, Oregon in August 2026.
In more good news from the flute studio of Donna Shin, Xinyi Liu (DMA flute) won the 2026 National Flute Association Masterclass Competition. She performs at the annual convention in Portland, Oregon in August 2026. Xinyi also is a featured performer with the 2026 Brevard Music Center orchestra and chamber music festival. UW flute students Tracia Pan (BM, Flute) and Claire Wei (BM, Flute) are featured performers this summer at Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina. Robert Rosenthal (BA flute) is a featured orchestral and chamber music performer at the 2026 Sewanee Summer Music Festival, running June 14 to July 12 in Tennessee. Also featured in the festival programming are UW flute students Xinyi Ma (DMA, Flute) and Peyton Ray (BM, Flute) who both won the Sewanee Summer Music Festival concerto competition, beating out other instrumentalists in woodwind, brass, strings, percussion, and keyboard. Both musicians are featured concerto soloists in the festival, with Xinyi Ma performing the first movement of Lowell Liebermann’s Concerto and Peyton Ray performing the first movement of Carl Nielsen’s Concerto with festival orchestra in front of a full audience.
School of Music viola student Flora Cummings ('26 BM, Viola Performance), student of Melia Watras, has been awarded a n $25,000 scholarship from the Boston-based Frank Huntington Beebe Fund for Musicians. The fund was established in 1932 under the terms of the will of Frank Huntington Beebe, a Boston philanthropist interested in music. The purpose of the Fund is to provide fellowships for gifted young musicians, generally performers and composers in classical disciplines, who wish to pursue advanced music study and performance abroad, usually in Europe. Fellowships are generally awarded to musicians based in the United States (although not necessarily U.S. citizens) at the outset of their professional lives, for whom this would be the first extended period of study abroad. A strong, well-planned project of study that will enhance the applicant's life in music must be proposed. Enrollment in a school or university is not required unless such study is an essential part of the project. The Fund provides financial support for round trip transportation, living, and other expenses.
Roger Wu Fu (’25 DMA Wind Conducting), former student of Timothy Salzman, has been appointed assistant professor of music and director of bands at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, where he will conduct the North Central Concert Winds, direct the Cardinal Athletic Bands, and teach conducting classes to music performance and music education majors.
Vu Nguyen (’12 DMA, Wind Conducting), former student of Professor Timothy Salzman, has been promoted to full professor at Pacific Conservatory of Music in Stockton, California, where he has served as director of bands and co-chair of music performance studies since 2020.
Alumnus Chris Mathakul (‘22 DMA, Wind Conducting), former student of Timothy Salzman, has been named acting director of bands for the 2026-27 academic year at the University of Washington, where he will lead the UW Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band and supervise the school’s graduate student conductors. His appointment is effective in Fall 2026. Mathakul currently serves on the music faculty at Shoreline Community College, where he directs the Shoreline Concert Band. In the acting director of bands role, he succeeds alumna Erin Bodnar (’12 DMA Wind Conducting), who took a one-year leave from her position as associate professor at North Florida University to lead the UW Bands program in the aftermath of Professor Salzman’s 2025 retirement.
Alumnus and former faculty lecturer James Morford ('18 PhD, Ethnomusicology) has accepted a position as assistant professor at Western Washington University, where he has recently been serving on the music faculty as visiting professor. He officially starts his new role in Fall 2026.
Ethnomusicology student Juan Posada ('26 BA, Ethnomusicology) was selected to present in the Performing Arts session of the Undergraduate Research Symposium on May 15. “Juan is graduating this quarter, so this is a particularly wonderful recognition of his work,” says John-Carlos Perea, program chair and faculty mentor for the project. Posada’s presentation was one of three by School of Music students included in the session (see story, here). Others were composer and cellist Serena Tideman, who created an original song under the mentorship of professor Huck Hodge, and a strings quartet— Cory Chen, Abigail Schidler, Tia-Jane Fowler, and Hailey Vaught, mentored in their analysis of the work of musicians Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn by assistant professor John Popham.
Timothy Little-Trần (’20 DMA, Choral Conducting), now professor of music and head of choral activities at Slippery Rock University (SRU) in Pennsylvania, was recently awarded the university’s Above and Beyond Award, which honors individuals who contribute to “a positive, inclusive, and effective campus community, contributing extensively within and outside of the classroom.”
Tigran Arakelyan (’16 DMA, Orchestral Conducting) wrapped up his nine-year tenure as music director of the Port Townsend Symphony Orchestra (PTSO) on April 26, 2026 with a concert of film music and the world premiere of a violin concerto by alumnus Luke Fitzpatrick (DMA violin) debuting his work, “Nightfall.” Arakelyan joined the symphony in 2017 and ushered the organization through a name change and establishment of a chamber music series and young artist competition. Along with his position with PTSO, Arakelyan has served as director of youth orchestras in Bainbridge and Federal Way as well as director of the Northwest Mahler Festival, which presents a performance of Mahler’s Third Symphony in August, with Arakelyan at the conductor’s podium.
Seattle-based vocal ensemble Opus 7 performed the winning compositions from its 25th annual Robert Scandrett Memorial Student Composer Competition recently, premiering School of Music senior Kaisho Barnhill’s work for piano and choir, "Apollo 11," winner in the undergraduate category. Barnhill, majoring in Music Education, Music Theory, and Psychology, is on track to graduate from the UW in June.
Seattle-based Mirinesse Women's Choir recently appointed doctoral student Heidi Blythe (DMA Choral Conducting) as the group’s new artistic director. Blythe, a conductor and educator whose work is rooted in treble choral music and in developing meaningful musical communities, has made an impact in her area of research during her studies at the UW, founding the Advanced Treble Ensemble as well as leading for the past three years the UW Treble Choir. During her tenure as music director at University Congregational UCC, Blythe founded Viriditas, a young adult treble community. In addition to her conducting work, she is active as a soloist and professional chorister, appearing with SoundCity Singers, Radiance, Byrd Ensemble, Epiphany Parish, St. James Cathedral Cantorei, and Women’s Compline at St. Mark’s Cathedral.
Alumnus Matthew Melendez (’06 MM, ’18 DMA, Choral Conducting) has been named the incoming artistic director of Olympia’s Peace Choir. He assumes the role in September when the ensemble’s new season begins. He succeeds Kerri Lynn Nichols, who founded the choir in 2010 and subsequently led its development into a distinctive South Sound community chorus.
Alumna Jennifer Rodgers (’20 DMA, Choral Conducting) now assistant director of choral activities and assistant teaching professor of voice at Iowa State University, conducted “It Is Happiness,” a choral suite of Mary Oliver poems by Joan Szymko, at Carnegie Hall on May 23 in a shared performance presented by Mid-America Productions. The performance featured music and theater students from Iowa State University, singers from choirs Rodgers has conducted on the East and West coasts, composer Joan Szymko, and singers who premiered the work 30 years ago. Rodgers shared the concert with UW professor Giselle Wyers, conducting the premiere of her work "The Lips of the Sky" with the New England Symphonic Ensemble and members of the University of Washington Chorale, Concord Chamber Choir, Boise Philharmonic Master Chorale, and Boise Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.