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... Read more
A bequest from composer and longtime former UW professor Diane Thome will provide enduring support for doctoral students at the University of Washington.
The professor emerita’s creation of two endowments—the Diane Thome Composition Fellowship in Music and the Diane Thome Composition Fellowship in DXARTS—will provide support for outstanding doctoral composition students at the UW for years to come.
“Diane Thome was a longtime beloved colleague, and we are delighted that her bequest to support... Read more
Winners of divisional concerto competitions held at the School of Music this academic year perform with the UW Symphony on June 6 at Meany Hall. Kaisho Barnhill, marimba; Flora Cummings, viola; and Sandy Huang, piano join the orchestra in a program featuring their winning concerto excerpts.
Cummings, an undergraduate viola student of Melia Watras double majoring in Viola Performance and Wildlife Conservation, performs the first movement of York Bowen's Viola Concerto in C minor, Op. 25.... Read more
As Professor Timothy Salzman wraps up a 38-year career as director of bands at the University of Washington, he is reflecting on his years as head of the graduate wind conducting program at the University and looking ahead to what comes after retirement—family time, and plenty of it. Recalling a career of many milestone achievements, Professor Salzman notes that his former graduate students have gone on to land positions at 73 universities and colleges throughout the United States. Now, in... Read more
Jazz piano at the University of Washington has been the domain of professor Marc Seales for the past 37 years, but after June 30 of this year, he will no longer be a familiar sight around the Music Building, and visitors will no longer be invited to take a seat among the piles of papers and books, photos, mementos, and the two grand pianos that occupy his small office on the ground floor of the Music Building.
Reflecting upon his years at the UW on a recent morning and why he’s retiring this... Read more
School of Music students and alumni report recent honors, appointments, presentations and other career and scholarly achievements.
Alumna Carmen Quill (formerly Carmen Rothwell) (’14 BM, Jazz Studies), a double bassist, composer, singer, and interdisciplinary artist, is one of eight young musicians selected for Next Jazz Legacy, a national apprenticeship program for diverse improvisers in jazz. Focused on increasing opportunities for musicians most underrepresented in the art form, Next Jazz... Read more
New publications, recordings, world premieres, clinician gigs, media coverage, and keynote presentations are among recent news reported by School of Music faculty.
William Dougherty, Composition
The newly appointed assistant professor (Composition) and his work with his Philadelphia-based organization and ensemble, Hearing Philadelphia, was featured recently in a... Read more
by Lauren Kirschman, UW News
Jessica Bissett Perea (Dena’ina) had never heard powwow singing before attending an Indigenous music conference in Toronto in 2008.
She was born north of Anchorage, Alaska, where powwows just started appearing in the last 25 years. At the conference, she was drawn to the singing voice of John-Carlos Perea(Mescalero Apache, Irish, Chicano, German). The... Read more
Hearing Philadelphia, a program created by recently appointed School of Music assistant professor William Dougherty, is helping Philadelphians affected by gun violence to heal through music. Learn more in this feature by Sandra Jones from NPR's WHYY News:
When William “Bill” Dougherty is not teaching at the University of Washington in Seattle, he is raising awareness about gun violence.
Dougherty is part of Hearing... Read more
Ethnomusicology interim chair John-Carlos Perea lends insights in this article exploring how two local radio shows, "Indigenous Jazz" on Daybreak Star Radio and "Sounds of Survivance" on 90.3 KEXP, are joining the efforts to illuminate and celebrate the genius of Indigenous jazz. ... Read more
By Melia Watras for The Strad
To gain our personal understanding of the world around us, we look for meaning and connection. Like images in a dream, inspiration comes from many places. My new album, The almond tree duos, owes much of its existence to its ties to literature, visual art and music. ... Read more
Étoile, an eight-episode spoof of the world of ballet dancers by creator Amy Sherman Palladino (airing on Prime Video), centers around an elaborately choreographed PR stunt in which rival ballet companies in New York City and Paris swap their leading dancers in the hopes of getting more young people to go to the ballet.
The show's premise raises echoes of the historic exchanges of dancers between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a focus of... Read more
From UW College of Arts and Sciences NewsApril 2025 Perspectives newsletterBy Nancy Joseph
Most people know Mozart and Beethoven, composers of the Classical music era. But what about Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a Black composer living in Europe at the same time? Saint-Georges is one of seven composers (see sidebar) featured in the Black Composers Project, an hour-long video that pairs historical information about Black composers with performances of their works that... Read more