From the Director
This final issue of Quarter Notes for the academic year pays tribute to our Class of 2025 School of Music graduates and recognizes the achievements of some outstanding students, faculty, and community members. As we slow down into summer, I am contemplating all that we have accomplished in 2024-25, as individual scholars and musicians and together as a community. Thank you to all of our School of Music friends for your continued support of our endeavors and for recognizing the tremendous power and value of music. See you in the fall!
--Joël-François Durand, Director, School of Music
The School of Music celebrated its Class of 2025 on Friday, June 13 with the school's annual Grand Finale celebration, featuring student and faculty remarks, a brief performance by graduate Ella Kalinichenko (MM, Piano Performance), recognition of graduating students, and a reception in the School of Music Fishbowl.
Associate Director Ted Poor welcomed graduates and their loved ones to Brechemin Auditorium for remarks by students Adia Bowen (BM Vocal Performance; BA… Read more
School of Music alumna Erin Bodnar (’13 DMA, Wind Conducting) returns to the University of Washington in Fall 2025 as director of UW Concert Bands, a one-year appointment following the recent retirement of longtime director Timothy Salzman.
While earning her DMA in Wind Conducting at the UW, Bodner studied with Salzman and assisted with direction of the UW Wind Ensemble as well as co-leading with other graduate student conductors the UW’s Concert and Campus Bands.
In order to accept the… Read more
School of Music students and alumni report recent academic achievements, new creations, honors, and career milestones.
Cole Henslee, who graduated in June with a BM in tuba performance, is headed to Carnegie Mellon University this fall for master’s degree studies. His full-ride offer from Carnegie Mellon was in addition to offers from Western Washington University, Eastman, San Francisco Conservatory, and Rice University. “(Carnegie Mellon professor) Craig Knox is one… Read more
Two longtime School of Music professors reach the retirement finish line; others report recent residencies, projects, performances, honors, and other notable activities.
Pianists Robin McCabe and Rachelle McCabe were special guests last month at the Jacobs Academy, the summer program in the arts offered by Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. The McCabes were featured artists for the Summer Piano Academy, a two-week intensive for serious young pianists (ages 12-… Read more
“'Who wrote what and when?' were the foundational questions that gave birth to musicology in the 1800s," says Frederick Reece, assistant professor of Music History at the School of Music. "But I think they’re newly relevant in an age where AI is on everyone’s lips, and every image or text needs to be called into question as a potential fake." Reece articulated these thoughts and more in a recent conversation with faculty colleague Stephen Rumph, in which the musicologists discussed… Read more