Winter 2017 Quarter Notes

Performance, scholarship, and creation merge in invigorating sounds and directions in the work of School of Music faculty and students. In this issue of Quarter Notes, read about arts-meets-science work under way at the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media Brain Lab, where DXARTS founder and UW composition associate professor Juan Pampin and colleagues are working on intriguing projects at the intersection of music and neurology; learn about new publications and recordings by UW Music faculty, and mark your calendar for a Feb.12 concert of thanks by talented UW Music scholarship recipients. Plus: A roundup of news from our faculty, students, and alumni and upcoming performances by faculty musicians (see sidebar of this newsletter). Speaking of performances: All ticket's for tonight's UW Symphony and Seattle Symphony side-by-side concert have been reserved, but a waiting list will be started at the box office starting at 6:30 pm, and unclaimed tickets released to the list ten minutes before showtime. In past years, everyone on the waiting list has gained entry, so please do come down to Meany Theater if you are interested in attending this special free performance.

Faculty Profile: Juan Pampin

UW composer Juan Pampin (Photo: Steve Korn)

A break between quarters is a brief space of creative opportunity for composer Juan Pampin, associate professor of music at the University of Washington and director of the UW’s Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS). As the UW’s students and faculty scattered in December at the end of finals week, Pampin was taking a break from his administrative duties to consider new creative projects and to regroup following a year of prolific output. If the demands of his work at a... Read more

Inside the Mind of a String Quartet

Music/DXARTS postdoc Marcin Pączkowski prepares JACK Quartet violinist Austin Wulliman for an EEG session

Faculty from the UW School of Music and the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS) are—literally—getting inside the minds of the musicians of New York’s JACK QUARTET in a year-long exploration on the frontiers of artistic creation. Composition faculty and DXARTS co-founders Juan Pampin and Richard Karpen are conducting research this year with the JACK Quartet, the first fellows in a collaborative arts research initiative under way at the University of Washington with support... Read more

American Musicological Society book award for Christina Sunardi

The American Musicological Society has awarded UW Ethnomusicology associate professor Christina Sunardi the Philip Brett Award for Stunning Males and Powerful Females, her study of gender and culture in East Javanese dance traditions published last year by University of Illinois Press. The award, announced recently in Vancouver at the society’s annual meeting, recognizes outstanding work in gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender/transsexual studies. Professor Sunardi’s study... Read more

Recent Recordings by UW Music artists

Recent recording projects by UW Music artists play to the strengths of the School of Music's performance and composition faculty, in tribute to revered composers and in the act of creating new works in a range of genres. The Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny: (Nonesuch) Guitarist Pat Metheny fulfilled a longtime wish to join the band of his group’s former trumpeter (and UW Jazz Studies Chair) Cuong Vu last year with a recording session in New York with Vu and bandmates Stomu Takeishi (bass) and... Read more

A Musical Thank You from Scholarship Recipients

Corentin Pokorny performs with the UW Baroque Ensemble

Each year, upwards of 150 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees in the UW School of Music benefit from the scholarship support of alumni and friends, and on Feb. 12, some of this year’s recipients will make music to express their thanks for all this support makes possible. The UW Music Scholarship Recipient Concert on Feb. 12 presents some of the school’s most promising students in performance, including recipients of the prestigious Brechemin Scholarship, which has provided ... Read more

Thank You

Your gifts to our scholarship funds provide our students educational and performance opportunities that would otherwise not be possible, and we are grateful for your generosity. To make a gift in support of UW music students, please view a list of priority funds here. Thank you!