This issue of Quarter Notes contains updates from our faculty, students, and alumni, as well as some of the biggest news for the School of Music in many years. As the Arts UW Capital Campaign to fund critical updates to the Art and Music buildings gains momentum, a generous matching commitment from UW leadership remains in place to magnify the impact of private contributions to the Campaign. Our next fundraising goal is to raise $1 million in private donations by June 30. We invite you to join us in this important effort to fund significant improvements to our beloved Music Building and to create learning spaces that will propel our students into the future. Thank you for your consideration—and your support!
—Joël-François Durand, Acting Director, School of Music
Major upgrades to the Music Building are on the horizon as the Arts UW Capital Campaign to fund critical updates to the Art and Music buildings gains momentum. A generous matching commitment from UW leadership remains in place to magnify the impact of private contributions to the Campaign. A fundraising goal has been set to raise $1 million in private donations by June 30, 2023.
Learn more about the Arts UW... Read more
Winners of the School of Music’s annual concerto competition were announced recently following separate divisional competitions.
Freshman Michael Gu, student of Robin McCabe, took first place in the piano/keyboard competition with his performance of Liszt: Piano Concerto #1 in E flat. Dhayoung Yoon was his pianist. Outside judges for the competition were: Dainius Vaicekonis (Seattle Pacific University), Jensina Oliver (Shoreline Community College), and Victor Rosenbaum (New England... Read more
By Shannon DudleyChair, UW Ethnomusicology
Percussionist and dancer Miguel Ballumbrosio completed a successful quarter as the Ethnomusicology program’s Community Artist in Residence for Autumn 2022. Miguel came to UW from Chincha, Peru, where he directs the Centro Cultural Amador Ballumbrosio, named for his father, a nationally recognized figure in the preservation and transmission of Afro-Peruvian culture. Students in the School of Music met with Miguel twice a week... Read more
Academic appointments, performances, career milestones, and other notable achievements by School of Music students and alumni.
Voice alumna Tess Altiveros (’10 MM, Voice) recently made her Seattle Symphony debut, stepping in as the soloist for three performances of Brazilian composer João Guilherme Ripper’s "Cinco poemas de Vinicius de Moraes.” The work, composed for soprano and orchestra, links together five poems by Moraes to create a biographical journey of the man nicknamed "O... Read more
Honors, accolades, research highlights and other news from the School of Music faculty.
Tekla Cunningham, violin
The violinist performs the complete cycle of fifteen sonatas by H.I.F. von Biber, his "Mystery Sonatas," in three concerts in Seattle this season. She performed the first installment - the Joyful Mysteries - at Meany Hall on January 25. Seattle performances of Part 2, The Sorrowful Mysteries, are... Read more
When she’s not performing, teaching, programming festivals, or taking care of the myriad tasks and responsibilities of a working mom and professional musician, Baroque violinist and School of Music faculty member Tekla Cunningham loves to bake. And not just run-of-the-mill, everyday baking. Her creations are exquisite, artful, and inspired: chestnut and vanilla cakes, pecan roulade filled with chocolate cream, marble cake, plum dumplings, mozzarella-stuffed dinner rolls sprinkled with herbs,... Read more
When five School of Music piano students performed concerto movements with Seattle’s Philharmonia Northwest at Meany Hall in May 2022, they honored the legacy of the late Michiko Morita Miyamoto, iconic pianist and teacher whose impact on generations of Seattle’s young pianists has been profound—and continues to this day.
Along with her own artistic output and her influence as a private teacher of scores of Seattle music students, the late pianist co-founded the long-running Seattle Young ... Read more
Renowned oboist, author, and longtime former School of Music Professor Laila Storch Friedmann died on December 2, 2022 on Orcas Island, Washington. She was 101.
Professor Storch had a pathbreaking career, the first woman to graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music in oboe (after initially being turned down for admission because of her gender), then building a career as an oboist in the 1940s and 1950s, in the United States and Europe.
Her orchestral positions included the National Symphony... Read more