As we conclude a busy Winter Quarter we are pleased to celebrate the success of our faculty, students, and alumni and grateful to the generous School of Music friends that have helped us reach an important fundraising milestone in the UW's Campaign for the Arts with their gifts to the Music Building Campaign. We congratulate the winners of recent concerto and composition competitions at the School of Music and longtime faculty member David A. Rahbee on a well-deserved achievement. We also grieve the recent passing of former longtime clarinet professor WIlliam McColl and bid the Wind Ensemble farewell as they embark on a spring break tour to South Korea. Learn more about these and other highlights of our quarter in this issue of Quarter Notes. Thank you for reading!
—Joël-François Durand, Acting Director
Phase One upgrades complete; Music Building improvements to occur in Phase Two
A major fundraising initiative to remodel and upgrade critical spaces in the Music and Art Buildings at the University of Washington has made steady progress over the past year, with phase one improvements to the School of Art + Art History + Design now complete and an important fundraising milestone for the School of Music recently reached with gifts to the campaign now totaling more than $1.5 million.
Critical... Read more
Current faculty searches under way at the School of Music convey both a recommitment to the basics that have marked the School’s instruction over the past 15 decades, but also a commitment to new directions in its curriculum and its priorities.
Tenure-track, assistant professor positions opening on the faculty in the areas of Music Education, Composition/Improvisation/Theory, and Music Technology will enable the School to broaden its perspectives and the training it offers to prepare today’s... Read more
A new faculty appointment for David Alexander Rahbee, the longtime head of orchestral activities and chair of the orchestral conducting program at the School of Music, changes his title from senior artist-in-residence to associate professor of music, an appointment with tenure effective in Fall 2024.
A native of Boston, Rahbee studied conducting at the New England Conservatory, Université de Montréal, Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna, and at the Pierre Monteux School. A... Read more
The winners of three divisional School of Music concerto competitions— Kai-En Cheng, violin, Ella Kalinichenko, piano, and Rachel Reyes, flute—perform their winning concerto excerpts with the UW Symphony on April 26.
In addition, the orchestra’s April 26 program includes the work of another outstanding student winner: UW composition student Yonatan Ron, a master's student who studies with Huck Hodge and Yigit Kolat, who won the UW’s recent composition competition with his piece "What Stood... Read more
While many of the School of Music’s students and faculty will welcome a short break at the end of Winter Quarter, members of the UW Wind Ensemble and director Timothy Salzman will be on the move, traveling, rehearsing, and performing in South Korea.
The ensemble heads to South Korea March 16-22 for performances at Woosong University in Daejeon, South Korea. They will be accompanied by voice DMA student Eun Ju Vivianna Oh, flute professor Donna Shin, and DMA pianist Mia HyeYeon Kim, all of whom... Read more
School of Music students and alumni report recent academic appointments, performances, career milestones and other notable achievements.
Daren Weissfisch (’21 MM, DMA Orchestral Conducting), student of David Alexander Rahbee, is conducting all four productions this year at the Tacoma Opera. He is a finalist for the music director position at both the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra and the Lake Union Civic Orchestra.
Ryan Farris (’18 MM, Cello, DMA, Orchestral Conducting), student of... Read more
Honors, accolades, research highlights, and other news from the School of Music faculty.
Joël-François Durand, CompositionThe School of Music acting director and professor of Composition reports the recent release of Geister, a two-CD collection of his works recorded in 2021 and 2022 and released on the Kairos contemporary music label. Including compositions written over the last two decades, the collection spans a diverse body of work from ... Read more
When School of Music faculty bassoonist Paul Rafanelli performs Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto in B-flat major with the UW Symphony at Meany Hall on March 8, 2024, it will be with a sense of déjà vu—the Seattle Symphony bassoonist and UW artist-in-residence performed the same piece in the same location with the UW orchestra in March 1984—almost exactly 40 years ago—while a student at the UW. Leading up to his spotlight performance, the head of the UW bassoon studio graciously agreed to answer... Read more
Read the full obituary in the Seattle Times
William Duncan McColl passed away peacefully on January 7, 2024, of respiratory failure with his son by his side. Bill was an American clarinetist and professor of music at the University of Washington, and a founding member of both the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet (https://soniventorum.com... Read more
School of Music student Jai Lasker participated in the Office of Undergraduate Research’s Summer Institute in the Arts and Humanities (SIAH), which offered the 2023 undergraduate cohort an immersion into interdisciplinary research with A Black Sense: Time, Art and Being.
This year’s theme was developed... Read more