Violist/composer Melia Watras's CD "the almond tree duos" is deemed "a fascinating soundscape" in a review by Terry Robbins in the November/December 2025 issue of The Whole Note magazine.Read the full review
Recent News
School of Music alumna Jiannan Cheng (’14 MM, Wind Conducting) was recently appointed assistant conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. A former student of Timothy Salzman who also serves as music director of Orchestra Concordia, she will lead select summer, family, and community concerts with the Baltimore Symphony in the 2025-26 season.Recognized for her artistry combining technical precision with musical insight and emotional depth, Jiannan is the recipient of a number of… Read more
By Eric Olsen, Special to the Seattle TimesIn 1992, saxophonist Michael Brockman and drummer Clarence Acox led a “pickup group” of Seattle jazz musicians through some of Duke Ellington’s deep catalog at the University of Washington’s Meany Hall. They’d been staging an annual Ellington concert for three years. But this time, “We looked at each other,” Brockman remembers, “and said, ‘You know, there’s an audience for this.’”Three years later, the longtime friends and bandmates pulled off what… Read more
A review in the Fall 2025 issue of the Journal of the American Viola Society deems violist/composer Melia Watras's album Play/Write "a remarkable achievement, weaving music, text, and narrative into a cohesive and engaging whole." Play/Write is a remarkable achievement, weaving music, text, and narrative into a cohesive and engaging whole. Each work explores novel timbral territory while remaining supportive of voice and text, never overshadowing them. !e performances… Read more
A recent article by Thomas May in the Seattle Times illustrates the deep involvement of a number of School of Music alumni, students, and faculty in Tacoma Opera's upcoming production of Wagner's "Das Rheingold," including Voice professor Thomas Harper (stage director), Music History professor Stephen Rumph (Froh), alumni Kristin Vogel (DMA Voice) (Fricka) and Brendan Tuohy ('04 BM, Voice) (Loge), and company general… Read more
With "University of Washington Soundscape," ethnomusicology and international studies major Leo Freedman has created an audio experience of the UW campus. Continue reading on UW College of Arts & Sciences News
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… 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)… 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
“'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