Recent News
School of Music friend Roger Soder has recently created enhanced opportunities for UW strings students with his generous contributions to the memorial scholarship honoring his parents that he and his late wife, Jane, first established in 2008. Since its creation, the Pauline and Paul Soder Memorial Scholarship has helped financially needy and musically promising students at the School of Music continue their UW educations. Directed to supporting undergraduate or graduate students studying… Read more
A small and dedicated group of School of Music students are carrying on the work and mission of the School of Music Student Advisory Council (SOMSAC), formed in 2020 by UW music students to provide a voice for students and their concerns.Meeting each Friday in the School of Music Fishbowl, the group engages in ongoing projects related to improving the School of Music environment and spaces for students as well as community outreach endeavors intended to serve the greater Seattle community.In… Read more
School of Music alumnus Liam Near died in late July, 2025 in a drowning near Bremerton, Washington. A gifted educator and multi-instrumentalist admired for his skill in working with young children, Near graduated from the UW School of Music in 2020 with a Bachelor of Music in Music Education. In addition to his involvement with many groups and ensembles at the School of Music, he was a member of the Husky Marching Band sousaphone section from 2016-2020. After graduation from the UW,… Read more
School of Music alumna Cindy Beitmen (MM, Vocal Performance), a significant and much-beloved figure in the Bay Area early music community, died on April 15, 2024 of metastatic colon cancer. Beitmen earned a Master of Music in Vocal Performance at the University of Washington in the early 1990s, performing and studying under the tutelage of Margriet Tindemans, singing with Margriet’s Collegium and the Medieval Women’s Choir. While in Seattle, she also performed as soloist with the Seattle… Read more
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
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