2008-09 Fanfare
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School of Music ANNUAL REPORT 2008-09 2 From the Director 4 News Notes 10 New Faculty Appointments 11 Faculty/Student/Alumni Update 12 Class of 2008 13 2008-09 Scholarship Recipients 18 Giving 20 Contributors 19 2008-09 Season Highlights For those listeners the record player is still very much a viable piece of gear, delivering far more natural sound than the mp3 and other Joël-François Durand digital formats Setting the Talea UW/Mary Levin apart from other high- end audio tone arms Joël Durand (left) with John Tolomei (patent agent, center) and Chris Igielski (technology is an innovation that manager, Bioengineering) of the UW’s Office of Tech Transfer. enables the listener A prototype of the Talea. to adjust the angle of TRACKING THE PERFECT TONE the needle on the fly, or while it is actually in the groove of a spinning record This feature enables Composition professor Joël-François Durand spent his summer working minute adjustments to be made to the tonal at the UW campus, but was rarely seen in the Music Building Instead, the balance while a record is playing, so that listeners associate director of the School of Music logged more than 800 hours in the may judge with their own ears when the sound is Department of Mechanical Engineering’s machine shop, immersed in what he perfectly “in the groove ” calls his “unipivot tone arm project ” Approaching the Office of Tech Transfer with “I began this project in January of this year with no particular ambition his design, Durand found a receptive team of other than to see what would happen,” he says of his quest to create a piece collaborators who have since guided him through of high-fidelity stereo equipment that would combine crystalline sound and the process of applying for a patent on his design beautiful aesthetics Nine months and more than 30 design iterations later, and licensing it for commercial use Durand will Durand finds himself in a somewhat surprising position, that of inventor and share a portion of any royalties he receives with entrepreneur, with a patent pending, a recently formed business, collaborative Tech Transfer, which reinvests its revenues in relationships with new connections in the Business School, the School of the UW research enterprise by offering funding Law, the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Material Science and opportunities through the University’s Royalty Engineering, and the School of Art, and a first-hand understanding of how the Research Fund Tech Transfer has also connected UW’s Office of Technology Transfer plays a pivotal Durand with legal help from the School of Law and role in bringing UW faculty research innovations to business consulting assistance from the Business the marketplace School to help him navigate all the complexities of Durand’s design, a tonearm dubbed the starting a new commercial venture UW/Mary Levin Talea, is unquestionably sleek in appearance and “I’m hoping to be ready to sell the first exemplars delivers a tone that was called “nothing short of by the end of 2009, if all goes well,” Durand says amazing” at its first public showing at the 2009 “I never thought this would become a commercial Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver in early venture, but there we are The journey continues ” October But what sort of market could exist for an For more on Durand’s process of invention, visit his invention that serves what some might consider an blog at: http://joelfdurand.com/Tonearm_project/ obsolete audio format? The Talea is not intended index.html. to have mainstream appeal; it is intended to serve audiophiles who extol the virtues of analog sound From the Director In my 20 years on the faculty of the School this University and beyond The magnitude of Music, I have been well aware of the of the budget cuts has brought the School to impressive work of my faculty colleagues and a turning point We have had to make some our outstanding students, but as the incoming difficult decisions over the past year to scale director, I have become much more closely back our operations in accordance with our new acquainted with the extraordinary people who fiscal realities But I know I speak for all of us call this school home As you will read in this at the School of Music when I say that we are report, our aspirations are high and our reach more determined than ever before to uphold is international Our students and faculty are and strengthen our core values of excellence engaged in their communities close to home and diversity in performance, scholarship, and and further afield, making a difference in the the creation of music I’m sure you will share my world through music and scholarship and earning optimism for our future when you read about the recognition as leaders in their respective fields remarkable accomplishments contained in this For those reasons and many more, it has issue of Fanfare been an honor to accept a turn to serve as the We are truly grateful for your ongoing support School’s director and to extend my gratitude to of our students, faculty and programs With Richard Karpen became my predecessor, Robin McCabe, for her leadership your help, we will continue to attain the distinct director of the School of of the School over the past 15 years I expect excellence that has long been a hallmark of the Music on July 1 (Photo: our faculty and students to continue to do great UW School of Music, both now and in the years UW/Kathy Sauber). things in the years ahead ahead Today we face the most daunting economic challenges in a generation, and the School of Music has not been spared the effects of the budget crisis that has touched every corner of Richard Karpen, Director, School of Music A GOOD YEAR FOR JAZZ Phil Sparks, a member of the UW Jazz Studies a BM in Jazz Studies at UW in 1994 Another UW faculty since 2005 and a mainstay on the Seattle alumnus, saxophonist Neil Welch, who earned jazz scene over the past three decades, was a BM in Jazz Studies in 2007, was named the honored for his contributions to Northwest music Emerging Artist of the year, a category that also last February when he was inducted into the included alumnus Evan Flory-Barnes as a nominee Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame Trumpet player and UW Jazz alum Thomas Sparks was honored at the annual Golden Ear Marriott’s country-western electric jazz group, Awards, awarded on the basis of votes cast by the Willie Nelson Project, was given the Outside fans, educators and jazz experts and presented Jazz Group award That category also earned a by Earshot Jazz, a local nonprofit music, arts and nomination for the group Speak, whose members service organization The unassuming bassist include Jazz Studies assistant professor Cuong Vu Phil Sparks is a newly has been a member of groups led by local jazz and Jazz alumni Luke Bergman, Chris Icasiano, inducted member of the luminaries Julian Priester, Ernestine Anderson, Aaron Otheim, and Andrew Swanson Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame Wayne Horvitz, the late Floyd Standifer, Hadley Veteran saxophonist Hadley Caliman, whose Caliman, and many others, including 15 seasons quartet and quintet won the Acoustic Jazz with the Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra led Ensemble award and the Concert of the Year award, by Clarence Acox and UW saxophone professor performed with his quintet at the awards ceremony, member Michael Brockman a group including Jazz Studies professor Marc Seales “Sparks is the consummate sideman, and for on piano and Thomas Marriott on trumpet the past 26 years he has quietly gone about his “The Earshot Awards were filled with people business of making beautiful music night after representing the UW School of Music, which night,” states a cover story in Earshot’s May news became apparent to many people at the awards as magazine “He has worked thousands of gigs and more and more people were called to the podium appeared on dozens of albums with little drama with the UW named at the top of their credentials or commotion ” it felt like a sweep!” says Professor Michael In addition to Sparks, numerous other musicians Brockman, who was on hand to help present some with connections to the UW Jazz Studies program of the Earshot awards to winners “Our alumni are were represented at the annual awards ceremony out there doing great things in this entire region The 2009 Jazz Instrumentalist award went to and throughout the country I was really proud of saxophonist Mark Taylor, an alumnus who earned our school ” Autumn 2009 University of Washington School of Music www music washington edu 2 COMPOSERS HELP SHAPE POLISH CONTEMPORARY CULTURE School of Music Composition faculty Richard Parmenter Joshua Karpen (also director of the School of Music) and Juan Pampin and alumnus Josh Parmenter were featured composers this fall at the Warsaw Autumn 2009 52nd International Festival of Contemporary Music The three composers are affiliated with the UW’s Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS), prominently highlighted in a concert of works from DXARTS presented at the Extra-High Voltage Hall, Institute of Power Engineering, on September 19 The program, which included DXARTS composer Ewa Trbacz’s “Errai” as well as Karpen’s “Strand Lines,” Parmenter’s “risonanza,” and Pampin’s “On Space,” employed electronic media, ambisonic sound projection, and visual spaces, along with live performance from the Percussion Group of the Academy of Music in Krakow and numerous other musicians, including School of Music alumnus Josiah DXARTS composers were featured in a program at the Warsaw Boothby The Warsaw Autumn, organized by the Autumn festival in September.