people

Conductors to faculty and alumni/students

Timothy Salzman is in his twenty-sixth year at the University of Washington where he serves as Professor of Music/Director of Concert Bands, is conductor of the University Wind Ensemble and teaches students enrolled in the graduate instrumental conducting program. Former students from the University of Washington occupy positions at numerous universities and public schools throughout the United States. Prior to his appointment at the UW he served for four years as Director of Bands at Montana State University where he founded the MSU Wind Ensemble. From 1978 to 1983 he was band director in the Herscher, Illinois, public school system where the band program received several regional and national awards in solo/ensemble, concert and marching band competition. Professor Salzman holds degrees from Wheaton (IL) College (Bachelor of Music Education), and Northern Illinois University (Master of Music in low brass performance), and studied privately with Arnold Jacobs, former tubist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has numerous publications for bands with the C. L. Barnhouse, Arranger's Publications, Columbia Pictures, Hal Leonard Publishing and Nihon Pals publishing companies, and has served on the staff of new music reviews for The Instrumentalist magazine. Professor Salzman is a national artist/clinician for the Yamaha Corporation of America and has been a conductor, adjudicator or arranger for bands throughout the United States and in Canada, England, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Russia, Singapore, China, and Japan, a country he has visited twenty-one times. During his 2011 spring term sabbatical leave he returned for a third time to Beijing where he was in residence at the Beijing Conservatory, conducting and giving master classes for numerous bands including a concert appearance at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Tianenmen Square with the Beijing Wind Orchestra, the first professional wind ensemble in Beijing. He also adjudicated the Singapore Youth Festival National Concert Band Championships. Upon his return to the United States he conducted the UCLA Wind Ensemble in their final concert of their academic year. Professor Salzman is compiling editor and co-author (with several current and former UW graduate students) of A Composer's Insight: Thoughts, Analysis and Commentary on Contemporary Masterpieces for Wind Band, a five-volume series of books on contemporary wind band composers published by Meredith Music Publications, a subsidiary of the Hal Leonard Corporation. He is an elected member of the American Bandmasters Association and is a past president of the Northwest Division of the College Band Directors National Association.

Dr. Steven Morrison is Professor and Chair of Music Education at the University of Washington. An instrumental music specialist, Professor Morrison teaches courses in music education, music psychology, and research methodology and conducts the UW Symphonic Band. He has taught at the elementary, junior high and senior high levels in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Louisiana and has conducted and arranged for bands, orchestras, and chamber groups throughout the United States.
Dr. Morrison is co-director of the Laboratory for Music Cognition, Culture and Learning investigating neurological responses to music listening, perceptual and performance aspects of pitch-matching and intonation, and use of expressive gesture and modeling in ensemble teaching. His research also includes music preference and the variability of musical responses across diverse cultural contexts.
Prior to joining the UW faculty, Morrison served as Lecturer of Fine Arts at the Hong Kong Institute of Education. He has spoken and presented research throughout the United States, as well as in Australia, China, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Italy, the Netherlands, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. During 2009 he served as a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities and as a Visiting Scholar in the Center for Music and Science at the University of Cambridge.
Morrison’s articles have appeared in Music Educators Journal, Journal of Research in Music Education, Bulletin for the Council of Research in Music Education, Music Perception, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, Missouri Journal of Research in Music Education, Southwestern Musician, Recorder: Ontario Music Educators Association Journal, College Music Society Newsletter, and Southern Folklore. Along with colleague Steven M. Demorest, his research into music and brain function has appeared in Neuroimage, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Progress in Brain Research and The Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
He is also a contributing author to The Science and Psychology of Music Performance, published by Oxford University Press, the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Music Education, and the text Musician and Teacher: An Orientation to Music Education, authored by UW colleague Patricia Shehan Campbell and published by W.W. Norton.
Morrison is the Associate Editor and Editor Elect of the Journal of Research in Music Education for which he also served on the editorial board. He is also on the editorial boards of Reviews of Research in Human Learning and Music and the Asia-Pacific Journal for Arts Education. Morrison has served on the executive board of the Society for Research in Music Education and is currently a member of the advisory board for the Asia-Pacific Symposium on Music Education Research. He is past University Curriculum Chair for the Washington Music Educators Association and an honorary member of the Gamma chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi.
He holds a B.M. from Northwestern University, an M.M. from the University of Wisconsin, and a Ph.D. from Louisiana State University.

Alie Erin Bodnar is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in instrumental conducting at the University of Washington, studying with Timothy Salzman. She received a Master of Music in wind conducting from the University of North Texas and a Bachelor of Music in music education from the University of Victoria. Her primary conducting teachers at these institutions were Eugene Corporon, Dennis Fisher and Gerald King. Erin has participated in conducting workshops at the University of North Texas, State University of New York at Fredonia, and the University of Michigan, where she had the opportunity to work with James Jordan, Jack Stamp, Paula Holcomb, and Steve Davis. Recently, Erin was one of three doctoral conducting students who participated in a masterclass with Maestro Gerard Schwarz at the College Band Directors National Association Conference. In 2010 she was chosen as one of three Young Conductors for the National Band Association’s Young Conductor and Composer Mentorship Project. Erin has also contributed to the GIA Teaching Music Through Performance Series for Volume 7 and the revised Volume 1. She excelled at teaching both middle and high school band in Alberta, Canada for which she received the Keith Mann Young Band Director’s Award and the prestigious Edwin Parr First Year Teacher Award. In addition, Erin has served on the board of directors for the Alberta Band Association and has presented at the ABA annual conference. She is an accomplished bassoonist, having performed with the University of Washington Wind Ensemble, the New Edmonton Wind Sinfonia, the University of North Texas Wind Symphony and the Madera Winds. She has recorded with the University of North Texas Wind Symphony for the GIA Teaching Music Through Performance CD series as well as the GIA Composer Collection CD’s.

Dan Dan McDonald is a second year Doctor of Musical Arts student in instrumental conducting at the University of Washington and serves as a Graduate Assistant Director for the Husky Marching Band and UW Campus Band. Dan earned a B.A. in Music (Saxophone) and M.M. in Instrumental Conducting. Prior to his graduate work, Dan taught grade 4-8 band and lessons in Ashford, CT and was Director of Instrumental Music at The Norwich Free Academy (NFA) in Norwich, CT. At NFA, he directed the award-winning Concert Band, Orchestra, Jazz Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, Chamber Ensembles, Pep Band, and the “Wildcat” Marching Band. At UConn, Dan was assistant conductor for the Symphonic Band and Concert Band, and also assisted with undergraduate conducting. He was a graduate assistant for the UConn Athletic Bands who performed at the 2011 Tostito’s Fiesta Bowl and conducted the pep band at the 2011 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship in Houston, TX. Dan is a member of Music Educators National Conference, New England Music Festival Association, Kappa Kappa Psi, College Band Directors National Association, and World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles.

Cory Meals is currently working toward his Ph.D. in Music Education at the University of Washington and serves as a Graduate Assistant Director for the Husky Marching Band, and the UW Symphonic Band. Previously, he served as Director of Bands for Waller High School (2006-2010), northwest of Houston, TX. During his tenure there ensembles received numerous ‘Superior’ ratings and UIL "Sweepstakes" awards, and advanced each year eligible to the prestigious UIL 4A Texas State Marching Contest (2007, 2009). He has also held instructional positions in Klein ISD (TX), and Keller ISD (TX), and holds a Bachelor's Degree in Instrumental Music Education from VanderCook College of Music (IL) where he studied under Dr. Charles Menghini. Most recently he was Graduate Teaching Assistant for the University of Houston Band program, earning a Master of Music degree in Instrumental Wind Conducting with Prof. David Bertman and Mr. Eddie Green. He is an active member of CBDNA, TMEA, TBA, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Kappa Kappa Psi and maintains an active schedule as a visual designer, program consultant, and ensemble clinician.

Jiannan Cheng is from Chengdu, China and is in her first year at the University of Washington School of Music where she is enrolled in the MM program in instrumental conducting. She just received her Bachelor’s degree in choral conducting from the China Conservatory of Music (Beijing) in July of 2012. During her undergraduate study, Jiannan studied choral conducting with Prof. Lingfen Wu and instrumental conducting with Dr. Youqing Yang. She also served as conductor of the College of Computer and Information Choir at Renming University of China, Beijing; the No. 5 Middle and High School Choir; and the Beijing Children’s Palace Choir. Additionally, she founded the College of Civil Engineering Choir at Tsinghua University in May of 2010. Jiannan started her musical training when she was quite young and, in additional to singing, plays piano, violin and flute.