Complete 2026 Festival Schedule

University of Washington, Seattle

All events are held in Brechemin Recital Hall (except the Thursday opening event) and are free and open to the public.

Thursday, January 15

Live Music Jukebox! featuring University of Oregon and University of Washington students
(Intellectual House 4:45-7:45pm)

Friday, January 16

Registration and coffee (School of Music Fishbowl, 9:00am–9:30am)
Welcome and opening remarks (Brechemin, 9:45am)

Session 1 (10:00am–12:00pm)
Session chair: TBD

Lunch break (Noon–1:30pm)

Session 2 (1:30pm–3:30pm)
Session chair: Carrie Shaw, University of Washington, Chair of Voice

Coffee break (3:30pm–4:00pm)

Masterclass with Louise Toppin (4:00-6:00pm)

Participants TBD

Dinner break (6:00pm–7:30pm)

Keynote: Matt BaileyShea *Friday, 7:30pm

Matt BaileyShea

Matt BaileyShea is a Professor of Music Theory and Chair of the Arthur Satz Department of Music at the University of Rochester, where he also holds a secondary appointment at the Eastman School of Music. He received his Ph.D. in Music Theory from Yale University in 2003 with a dissertation on the music of Wagner. He has published on a variety of topics including form, gesture, agency, chromatic harmony, and recomposition. He recently published the book Lines and Lyrics: An Introduction to Poetry and Song with Yale University Press, which won the 2022 Wallace Berry Award from The Society for Music Theory, and he is currently working on a book called Troubled Sleep: The Dark Side of Lullabies in Rock, Broadway, and Beyond.

Saturday, January 17

Session 3 (10:00am–12:00pm)
Session chair: Stephen Rodgers (University of Oregon)

Lunch break (12:00pm–1:30pm)

Session 4 (1:30pm–3:00pm)
Session chair: TBD

Coffee break (3:00pm–3:30pm)

Session 5 (3:30pm–5:00pm)
Session chair: TBD

Catered dinner for festival participants (5:30–7:00)

Louise Toppin & John O’Brien in Recital *Saturday, 7:30pm
Event free and open to the public

Soprano Louise Toppin

Louise Toppin has received critical acclaim for her operatic, orchestral, oratorio and recital performances world-wide.  Represented by Joanne Rile Management, she toured “Gershwin on Broadway” with pianist Leon Bates.   She has recorded more than ninteen commercial CDs including on Albany Records Ah love, but a day, La Saison des fleurs and Dear Friends and Gentle Hears with Darryl Taylor released February 7, 2025.  Since 2021 she has published 13 scores with Classical Vocal Reprints, Carl Fischer and Hal Leonard (soon for release) including An Anthology of Undine Moore Songs, An Anthology of African and African Diaspora Songs, Songs of Harry Burleigh, Songs of Adolphus Hailstork, and Rediscovering Margaret Bonds.  She is the publisher of the unpublished works of Julia Perry (distributed by Boosey and Hawkes). (more…)

John O’Brien was born into a musical family and studied piano with his father through high school. He began his undergraduate studies as a double major in violin and piano performance studying violin with Robert Gerle and piano with William Masselos.  He continued his college piano studies with John Perry completing the BM and MM in piano performance at the University of Southern California.  In 1989 O’Brien was awarded the DMA in accompanying from the University of Southern California studying with Gwendolyn Koldofsy and Jean Barr. (more…)

Sunday, January 18

Session 6 (10:00am–12:00pm)
Session chair: TBD