New Faculty Welcomed

Jeffrey Bowen

Eden Garza

Anita Kumar

The School of Music welcomes new faculty in Composition, Instrumental Performance, Music Education, and Music Theory in 2022-23.

Jeffrey Bowen, Composition

Jeffrey Bowen (’15 DMA, Composition; ’12 MM, Composition) joins the School of Music faculty as a lecturer in the Composition Program. A prize-winning composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music, Bowen has presented work at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, the Darmstadt Courses for New Music, the International Computer Music Conference, and as a resident artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.

Eden Garza, Trombone

Eden Garza, a native of South Texas, joins the School of Music faculty as an artistin-residence in trombone performance. He is a newly appointed member of the Seattle Symphony as of September 2022. Garza received his master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and his bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University, Kingsville (TAMUK).

Anita Kumar, Music Education

Anita B. Kumar (’22 PhD, Music Education) returns to the School of Music as a visiting lecturer in Music Education. Since completing her doctoral classwork at the UW, she has served on the Music Education faculty at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Her research interests include psychosocial perceptions of teachers and conductors in large ensembles, audiovisual perception of conducting gesture, school-community engagement partnerships, and evaluation of preservice teachers.

Christine Lee, Chamber Music

Cellist Christine Lee joins the Strings Program in Fall 2022 as an artist in residence whose work at the school will be focused on chamber music. A Paris Fulbright Fellow, Lee splits her time between Seattle and San Francisco, pursuing a wide range of creative and musical projects. Lee is the cellist of L’arc Trio, a piano trio based in San Francisco that has been recipient of numerous grants and awards.

Luis Rivera, Music Theory

Luis Rivera (’22 MA, Music Theory) joins the School of Music faculty as a lecturer in the Music Theory program. His research interests focus on mathematical music theory, set theory, and the music of Latin America. He holds a BS in Mathematics and a BM in Piano Performance from Augusta University, and a double MM from Georgia State University in Piano Performance and Pedagogy.

Andrew Romanick, Opera Workshop

Andrew Romanick (’18 DMA, Piano Performance) works as staff pianist and opera coach at the University of Washington and as staff pianist at Seattle Pacific University. He has recently performed virtually with SPU faculty Chérie Hughes in the Barcelona Festival of Song and with Darrell J. Jordan in recitals hosted by Tacoma Opera and Wilmington Opera in Delaware.

Sarah Rommel, Cello

Cellist Sarah Rommel joins the School of Music faculty in Autumn 2022. She is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music (B.M.) and the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles (M.M.). In addition to her work as a soloist, Rommel is a founding member of the cello quintet SAKURA.

Luis Rivera

Andrew Romanick

Sarah Rommel