Concerts, Guest Artists, & Festivals

The Jacobsen Series is our faculty artist series featuring solo and chamber music performances by full-time and affiliate faculty.  

Master classes are presented throughout the school year by visiting artists.  Guests have included fortepianist Malcolm Bilson, organist Gillian Weir, violinists Paul Kantor, Denes Zsigmondy  and Joseph Silverstein, bassists Gary Karr and Ray Brown, the Kronos Quartet, cellists Janos Starker and Nathaniel Rosen, pianists Jeaneane Dowis, Nelita True, Robert Weirich, Thomas Schumacher, and Joseph Bloch, duo-pianists Richard and John Contiguglia, vocal coach and director Benton Hess, and the contemporary group Brave New Works.

The Fall Choral Festival brings together over 300 select high school singers from the Pacific Northwest.  The day of choral festivities culminates with the Adelphian Concert Choir,  the Dorian Singers and Voci d'Amici in concert.  In the spring, there is a women's chorus festival culminating in a performance by our own women's chorus, the Dorian Singers. 

BrassWorks is a full day event for brass plyers in the Fall with clinics by the brass faculty, a master class with a guest artist, and performances by brass chamber ensembles.

 The Annual Piano Festival is an intensive two-day workshop offered to Puget Sound piano students, as well as advanced pianists in the community.  Master classes and related music classes are led by well-known guest artists, as well as by piano faculty members from the School of Music.

Serious About Singing is a one-day workshop directed by Professor Christopher McKim.  The entire voice faculty participates in this event that covers stage deportment, audition and contest preparation, and expression in singing.  All participants have the opportunity to work individually with the Puget Sound's voice faculty.

The School of Music also collaborates with the Tacoma Philharmonic and Pacific Lutheran University in the Virtuoso Discovery Series, which brings rising stars to Tacoma who give a master class and perform a recital at one of the two universities.