Master Class with Vijay Iyer

This event will run from 2-4 p.m. in the Brechemin Auditorium, on the first floor of the UW Music Building. Open to the public. Registration required, space is limited. 

Join us for a master class with esteemed composer and musician Vijay Iyer, followed by a Q&A moderated by dynamic improvisational trumpeter Steph Richards. Hosted by Meany Center for the Performing Arts and the UW School of Music.

Program

for violin alone (3') : Michaela Klesse, violin

The Diamond, Movt. I. A Dream (6') : David Teves-Tan, violin, Jeffrey Tso, piano 

Crown Thy Good (5') : Freya Frahm, piano

​Mlonje: Voices Joined by Nubiyan Twist & The Zawose Queens, Owen Tucker Gwinn, Sax; Carson Johnson, Sax;  Corlan Costello, Piano; Aiden Lok Fung Chan, Drums; Packard Stephenson, Bass

Vijay Iyer is a composer and pianist in New York. In 2025 he released Defiant Life with Wadada Leo Smith, and Thereupon with the group Fieldwork. Rolling Stone observed, “Iyer’s music knows no bounds.” He received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Doris Duke Artist Award, and three Grammy nominations. He teaches at Harvard.

Steph Richards is a dynamic improvisor known for her innovative approach to the trumpet and interdisciplinary expression as a composer. A professor at UW, she has collaborated with visionaries Henry Threadgill, Anthony Braxton, Muhal Richard Abrams and John Zorn as well as art pop luminaries Yoko Ono, St. Vincent, David Byrne and Laurie Anderson.