PLU Invitational Band Festival

School of Music alumna Erin Bodnar (’13 DMA, Wind Conducting) returns to the University of Washington in Fall 2025 as director of UW Concert Bands, a one-year appointment following the recent retirement of longtime director Timothy Salzman.

While earning her DMA in Wind Conducting at the UW, Bodner studied with Salzman and assisted with direction of the UW Wind Ensemble as well as co-leading with other graduate student conductors the UW’s Concert and Campus Bands.

In order to accept the UW opportunity, Bodnar took a one-year leave from her position at the University of North Florida (UNF), where she is Associate Professor of Music and Director of Bands.

“We are pleased to welcome Erin Bodnar back to the UW this fall,” says School of Music Director Joël-François Durand. “As a former student of Timothy Salzman, she will provide an important sense of continuity to the ensembles. The bands will be in very capable hands with Erin at the helm in 2025-26.”

Prior to her appointment at UNF, Bodnar served four years as Director of Bands at Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa. During 2013-2014, she conducted the Wind Symphony and Orchestra at Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand. She maintains an active schedule as a guest conductor and clinician, traveling to Argentina, Thailand, Indonesia, and throughout the United States and Canada. Her research interests include conducting pedagogy and motor cognition, and her articles have been published in the Journal of Music Teacher Education and Music Perception.

An avid runner, Bodnar has completed 60 marathons to date. This summer, she is participating in Run Across Alberta (220 miles), a fundraising initiative to end Multiple Sclerosis.

At the UW, she will conduct the UW’s top auditioned wind bands, the UW Wind Ensemble and the Symphonic Band, and oversee graduate student conductors and their work with the non-auditioned Campus and Concert Bands, which represent musicians from throughout the UW’s degree programs.

Dr. John Falskow is Director of Instrumental Music at Tacoma Community College, where he also has served as Chair of the Music Department and as the Dean of the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Division. As a tenured professor of music, and director of instrumental music – John conducts the TCC Orchestra, TCC Symphonic Band, and teaches a wide variety of classes in the college music curriculum. In addition to duties at TCC, John is the conductor of the Seattle Wind Symphony, Puget, Brass Band Tacoma, and other ensembles in the region. Falskow is active as a conductor, music educator, and trumpeter.