Event Announcement for the Circumpolar Music Series

by Dr. Sean Dowgray, CMS Faculty Organizer and Term Assistant Professor of Music

CMS Hosts UAA Ethnomusicologist Zachary Milliman: Thursday, February 26th, 11:30-1:00 pm in the Eva McGown Music Room

The Circumpolar Music Series looks forward to hosting Ethnomusicologist Zachary Milliman in the Eva McGown music room on Thursday, February 26th, 2026, 11:30-1:00 pm. Milliman is a Term Instructor of Alaska Native Studies and the current department chair at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). Milliman will present his recent work on the King Island Christmas (1999) theatrical oratorio and settler colonial appropriation. He has worked in consultation with Inupiaq artist Ted Mayac Sr., whose family is renowned for their detailed and finely crafted ivory carvings. Milliman has presented his research at many international conferences, including the annual meetings of the American Musicological Society and the Society for American Music, and has published in the Journal of the International Alliance of Women in Music. Milliman holds a bachelor's and master's degree in vocal performance, and in 2015-2016 conducted research at the Hungarian Musicological Institute as a Fulbright scholarship recipient. He is currently a PhD candidate in musicology at McGill University with a dissertation titled “Opera and Goulash Communism,” focusing on opera culture under Hungarian state socialism. He currently resides in Anchorage, Alaska, with his husband, artist Matt Klinn. This event is FREE and open to the public.

We are midway through the ‘25-’26 CMS season! In case you have missed CMS events from the fall semester, you can now check out some of the highlights, including:

The Light is Always Changing (2025) by Eve Beglarian commissioned by Wildshore New Music and premiered as part of their 2025 Alaska tour. In September and October, Wildshore performed in Homer, Anchorage, Kenai, and Fairbanks. Beglarian composed this work after multiple visits to Alaska. This recording is from their performance in Davis Hall back in October and was the final performance of the 2025 tour.

Did He Promise You Tomorrow (2011) by Eve Beglarian featuring Wildshore New Music alongside UAF students and faculty as well as the Fairbanks Youth Percussion Ensemble. From the same event, Beglarian was Wildshore New Music’s featured composer for the 2025 tour.

We Walk to the Sky (1994) by Craig Coray (UAF ‘70) featuring UAF faculty, M.M. student Troy Irish, and musicians from the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra. Coray visited Fairbanks in August to work with the Circumpolar Music Series, presenting a lecture on his music followed by a performance of his selected works. This special event occurred in partnership with the Music & More Series held at the First United Methodist Church. The Music & More Series was established the same year as the Circumpolar Music Series. Read more about We Walk to the Sky here.

Sanctuary by Craig Coray (1999) is Coray’s most recent work. In three movements, Sanctuary is based on sounds that Coray has heard and relates to in nature. “Bending” represents the movement of trees, “Flowing” depicts the movement of water, and “Still” reflects on the “almost silence” or the “silence that can be heard.” As Coray noted in his pre-concert lecture, “there is no real silence, there is always a sound… silence is active… and alive with possibility."

And if that’s not enough for you, be sure to check out the UAF Department of Music’s “Circumpolar Music Series Presents” playlist that features many of our past events.

 

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About the Author

Dr. Sean Dowgray is a classical percussionist specializing in modern and contemporary music. Dowgray is a proponent of creative collaborations which has resulted in recent musical works by Daniel Tacke (Vorrücken and einsamkeit), Josh Levine (Shrinking world/expanding and Les yeux ouverts) as well as new chamber works by Justin Murphy-Mancini (Sic itur ad astra and A Song of Grecis.) and Lydia Winsor Brinadmour (As if, sand). In the recent past, Dowgray has collaborated closely with composers including Jürg Frey (Garden of Transparency), Christopher Adler (Strata), Ioannis Mitsialis (Machine Mode), Lewis Nielson (Where Ashes Make the Flowers Grow and NOVA), and James Wood (Cloud Polyphonies). As a soloist, Dr. Dowgray has focused extensively on works that stretch the technical and expressive capabilities of both instrument and performer. This includes the work of Jason Eckardt, Josh Levine, Daniel Tacke, Salvatore Sciarrino, Lewis Nielson, David Lang, Christopher Adler, Brian Ferneyhough, Luciano Berio, Richard Barrett. Dowgray has been featured as a soloist at the Oberlin Percussion Institute, the Percussive Art Society International Convention (PASIC), the WasteLAnd New Music Series, Harvard’s Institute for Advanced Learning, the University of Arizona, the SoundON New Music Festival, and Eureka! Musical Minds of California. As a creative practitioner, Dowgray has focused recently on his project, WHEN for mixed ensemble set to premiere in 2025. He recently completed the interdisciplinary collaboration, In A Time of Change: Boreal Forest Stories featuring artists and scientists. As part of this collaboration, Dowgray created the work Moving Through the Boreal Forest in partnership with Maïté Agopian (light and shadow work) and Daryl Farmer (poetry), Associate Professor of English at UAF. Dr. Dowgray is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy where he studied with John Alfieri, the Oberlin Conservatory (B.M.) where studied with Michael Rosen, the University of Alaska Fairbanks (M.M.) where he studied with Dr. Morris Palter, and the University of California San Diego (D.M.A) where he studied with Steven Schick. In Dr. Dowgray's dissertation, Time Being: Percussion as a Study of Time, he presents an analyses of new and rarely heard works for and with percussion through theoretical frameworks of time study from authors including Jonathan Kramer, J.T. Fraser, Edward T. Hall, and others. Recent notable performances include John Corigliano's percussion concerto, Conjurer with the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra and Lewis Nielson's Lengua Encubierto for solo percussion at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC).