Adjudicators 2025

Margaret Pressley has served as one of the country’s foremost instructors of pre-college musicians. Ms. Pressley established the Pressley Violin Studio and founded the Seattle Conservatory of Music, the first of its kind in the Pacific Northwest. For her exceptional support, inspiration, and outstanding contributions toward the growth and development of music education, Ms. Pressley has received numerous honors, including a Music Teachers National Association’s National Fellow Award, a Washington State Outstanding Studio Teacher of the Year Award (American String Teacher Association), and a prestigious Dorothy Richard Starling Violin Foundation Grant. She has been formally inducted into the Washington State Music Teacher Association Hall of Fame.

Ms. Pressley’s Conservatory and Studio students have been accepted into every major collegiate music school in the country and have worked as chamber musicians, orchestral players, international soloists, professors of violin, and free-lance musicians across North America and Europe. Ms. Pressley has served as a Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Colorado Boulder, a Lecturer at Western Washington University, and as an Adjunct Professor at Seattle Pacific University. She has also served as a Master Teacher at Indiana University’s Summer String Academy, the Heifetz Institute, Schlern International Music Festival (Italy), the Nationalla Ungdomssymfoniorchestern (Stockholm, Sweden), and the New Conservatory of Dallas Music in the Mountains Music Festival. Ms. Pressley has led master classes and clinics in state and national conferences and has served on regional and national advisory panels. Currently she resides in Colorado Springs, CO where she directs the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony’s Collegiate Performance Preparation Program.

Prior to joining the piano faculty at Western Washington University, Jeffrey Gilliam taught at The Juilliard School; The University of Michigan School of Music; and at The International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad, Switzerland. He has performed and taught all over the world, including guest university teaching positions in Thailand and South Africa, as well as receiving two Fulbright awards. He has recorded with violinists Yehudi Menuhin, Alberto Lysy, and Ruggerio Ricci for the EMI, Dinemec Classics, and Opus 111 labels respectively.

Originally from Akron, Ohio, Jeffrey Gilliam studied piano with Cécile Genhart at The Eastman School of Music, and with Theodore Lettvin at The University of Michigan. He also studied collaborative piano with Martin Katz and Margo Garrett. He has performed in master classes for Leon Fleisher, György Sebök, John Perry, Maria Curcio Diamand, Tatiana Nikolayeva, György Sandor, and Dorothy Taubman. In addition to teaching piano and collaborative piano at Western, he is Artistic Director of Western’s Sanford-Hill Piano Series. In 2015 he established the Jeffrey Gilliam Piano Scholarship Endowment Fund. His students have gone on to distinguished piano performance programs at Stony Brook, New England Conservatory, Rice University, and Eastman.

Pianist Renato Fabbro was awarded the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rice University. He studied with Larry Graham, Angela Cheng and John Perry and won the Adeline Rosenberg Memorial First Prize at the Fort Collins Symphony National Young Artist Competition, as well as first prize in the Grand Junction Symphony National Young Artist Competition. He has judged many competitions and festivals throughout the U.S. and Canada, and his students are frequent prize winners in national, regional and state competitions. They have also appeared as soloists with various orchestras.

Dr. Fabbro is a member of the artistic advisory panel for the Bellevue Symphony and Pacific International Piano Competitions. As part of the Martingale Ensemble, he recorded music of Claude Debussy and Gustav Mahler with members of the Oregon Symphony on the MSR Classics label. He has taught at several colleges, including the University of Portland and Marylhurst University, and his students have been accepted into top piano performance degree programs such as the Eastman School of Music, Indiana University, Peabody Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music and Rice University Shepherd School of Music. (fabbropianostudio.com)

Dr. Juliette Herlin (Cello)

Praised for her “impressive artistry” and “wonderful bowing technique” (San Francisco Classical Voice), French cellist Juliette Herlin has performed throughout Europe, the U.S., Asia, and South America. As a soloist, chamber musician, and recitalist, she has appeared in prestigious venues such as the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Musée du Louvre, and the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris; the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; Alice Tully Hall in New York; and the Zhuhai and Chongqing Grand Theaters in China.

Dr. Herlin is the cellist of the Aletheia Piano Trio alongside pianist Fei-Fei and violinist Francesca dePasquale. She has been invited to give masterclasses at Oberlin Conservatory, the University of Michigan, UNT, Baylor, University of Houston, and Utah State, as well as abroad in China, Mexico, and Colombia. Dr. Herlin is Assistant Professor of Cello at Texas Christian University’s School of Music. Her performances are frequently featured on NPR’s Performance Today, WFMT, KUSC, and France Musique, France’s main classical music station. She studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, the Juilliard School, and the University of Southern California. Dr. Herlin was recently named a Bärenreiter Jubilee Ambassador.

Dr. Will Simpson is a pianist who has performed and taught in several states across the US. He has taught piano at all levels from beginners through college and has been an instructor of piano at Ball State University in Indiana, Manchester College in Indiana, and Taylor University in Indiana.

He currently performs chamber music locally in the Seattle area and is part of the Emmaus Trio. Dr. Simpson has degrees in piano performance from the University of Louisville in Kentucky, Butler University in Indiana, and a Doctorate from Ball State University in Indiana. He has performed concertos with several orchestras and was the featured pianist in the PBS productions of the “The Life of Young Mozart” and “The Life of Mozart”. Simpson is the Director of Music Ministries and organist at Saint Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Bellevue, Washington.

Maria Sampen, violin, enjoys a vibrant musical career as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and teacher. Equally at home with repertoire ranging from classical to avant-garde to popular styles, Dr. Sampen has delighted audiences with her eclectic programs, her passionate performance style and her highly expressive playing. She has performed in Europe, Asia, Canada and all over the United States. In addition to her busy performing schedule, Dr. Sampen is a dedicated teacher.

She is Professor of Violin at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. During her tenure at Puget Sound she has twice received the university’s Thomas A. Davis Teaching Award for excellence in teaching and was also awarded the Kristine Bartanen Research Award for remarkable accomplishments in research and professional development. Her students have won top awards in national competitions including the Music Teacher National Association Competition, and the American String Teachers Association Competition.

In the summertime Dr. Sampen performs at the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival and has served on the faculties of the Brevard Music Festival in North Carolina, the Icicle Creek Chamber Music Institute in Washington and the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan. Dr. Sampen is also a member of the Puget Sound Piano Trio, ensemble in residence at the University of Puget Sound. Her major teachers include Paul Kantor, Kenneth Goldsmith and Paul Makara.

Known for spectacular technique, sumptuous sound, and deeply probing musicianship, alongside “irresistible panache” (Chicago Tribune), violinist Rachel Lee Priday is passionately committed to new music and creating enriching community and global connections through wide-ranging repertoire and multidisciplinary collaborations that reflect a deep fascination with literary and cultural narratives.

Priday has appeared as soloist with major international orchestras including the Chicago, Saint Louis, Houston, Seattle, and National Symphony Orchestras, the Boston Pops, and the Berlin Staatskapelle. Her distinguished recital appearances have brought her to eminent venues such as Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Chicago’s Ravinia Festival and Dame Myra Hess Memorial Series, Paris’s Musée du Louvre, Germany’s Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival and Switzerland’s Verbier Festival. She has premiered and commissioned works by composers including Matthew Aucoin, Christopher Cerrone, Gabriella Smith, Timo Andres, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Cristina Spinei, Melia Watras, Paul Wiancko and many more.

Priday began her violin studies at the age of four in Chicago, after she saw the puppet Lamb Chop pretend to play the violin, and shortly after moved to New York City to study with iconic pedagogues Dorothy DeLay and Itzhak Perlman at The Juilliard School. She holds degrees from Harvard and the New England Conservatory, and has served on the faculty of the University of Washington since 2019. She performs on a Giuseppe Guarneri violin (“filius Andreae”).

Iranian flutist Dr. Gholami, received the presidential award and Iran’s National Elites Foundation scholarship to continue his training at the University of Tehran. Dr. Gholami is the Assistant Professor of Flute at Western Washington University and coordinator of the woodwinds area.

As an orchestral player, he started with Tehran’s ensembles, including the Tehran Contemporary Ensemble, Tehran City Hall Orchestra, and Tehran Symphony. Later, he came back to work with TSO as their principal flute. Other orchestral appearances include Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra (Los Angeles), Fort Worth Symphony, and McKinney Philharmonic. 

A recipient of the Susan and Ford Schumann fellowship in 2017, Mehrdad attended the Aspen Music Festival, where he served as the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble (ACE) flute fellow and studied with Nadine Asin, Mark Sparks, and Demarre McGill for three consecutive summers (2017-19). In August 2019, he made his solo debut with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, performing Judith Shatin’s Concerto for Flute and Orchestra (Ruah).  

Dr. Mehrdad’s first solo album was published by his alma mater, the University of Tehran, in a joint project with the Iran Flute Society. His efforts in presenting, performing, and publishing new Iranian music have led to an increased number of compositions for flute by Iranian composers and similar projects inspired by his “Iran Flute Project”. His most recent album, “This Vast Sky,” was released in the Summer of 2024 and is streaming on all music platforms. 

In August 2023, Dr. Mehrdad’s dissertation was named the winner of the National Flute Association’s Graduate Research Competition. For more information, please visit www.MehrdadGholami.com. 

Dr. Jessica Hall received her Master of Music, Graduate Certificate, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Keyboard Collaborative Arts with emphases in musicology, opera coaching, and vocal literature from the University of Southern California in 2015 under the tutelage of Dr. Alan L. Smith. She earned a BA in Music and a BM in piano performance from the University of Washington in 2006 where she studied under Patricia Michaelian and Craig Sheppard. While pursuing her graduate studies in Los Angeles, she maintained an active teaching studio with students ages 4-17.

Dr. Hall has enjoyed an active career including roles as pianist, assistant and offstage conductor, coach, and chorus master on the music staff of more than 65 opera productions with Seattle Opera, Wexford Festival Opera, Minnesota Opera, Portland Opera, Opera Memphis, USC Opera, Opera UCLA, Pacific Opera Project, and the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival.

A frequent collaborator, she has performed in concert with Damien Geter, Olafur Sigurdarson, Rod Gilfry, Gemma Summerfield, and Marie Lenormand, and participated in master classes and residencies with celebrated pianists, singers, and composers such as Marilyn Horne, Martin Katz, John Churchwell, Jeremy Denk, Anthony Dean Griffey, Nathan Gunn, Jake Heggie, Eric Owens, Denyce Graves, and Ricky Ian Gordon.

Dr. Hall has served on the collaborative pianist faculty at the University of Puget Sound since 2022. She previously worked within the vocal departments of the University of Southern California, UCLA, Chapman University, Pasadena City College, and Scripps College. Previous faculty positions include the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival and OperaWorks in Los Angeles.