Angelique Poteat, SYSO class of 2004

We kick off our 83rd season with the world premiere of a commissioned work: Symphonik Dances, by accomplished composer and SYSO alumna Angelique Poteat (class of 2004).

Poteat recently concluded tenancy as Seattle Symphony’s Artist-in-Residence, a post where she crafted a wide range of works with the Symphony’s GRAMMY-winning musicians. During her residency, Poteat taught budding composers through the Young Composers Workshop, a program she participated in herself. Poteat has also served as a member of SYSO’s coaching faculty. Today she works as a composer and clarinetist, frequently crediting performances with the Vancouver Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and more.

Symphonik Dances joins a roster of orchestral commissions spearheaded by Music Director Juan Felipe Molano during his time directing SYSO. You can learn more about Angelique’s background and her catalogue of works by visiting her website.

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Poteat [right] having a little fun with fellow SYSO musicians backstage at Benaroya Hall.

The year is 2002. Art and culture itself have transformed into cycles of endless feeds: MTV dominates the after-school hours of the tv screen at home, marching right into the nightly news, then late-night comedy; Britney Spears, Jay-Z, and Destiny’s Child burst twinkling, industrial pop from every public speaker into the air we breathe; and every child donned proudly–then quickly discarded–their Tamagotchi pets.

Here in Seattle, tech giants Microsoft, Expedia, and countless others had assumed a dominating presence with an impact on the region that would be felt for decades, chrome evergreens burst curiously from garden soil.

It’s a regular Saturday in 2002, and at the crack of dawn, an eager teenager boards the Whidbey ferry to Seattle with her clarinet case, determined to be as early–not on time, certainly not late–as dozens of her colleagues in her SYSO orchestra instructed by iconic conductor Walt Cole. This musician is Angelique Poteat, and though she was almost a decade into her musical studies, this would be just one of two pivotal years she spent in SYSO’s orchestras.

“I guess I was older when I started playing in the SYSO orchestras. I was a junior in high school and joined Mr. Cole’s Classical Orchestra. That was an incredible first experience in SYSO.”

Poteat, who, prior to youth symphonies, spent the majority of her time making music in ensembles available through school, deeply loved music and was honing her skills by taking advantage of all the great learning opportunities available in Seattle.

“That was the Saturday routine: I’d go to Youth Symphony, then I’d have my clarinet lesson right after… [SYSO] was a really unique bonding experience. I really liked my colleagues at SYSO, and in terms of where I felt I fit in as a high school student, it was at SYSO more than in my high school.”

After SYSO, Poteat would land at Rice University for undergraduate studies, followed by the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music for her Master’s program, and a summer program in Germany studying with legendary orchestrator Samuel Adler. But after an extended stint away, Poteat returned to the Northwest.

“I’m glad that I’m back in Seattle. Everywhere I went, I loved all the programs I did and the people I studied with, but I always wanted to come back. I know I could’ve done the whole crazy audition circuit, but I am much happier building a life here… It’s home.”

A performance from Poteat’s final season with SYSO (2003-04).

LEARNING TO COMPOSE, DEVELOPING ARTISTIC VOICE
SYSO musicians who become composers often first engage in the practice somewhere down the line in their studies: perhaps they took a composition class, or met an inspiring artist and felt compelled to pick up the pen themselves. For Poteat, the opposite was true.

“I started writing music before I started playing clarinet. It’s something I started doing when I was like 8 years old… I got a little rinky-dink keyboard for Christmas one year. I knew how to read music, and I could find notes on the piano. I thought that the music book that came with the keyboard was lame, so I wrote my own.”

It was her middle school band instructor, Jackie Minchew, who helped foster Poteat’s passion for not just making music, but composing it, too. “He invited me to write my first wind ensemble piece in 8th grade, which was my first experience writing for a large group.”

At SYSO, Poteat performed with SYSO’s former Classical Orchestra—a smaller ensemble that performed pre-Romantic-era works—and in the massive ranks of Youth Symphony Orchestra. These complementary ensembles exposed Poteat to a wide range of artistic styles and expressions.

“SYSO opened my eyes to so much more modern repertoire, and made me want to explore more as a composer myself. I didn’t have to stick to one harmonic system, I didn’t have to write traditional things for instrumentalists.”

When calling upon inspirations, Poteat will immediately acknowledge how lush Seattle is with them. A conversation could quickly jump from capturing her love for local hiking spots, right into an anecdote about Seattle Symphony concert attendees. (A few years back, a packed house enthusiastically learned about—then gave a standing ovation to—a 3-hour affair of the lesser-programmed French composer Messiaen’s Turangalîla-symphonie.)

Experiences like that, especially being surrounded by a passionate, committed community of arts supporters here in Seattle, fuel Poteat to compose in a way that captures the unique character of our community.

“My music as a composer is as a Pacific Northwest composer,” she said. “I try to think about the things that are happening in the area right now. I have written pieces that have been more inspired by grunge, Pearl Jam, and their history of activism.”

“For the piece that I wrote for SYSO, one of the things that we’re very aware of here in the Pacific Northwest is the effects of technology, especially on youth.”

Poteat [left] at rehearsal with fellow SYSO musicians, including current SYSO coach Mary Kantor.

The mention of TikTok might leap off the page when reading Symphonik Dance‘s program notes. It may seem an unlikely intersection, a social media app and the symphony orchestra. But Poteat, like many artists, holds views of the past and the future simultaneously. As for TikTok, her interest lies less in the content it houses and more in how youth utilize the platform to imitate ideas, expand on them, and ultimately build community.

“[Kids] see a video of someone dancing, they think, now I should make my version of this dance, and now we connect because we both know this dance. It’s a beautiful way to build a community when you can’t actually get together in person to do that. It stretches the definition of what a community is.”

Symphonik Dances evokes TikTok’s information stream: a sequence of shifts from one idea to the next, a parallel to the familiar upward-swiping motion of watching videos on your phone. But in this rapid-fire cadence, Poteat observes many similarities from one video to the next on TikTok—trends, if you will—a practice of repetition and reference she rightfully credits as present and foundational to all of music history.

“I think it’s totally natural for people to want to hear something they know and appreciate, and to want to put their own spin on that. It’s cool that people want to do that. People love being able to witness development happen.”

As to whether or not Poteat herself is a victim of “doomscrolling?” She doesn’t hide from the truth: “I have to admit–I’m not on TikTok. But I always try to do a little bit of research about what people are up to these days, even though I’m a bit of a tech dinosaur.”

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When asked what advice she would give a first-day SYSO student, Poteat brought it right back to community and coming together:

“Someone told me once, ‘Your home practice time is where you learn your part, and rehearsal is when you learn everyone else’s part.’ If you show up prepared, it will allow you to listen, to watch, and to find out how you fit into the ensemble. You have more appreciation for the piece, and you can bond more with everyone else.”

It’s unsurprising that someone like Poteat would first offer advice on how the orchestra can bring us closer together. This truth is evident in her catalogue—a series of compositions that highlight the current-day state of our community, and in how we communicate and connect with each other.

Seattle is lucky to say someone like Poteat, with as much care and thoughtfulness as she carries for the real-life experiences of her fellow person, is chronicling the unique hues of our day-to-day lives.

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Angelique Poteat’s world-premiere composition Symphonik Dances will be performed by the SYSO’s Youth Symphony Orchestra on December 14, 2025, at UW Meany Hall under the baton of Maestro Juan Felipe Molano. Get tickets here.

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Connect & learn more:
Website: www.angeliquepoteat.com