Soloists Archives - Page 3 of 5 - Port Townsend Symphony Orchestra

October 24, 2019October 24, 2019

The Leader: Practicing perfection Bassoonist Dave Krabill featured during PT Symphony Orchestra opener

Dave Krabill performs on a vintage Heckel bassoon made in 1928. He practices for at least a couple of hours each day.

https://www.ptleader.com/stories/port-townsend-symphony-orchestra-2019-2020-season-opens,65760

Leader photo by Chris McDaniel Leader photo by Chris McDaniel Posted Thursday, October 24, 2019 1:49 pm

Chris McDaniel
cmcdaniel@ptleader.com

When Dave Krabill was just a wee lad growing up on an Ohio farm, he gladly traded a pair of udders for ivory keys.

“I practiced the piano an hour a day when I was a kid, and the basson half an hour a day,” Krabill said. “My dad told me I didn’t have to come out and milk the cows in the morning if I practiced the hour of piano. After school, it was in the barn.”

Krabill, 68, of Port Townsend, is principal bassoonist with the Port Townsend Symphony Orchestra and co-principal bassoonist with the Port Angeles Symphony and the Port Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

Even though he has been performing bassoon for about most of his life,Krabill still practices his chops for hours a day. His goal now is to perform “Bassoon Concerto in B-flat major,” by Mozart without errors during the season opening show of the Port Townsend Symphony Orchestra.

October 9, 2019December 9, 2019

CONCERT: October 27, 2019 – New World

October 3, 2019December 9, 2019

SOLOIST: David Krabill, Bassoonist

David Krabill is principal bassoonist with the Port Townsend Symphony Orchestra and co-principal bassoonist with the Port Angeles Symphony and the Port Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

Originally from Ohio, Dave studied at Kent State University and had further studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He spent several summers at the Blossom Festival of Music studying with members of the Cleveland Orchestra.

He moved to Canada in the early 1970s to play principal bassoon with the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He also performed frequently for CBC Radio and Television. Along with his wife, Anne, he was a member of the East Coast Woodwind Trio and the Scotia Winds quintet, and taught bassoon and chamber music at Dalhousie University.

Dave plays on a vintage Heckel bassoon made in 1928.

Dave and Anne raised their four children in Port Townsend and they are delighted that their two grandsons also call Port Townsend home.

July 9, 2019October 19, 2025

CONCERT: Sunday, October 27, 2019

Fanfare for the Common Man, Aaron Copland

Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto, 2nd movement with Dave Krabill

New World Symphony, Dvorak

2 pm at the Chimacum HIgh School Auditorium
91 W Valley Rd, Chimacum, WA 98325

Our concerts are free to the public – donations are accepted at the door. JOIN US!

Click “Continue Reading” for access to the program notes by Miles Vokurka.

June 4, 2019October 19, 2025

OTTO SMITH, Concertina Soloist

Otto Smith is a Port Townsend resident and a long-time percussionist in the Port Townsend Symphony Orchestra.

This June, Otto will play concertina in the west coast premiere of James Cohn’s “Concertina Concerto” accompanied by members of the chamber orchestra.

Otto moved to Port Townsend from Seattle in 1979, and he’d been playing Irish music on concertina for about a year or two by then. He’d been playing backup guitar in an Irish band, and someone lent him a concertina, which he eventually purchased. He’s been playing concertina ever since — over forty years, now.

May 14, 2019November 26, 2019

CARL HANSON, Violinist

Carl Hanson enjoys the variety of alternating between playing principle second violin and playing in the first violin section of the Port Townsend Symphony Orchestra.

He’s one of several original members still performing with this group; he also sang with the “Port Townsend Orchestra Singers” when Dick Ballou was conductor. Carl served on the orchestra’s board for its first fifteen years and was its president during the transition that brought Dewey Ehling to serve as our Artistic Director/Conductor in 1995.

Though Carl enjoys playing a number of stringed instruments — regularly performing a program he calls “Living Life With Strings Attached” — the violin has been his favorite since sixth grade. While a junior and senior at Lakes High School in Lakewood, Washington, Carl performed with a group of five violinists doing strolling music for special events, including two banquets at the old Olympic Hotel in Seattle. In college he played viola in a string quartet.

May 7, 2019August 11, 2019

ANNE KRABILL, Oboe Soloist

Anne Krabill holds the title of principal oboe of the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra, the Port Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the Port Townsend Community Orchestra. In addition she has performed as principal oboe with the Northwest Symphony in Seattle, the Bainbridge Symphony, the Peninsula Dance Theater in Bremerton, the Sooke Philharmonic in British Columbia, and was a guest performer with the 82nd Airborne Division Band in North Carolina.

Prior to moving to Washington, Anne was the principal oboist with the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She taught oboe and chamber music at Dalhousie University, and performed frequently for the CBC with the ASO and as a soloist and chamber musician. Anne and her husband, David, a bassoonist, own a reed manufacturing business and sell oboe and bassoon reeds internationally.

She is a native Canadian and received a Bachelor of Music from Mount Allison University. Her oboe studies continued in Stuttgart, Germany with Gustav Steinert, and in London, England where she won a scholarship to study with the legendary oboist, Leon Goossens.

February 19, 2019August 11, 2019

SARO BABIKIAN, Guitarist

Saro Babikian was born in Damascus, Syria, in 1995. He started playing the classical guitar at age 10. He attended the Solhi Al-Wadi Conservatory of Music in Damascus. In 2012 he performed at the Damascus Opera House in a concert hosted by the Ministry of Culture for outstanding students of the conservatory. Later that same year he moved to Los Angeles and continued his guitar studies with the renowned Armenian guitarist Sarkis Turgutyan. In 2015 he was admitted to the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music’s classical guitar program under the instruction of Scott Tennant and William Kanengiser. Saro also takes flamenco lessons with Adam Del Monte at USC. He graduated with honors with his Bachelor of Music degree in classical guitar in 2018 and has been awarded a scholarship from USC Thornton to continue his naster’s studies in classical guitar performance.

Saro has participated in numerous masterclasses with renowned musicians and guitarists such as David Russell, Pepe Romero, and Paul O’Dette. He has earned several awards in various guitar competitions including Honorable Mention at the Gohar and Ovanes Andriassian Classical Guitar Competition, and First Prize at an international music competition in Serbia. In 2017, Saro was invited as a guest artist to the 3rd Yerevan International Guitar Festival, in Yerevan, Armenia. He has composed several pieces for the guitar, including Tremolo for classical guitar, and has completed arrangements of a set of Armenian folk songs by Gomidas for guitar and voice. Saro is regularly invited to Armenia to hold guitar classes and to play concerts.

You can follow Saro Babikian on Facebook or Linked In.

December 1, 2018August 11, 2019

GWEN FRANZ, Violist

As a performer, recording artist, teacher, and scholar, Gwen Franz is a diverse violist of multiple musical traditions. In 2017, she was awarded a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Washington in classical viola performance, which also included studies within the jazz and ethnomusicology departments.

Her research on improvisation and oral traditions resulted in her thesis topic, “The Homeric Answer: How By-Ear Learning and Improvisation Enhance the Musicianship of Classical Performers.”

Dr. Franz has been featured as a concerto soloist and chamber musician throughout the Pacific Northwest, has toured throughout the United States and Chile.

She has also performed with eclectic musicians such as Darol Anger and Eugene Friesen. In 2013 she released two albums, Airoso, with classical guitarist Hilary Field, and Douce Ambiance, with jazz violinist Michael Gray and cellist James Hinkley.

Her many years of professional orchestra experience include performing with the Seattle Symphony, Northwest Sinfonietta, Grand Rapids Symphony, Lansing Symphony and Evansville Philharmonic. She recently moved to Port Townsend with her husband, Ernie Franz. (Dec 2018)

September 26, 2018September 27, 2019

Past Soloists – Master List

Linda Bach, December 2003, December 2001
Saro Babikian, February 2019
Nancy Beier, April 2013
Lorraine Burdick, December 2003, December 2001
Michael-Ann Burnett, October 2007
Kyle Campbell, December 2010, April 2009, October 2004
Kim Clark, October 2006, October 2002
Paul Creech, February 2015
Ray Chirayath, February 2017, December 2015
Christopher Cox, December 1998
Dennis Crabb, May 2008
Roger Crook, February 2006
Matthew Daline, October 2018, October 2008
Jann Degnan, March 2003
Chuck Easton, December 1999
Gwen Franz, December 2018
Larissa Freier, April 2018
James Garlick, March 2002
Arthur Grossman, October 2009
Carl Hanson, February 2016
Michael Helwick, October 2014
Vicki Helwick, February 2017, April 2014, December 2012, October 2011
Barbara Henry, December 2010, December 2007, December 2006
Judy Johnson, February 2010, April 2005, October 2000, October 1999
Beatrice Kaufman, October 2009
Hollie Kaufman, February 2012
Anne Krabill, October 2015, February 2011
Ben Krabill, February 2008
David Krabill, October 2015
Paul Krabill, February 2009
Trent LaCour, February 2015
Sharon Annette Lancaster, April 2013
Lisa Lanza, April 2016, October 2010, May 2003
Jaclyn La Rue, May 2002
Andy Mackie, April 2010
Charlie May, May 2004
Elizabeth McKinnon, February 2009
Mary Lou Montgomery, February 2000
Phil Morgan-Ellis, February 2014
Hillary Nordwell, December 2000
Zachary Nordwell, May 2001
Peninsula Singers, December 2014, April 2011, February 2007, February 2004, October 2001
Karl Perry, February 2016, February 2004
Bill Peters, December 2007
Stefan Puchalski, December 2005, December 2002
Rainshadow Chorus, December 2009
Alan Rawson, April 2006
Robin Reed, February 2017, October 2016
Jessica Reid, February 2009
David Ritt, February 2004
Susan Roe, April 2013, April 2012
Anson Ka Lik Sin, October 2013
Kristin Forssen Smith, December 2016, December 2010, December 2006, October 2003
Marilyn Sterbick, December 1998
Christopher Taber, February 2005
Michael Thomsett featured composer, February 2001
Diane Vaux, December 2016, February 2016
Miles Vokurka, October 2012
Christina Walters, December 2008
Kim Walters, December 2008
Cynthia Webster, February 2017, December 2015
Joel Yelland, December 2012