Soloists Archives - Page 3 of 6 - Port Townsend Symphony Orchestra

November 6, 2019December 9, 2019

CONCERT: Dec. 7, 2019 – Myroslava Khomik, violin soloist

Ukrainian-born violinist Myroslava Khomik is a top prize winner of international competitions and awards, including the Remember Enescu Competition in Romania, and the New Names of Ukraine .

She has appeared as a soloist and as a chamber music collaborator in concerts and festivals throughout the US, Europe, South America and Asia, and her performances were broadcast on National TV and Radio in Ukraine, Spain, the US, Japan, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. In May of 2019 she was named a New Artist 2018 by the Classical Music Critics Association of Argentina after her successful debut in Buenos Aires with the Orquesta de Cámara del Congreso de la Nación.

Based in Los Angeles, Ms. Khomik is an avid promoter of contemporary composers, educational outreach, and regularly participates in premieres of new works. Most recent highlights include two new commissions for solo violin and an upcoming release of her debut album; performances with Orquestra Sinfonica EAFIT i n Medellin, Colombia, Orquesta Filarmónica de Zacatecas, Sinfonica Orquestra de Barra Mansa, Orquestra de la Societat de Concerts de Barcelona, Kyiv Kamerata, as well as residencies in Brazil and Argentina with music programs for underprivileged children.

A devoted chamber music advocate, Ms. Khomik had the privilege of collaborating and performing alongside many distinguished artists, such as members of the Borromeo, Jerusalem, Ysaye and Tokyo String Quartets, Midori Goto, Oleh Krysa, Carol Wincec, Fred Sherry, Ronald Leonard, Robert Davidovici, Michelle Zukovsky, Antonio Lysy, Guillaume Sutre, Movses Pogossian, among others. She frequently appears in chamber music series in Los Angeles (LACMA Sundays Live, Broad Stage Series, Redcat Series, among others), in New York and throughout Europe.

Ms. Khomik received her Performance Diploma from Lviv Krushelnytska School of Music in Ukraine, and after continuing her education in the US she received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she also held a position of the Teaching Associate of Chamber Music in the string department.

Ms. Khomik regularly performs with several orchestras in Los Angeles, including the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. She can be heard on various recordings for film and television, and is a member of the Las Vegas Philharmonic. Ms. Khomik served as an adjunct professor at Fullerton College and is currently on faculty as a violin and chamber music teaching artist at Biola University and at the Montecito International Music Festival.

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)