He started as a little kid playing with marionettes at home in Appalachia and then sang and danced his way across America to Broadway. Today, he writes, choreographs and directs musical theatre. DJ Salisbury fearfully backed out of his first audition for a role in a show after he arrived at the theater. He was … Read more
Award-winning concert pianist Brian Lin joins the Gulf Coast Symphony for a concerto by Mozart, 14 years after performing with us as a 16-year-old keyboard phenom Brian Yuebing Lin was born in Wuhan, China, though about a month after his birth, the family moved to the city of Shenzhen, where Brian grew up and where … Read more
Drummer Paul Gavin is Director of the freshly minted Gulf Coast Jazz Collective that is performing regularly at the Gulf Coast Symphony’s Music and Arts Community Center. Here is his story.
As a young session musician in his hometown of Philadelphia, John Wadsworth had it all – the buzz, the money, the cars, the homes and a nice little family. But the jazz and rock life takes its toll on the soul, often leading talented musicians to fall over the edge. John’s journey took him to the point of no return, only he didn’t like what he saw and came back.
Retirement is what you make it. Many of us see it as a foreboding beginning of the end. Others, such as Gulf Coast Symphony French horn player Susan Oliver, use retirement to capitalize on opportunities they did not take before.
In 1939, Henry Jacobson was a German Jew living and working in France, with a French wife and a young son. Anticipating the impending European conflagration, Henry, who owned a leather goods factory, fled with his family to Switzerland the night before the border was closed.
Many of us pass through life leaving behind parts of our childhood, only to find them again decades later. That’s just what the Gulf Coast Symphony’s timpanist Gary Colston discovered, and he’s not looked back since.
Gary was born in Logan, West Virginia, the area home to the legendary Hatfields and the McCoys.
He started playing percussion in junior high school, following in the footsteps of his older brother Ken. As such, he got into music at a relatively older age of 13 or 14.
The Gulf Coast Symphony’s Principal Bassist Doni Landefeld Finds a Groove in Florida While other kids were making a few bucks delivering newspapers or babysitting, the Gulf Coast Symphony’s Principal Double Bassist Doni Landefeld was performing as a high schooler in a professional orchestra and doing paid gigs around town. And today, besides laying down … Read more
While doctors, dentists and former professional musicians are pillars of community orchestras such as the Gulf Coast Symphony, music teachers are well represented among the stalwarts.
Mary Anne Farese is the GCS’s principal second violin, and she spent 39 years paying forward her musical training and talent to students ranging from primary school through university.
Well, the Gulf Coast Symphony Has Jake Goldberger on Clarinet!
What is it with doctors playing in community orchestras? Across America, healthcare professionals help form the core of many volunteer ensembles. Big cities such as Los Angeles and New York City have doctor orchestras. There’s even a World Doctors Orchestra.
The Gulf Coast Symphony, too, counts an array of active and retired healthcare professionals at its heart.
