Victoria Racz, B.M., M.M., was the principal oboist, featured soloist, and General Manager of the Oregon Chamber Players for the complete existence of the ensemble (1995-2014). She played principal oboe and was a soloist twice with the Newport Symphony (from 1995 – 2011), and has played oboe and English horn with Columbia Symphony, American Metropole Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, 45th Parallel, and principal oboe with other groups in the region, including the Oregon Chorale, ISing Choir, Portland Phoenix Choirs, and Vancouver Master Chorale, where she has also been a concerto soloist twice. She is principal oboist with the Portland Festival Symphony, Opera in the Park, and is also the oboist with the Con Grazia Wind Quintet, the OCP Quartet, Sirens Trio, Double Reed Divas, and Trio Adrato. She has performed with a diverse range of artists including performers such as Jane Siberry, Roberta Flack, Martha Reeves, Kurt Elling, and Jessye Norman. In August of 2020 she won the one-year principal oboe position with Orchestra Nova Northwest (formerly the Portland Columbia Symphony) for their 2020-’21 Season while their regular principal took a sabbatical. She was the Acting Principal oboist for Orchestra Nova Northwest's 2023 Season, and in January 2024 she auditioned and won the Principal Oboe position.
She is the Co-founder, General Manager and primary wind coach for the Junior Symphony of Vancouver, and is in demand throughout the Northwest as a teacher and adjudicator. She has written program notes and/or presented concert talks with organizations such as the Oregon Chamber Players, Junior Symphony of Vancouver, Portland’s Columbia Symphony, and Newport Symphony. From 1993 to 2000 she was the oboe professor at Marylhurst University in Oregon, and she was hired as oboe professor at Clark College, Washington, in 2022.
Several compositions have been written or arranged specifically for her by such composers/musicians as Dr. Matt Doran, Norman Leyden, Ray Pizzi, Jean Chatillon, and Timoteus Racz.
Kathy Stockwell-Riemann, B.M., Artist Diploma., studied with renowned oboists and teachers Dan Stolper (Michigan State University), and Sara Lambert Bloom & Robert Bloom (Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Artist Diploma Program) among others. She ran her own successful reed company out of Seattle, and has been the Reed Clinician and Assistant of the Northwest Oboe Seminar since 2001. Kathy was on leave for several years and we are excited that she is returning in 2023!!
She and Victoria met at Gail Warnaar's Double Reed Camp at Hope College in Michigan, where both Kathy and Victoria attended for many years.​
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Seattle based oboist Brent Hages, received his formal training at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Temple University, studying with James B. Caldwell, Alfred Genovese and Louis Rosenblatt.
Brent performs with most of the professional orchestras in the Pacific Northwest, including appearances with Mimi Hines, Idina Menzel, Il Divo, Celtic Woman, Andrea Bocelli, Johnny Mathis, and Evanescence. Past national tours of Wicked, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and Porgy and Bess. He regularly records with the Northwest Sinfonia Orchestra for movie and television scores- the most recent release of The Lumber Baron; video games (Diablo III, Destiny, Planetary Annihilation, World of Warcraft series) and with the Seattle Film Institute.
Formerly affiliated with Central Washington University, Cornish College of the Arts, and Seattle Pacific University as Adjunct Instructor of Oboe.
Aside from performing, he spends his time with his Whippet dogs, collecting vintage recordings, and has collected and restored the instruments of his former teachers that were used throughout their careers.
Dr. Kathy Edsill-Charles, NCTM, pianist-teacher, is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music where she received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance. She received a Master of Music degree in piano performance and a Bachelor of Music-Piano/Education degree from the University of Northern Iowa. Her major teachers include Joanne Baker, Richard Cass, William Doppmann, Howard Aibel, and German Diez.
She is in demand as a teacher, collaborative artist and chamber musician. She has performed concerts in Europe, Asia, the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest. Past orchestral performances include the Wartburg Community Orchestra, The Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra, and the Clark College Community Orchestra. As a founding member of Music Fusian NW, she is actively working to blend the cultures of East and Western music and help bring a greater appreciation of both styles of music. She also has performed two-piano works and ensembles on the Piano Extravaganza of Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Chamber Music Series.
For the past fourteen years, Dr. Charles has maintained a private teaching studio in Vancouver, WA. Her students have been recognized for their outstanding achievements at the district and state level. As a member of MTNA (Music Teachers National Association), she is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music and she belongs to both WSMTA (Washington State Music Teachers Association) and OMTA (Oregon Music Teachers Association. Her students participate in the OMTA Syllabus testing program and other workshops presented through the organization.
Most recently, she served on the faculty at Clark College teaching applied piano and accompanying the Clark College Concert Choir and the Women’s Ensemble. Previous teaching included teaching private lessons through the Community Music Program at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA, where she was also Staff Accompanist. She has served as Instructor of Music at Wartburg College (Waverly, IA) teaching applied piano, class piano and staff accompanist. She was also on faculty at the University of Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls, IA) teaching group piano, piano pedagogy and performing as staff accompanist.
Kahayla Rapolla (she/her) is an American bassoonist currently based in Portland, Oregon. As an orchestral musician, she has performed with ensembles such as the Eugene Opera, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Faroe Islands Symphony Orchestra, and the Copenhagen Philharmonic. Kahayla has also worked with conductors such as Krystof Penderecki, Thomas Søndergård, Sarah Ioannides, and Carl St. Clair.
Kahayla’s accolades include receiving first prize for the First Culture and Arts Festival held by the Association of Chinese Students and Scholars of Denmark. She was also a finalist in the American Virtuoso International Music Competition. Other accolades include first prize for the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Woodwind Concerto Competition, which led to her solo performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto in B-Flat Major, KV. 191 with the IU Symphony Orchestra.
Other noteworthy performances include “Carl Nielsen og Fløjten”, a 3-day tour in Denmark performing Carl Nielsen’s Flute Concerto with soloist Marianne Thomsen Clement. Kahayla was also part of an art installation by Los Angeles-based artist Frances Stark, who created a pedagogical version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute featured in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Kahayla earned her BM as a Jacobs Scholar from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She also received her MM while studying in Copenhagen, Denmark at The Royal Danish Academy of Music. Her previous teachers include Sebastian Stevensson, Audun Halvorsen, William Ludwig, Sara Goya, and Paul Curtis.
Kahayla’s travels throughout the US and Europe led her to the Pacific Northwest, where she now maintains a private studio and reed making business, in addition to freelancing in the surrounding area. Outside of performing and teaching, she enjoys cooking, making coffee, and exploring Oregon.
Established in 1984, Mark Chudnow Woodwinds has been a leading innovator in the design and development of double reed products since its inception. Mark started as a repairman in 1980 and is one of only a handful of Americans trained at the F. Lorée factory in France! He brought to the business an understanding and creativity not formerly found in the field. Mark quickly brought to fruition some of the many ideas he had developed in his years of talking and listening to musicians' complaints involving instruments and accessories.
Among the innovative improvements are the CA and the Sierra line of staples. The CAs are the first line of staples to be consistent, seamless and chamfered. Mark's English Horn and Oboe d'amore bocals are also noteworthy. Each one is constructed with a "tenon cork" at the tip, insuring greater airtightness and security than any other bocal on the market. Extremely popular among reedmakers throughout the world are the precision MCW hollow ground knives.
On a whimsical note, Mark's introduction of colorful swabs has brightened the otherwise black or brown world of double reed accessories.
In 1990, the Sierra oboe was introduced as a natural extension of Mark's skills and interest. Debuting in 1991, the MCW Oboe represents Mark's endeavor to provide an oboe of professional quality at an affordable price. Designed for the intermediate to advanced level student, the MCW oboe truly represents handcrafted excellence for the serious student. Mark's first presentation at the Northwest Oboe Seminar was in 2000 with his topic, Secrets of Oboe Making!
MCW has been a Seminar sponsor since 1995 and has been our repair tech for the past several years.
As a member of BMI since 1985, Brad Dutz has produced eighty-seven albums as a leader and composed the entire body of music on more than sixty-five of those projects. In 2020 he relocated to Kelso, WA, and was hired in 2023 to teach percussion at Lower Columbia College in Longview, WA.
In addition to CD projects, he has composed for dance companies, theatre, documentaries (including Shirkers 2018), movies, and silent films. The latest small group recordings were just released in April of 2024 and be found at BRADDUTZ.BANDCAMP.COM.
The ensemble showcased the unique combination of mallet percussion, oboe, cello, and bass clarinet and performed on prestigious stages such as the Angel City Jazz Festival, Boston Court, and The REDCAT Theatre.
Other ensembles he recorded and composed for include - The Other Three (Kim Richmond, John Fumo), Obliteration Quartet (Found objects for percussionists), and duo CDs with Vinny Golia and Jasper Dutz, Jeff Kaiser -cds with percussionists Ron Coulter, Dr. Rich Macdonald and Chris Wabich (featuring Ben Wendel, Alex Acuna & Emil Richards). Also two duo recordings with guitarist John Stowell.
As an educator, he was on the percussion faculty at Cal State Long Beach between 1997-2020. He has conducted hundreds of clinics at colleges and high schools on a variety of topics and in 1995 was featured on four video lessons (“‘Have Fun Playing Percussion) teaching newcomers about hand percussion for Warner Bros. He also has two lessons available for download on
https://www.mymusicmasterclass.com/premiumvideos/brad- dutz-blending-electronic-acoustic-percussionmasterclass/
Dutz was selected on twelve different years to perform and present at the International Convention for the Percussive Arts Society. He also taught World Music and Composition to children ages 9-11 for the Pasadena Conservatory of Music 2016- 2020. For four years Brad wrote a monthly column for Drum Magazine on hand percussion and he has written four books full of his compositions: Manipulations In Sound And Time, Practicing Music on Hand Percussion, and Percussion Pieces For Duos, Trios and Quartets, and Duets with WABICH.
He has done master classes, lectures and concerts featuring his composition at many schools including Cal Arts, NIU, OSU, SOU, SUU, Winona State in MN, Cal State LA, Indiana University, UNT, Weber College, USC, UCLA, EIU, ISU, U of I, Pierce College, Brigham Young, and many others.
He has recorded OVER 500 albums as a sideman for a variety of artists including Scott Henderson, Steve Smith, Phil Woods, Carl Saunders, Alanis Morrissette, Kim Richmond, Willie Nelson, Bear McCreary, Bill Cunliffe, Bevan Manson, Scott Kinsey, Kat Edmonson, Kiss, David Benoit, Phil Norman, Grant Geissman, Jeff Berlin, Scott Whitfield, Dennis Dreith, Leo Kottke, Rickie Lee Jones, Michael Wolff, Mark Masters, Steve Owen, Nels Cline and many others. In 2023 he completed a brand new series PERCUSSION RANCH available on YouTube.
Samuel Rhoton has enjoyed a diverse career as a chamber musician, educator, orchestral musician, and administrator. Originally from Salem Oregon, he has toured internationally in Latin America and across the United States. In 2023, Samuel was appointed principal bassoon of the Portland Opera in Portland Oregon, and second bassoon of the Oregon Ballet Theater in 2024, and in 2024 he also taught at the East Winds Band Camp along with fellow faculty member, Victoria Racz! He also had his first experience playing principal bassoon with the Portland Festival Symphony where Victoria has played principal oboe since 2011. Sam’s passions center around expanding accessibility to classical music and bassoon through community outreach and education.
In 2017, he served as Associate Principal Bassoon with the National Youth Orchestra of America as they toured Latin America under the direction of Maestra Marin Alsop. The tour began with a performance in Carnegie Hall and with subsequent appearances in Guadalajara, Mexico, Quito, Ecuador, and Bogotá, Colombia. Memorable performances as rotating principal in the Shepherd School of Music’s Symphony and Chamber orchestras, as well as guest performances with the Houston Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Oregon Ballet Theater, Portland Chamber Orchestra, Corvallis Symphony, The Aquillon Festival, and The Opera in the Heights.
Samuel has participated in the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbra California, the Marrowstone Music Festival in Bellingham, Washington, and the Brevard Music Center in Brevard, North Carolina. Sam has soloed with the Tualatin Valley Symphony and the Oregon ProArte Chamber Orchestra playing the Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra by Carl Maria von Weber. While at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, he enjoyed his performances with his wind quintet, Diatomaceous. The ensemble has presented a wide range of works, including Elliot Carter’s Quintet, Jean Francaix’s Quintet No. 2, and Jean-Michel Damase’s 17 Variations for Wind Quintet.
As an educator, Samuel serves as an adjunct professor of bassoon at George Fox, Linfield, and Pacific Universities. He served as the Teacher’s Assistant to Kathleen McLean while studying at Indiana University in 2021. He designed and taught a sixteen-week intensive course centered around teaching reed making. In the summer of 2019, Samuel served as a bassoon faculty member at the Young Musicians and Artists Festival in Salem Oregon. Samuel’s private students have gone on to be accepted and attend institutions such as the Eastman School of Music, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Juilliard School.
Samuel is a graduate of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. He studied under the tutelage of the Lynette S. Autrey Professor of Bassoon, Benjamin Kamins. Before Rice, Sam studied with William Ludwig, Kathleen McLean, and Carin Miller. He has also extensively studied with the incomparable Ann Kosanovic-Brown, the first female bassoonist to play with the Berlin Philharmonic.
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Ann Crandall began her bassoon career at age 12 in 7th grade band. Band, and then orchestra, was so much fun, she stayed with the bassoon in spite of reed and repair woes. After high school there was a B.A. and a B.Mus. at University of Washington, a seven year stint in Tucson Symphony, Arizona Opera, and the faculty of University of Arizona, then off to graduate school at SUNY Stony Brook. As a student of Arthur Weisberg, Ms. Crandall earned master's and doctorate degrees and won the Sunwood Performance Award.
Since moving to Vancouver, WA, Ms. Crandall has served on the faculties of Clark College, Willamette University and Portland State University, and has been a busy freelancer performing with all the major metro area ensembles while maintaining a private studio of bassoon students.
She was Principal Bassoon with Portland Opera and Portland Festival Symphony for many years, and continues to perform throughout the region, coaching double reeds at the Junior Symphony of Vancouver, and subbing with the Vancouver Master Chorale Orchestra.
She has been assisting with the Northwest Oboe Seminar since 2010 and retired in 2023! THANK YOU, Ann!! She is invited to return and play in our large ensembles anytime she wishes.
Pablo Izquierdo received a masters degree in performance from University of Victoria, B.C. He played for 20 years with the Portland Opera, and currently performs with the Portland Chamber Orchestra, Portland Festival Symphony, and the Walla Walla Symphony. He has studied oboe repair with Tom Hiniker, is an adjunct faculty member at Reed College, and has a private oboe studio in Beaverton.
He served as our repair tech from 2005 through to 2016, and usually joins us now in our large ensembles, sometimes serving as an emergency sub for small ensembles as well!
