Garrett likes to spend his spare time with his family, traveling, fishing, and watching movies.
D R . SA LVA D O R B R OTO N S
Music Director & Conductor
MARGARET McSHEA
Principal bassoon
Now in his 27th season leading The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra as Music Director and Conductor, musicians and classical music enthusiasts still delight in having Dr. Brotons lead them.
When not playing music and working as a law firm administrator, she’s in the great outdoors, gardening or camping and hiking with family and friends.
DOUGLAS PEEBLES
Principal bass trombone Born and raised in Portland, Douglas came from a musical family, playing piano from the first grade through his senior year at David Douglas High School in SE Portland. He started playing trombone in the fourth grade and in three years was performing in a local dance band, The United Attractions, with his brother, which helped propel his development as a professional musician and entertainer. After attending college at the University of Nevada-Reno and playing bass trombone in the Reno area, he returned to Portland. Douglas has performed with the Oregon Symphony and the Carlton Jackson-Dave Mills Big Band, and has played with the Woody Hite Big Band for over 25 years. Other appearances have been with Woody Herman’s Thundering Herd, Peggy Fleming, the Manhattan Transfer, Johnny Mathis, Natalie Cole and Don Rickles. He was also the drummer with the Cowboy/Jazz group Los Cowtones. Currently, his day job is driving a semi-truck for ABC Transfer and Delivery.
DIETER RATZLAF
Principal cello
Portland cellist Dieter Ratzlaf grew up in a musical family. He began cello studies at the age of seven and performed with the Portland Youth Philharmonic for six years, touring Europe with the orchestra in 1989. Dieter completed his undergraduate studies in Economics and German at Willamette University on a music scholarship. He went on to receive his Master of Arts in Cello Performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, also on scholarship, where he was a student of Bonnie Hampton. He has appeared with multiple arts organizations in the Pacific Northwest including the Oregon Symphony, Eugene Symphony, Portland Opera Orchestra (18 seasons) and the Oregon Ballet Theater Orchestra (10 seasons). Dieter was appointed principal cello of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in 2005 and the Hood River Philharmonic in 2012, positions he currently still holds. In addition to his performance commitments, Dieter is in demand as a teacher, adjudicator, and studio artist.
Salvador Brotons was born in Barcelona into a family of musicians. He studied flute with his father and continued his musical studies at the Barcelona Music Conservatory where he earned advanced degrees in flute, composition and conducting. In 1985 he won a Fulbright scholarship and moved to the U.S. where he obtained a doctorate in music from Florida State University. As a composer, he has written more than 140 pieces, mostly orchestral and chamber works, and has won major composition awards, including the “Premio Orquesta Nacional de España” (1977), for his Cuatro Piezas para Cuerdas, the prize “Jove d’Or” (1980), the “Premio Ciutat de Barcelona” (in 1983 for his first symphony, and in 1986 for his piece Absències for narrator and orchestra), “SoutheasternComposers League Award” for his Sinfonietta da Camera (1986) “The Madison University Flute Choir Composition Award” (1987) for his Flute Suite and the “Premio Reina Sofia de Composición” (1991) for his piece Virtus for orchestra. He has also received many commissions. Many of his works have been published and recorded on several CDs in Europe and in the U.S. for labels such as Naxos, EMI, Auvidis, Naxos, Albany Records, Keys, Harmonia Mundi and RNE. Currently he combines a busy schedule as a conductor and composer of a number of commissions of various genres. Since 2001 he has been a professor of composition and orchestra conducting at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC). In Spain he has been the music director and conductor of the Orquestra Simfònica de les Illes Balears “Ciutat de Palma” (1997-2001, 2009-2013) and the Orquestra Sinfónica del Vallés (1997-2002), and is presently the conductor of the Barcelona Symphonic Band. In 2005, he received the “Arts Council” award by the Clark County and the city of Vancouver and the Kiwanis Rose Award. He has guest-conducted orchestras internationally in countries like the US, Israel, France, Germany, China, Poland, South Korea, Mexico, Uruguay, Colombia, as well as the most prestigious Spanish orchestras. Dr. Brotons resides in Barcelona with his wife, Dr. Melissa Brotons, renowned music therapist and Director of the inter-university Master’s in Music Therapy in Barcelona. Their daughter, Clara, is a recent graduate of New York University.
W W W.V A N C O U V E R S Y M P H O N Y. O R G
Margaret has been The VSO’s principal bassoon since 1995, and performs with other regional symphonies, including Columbia Symphony and Portland Festival Symphony. A well-rounded musician, Margaret also plays the piano and banjo and had “a brief dalliance with the alto sax in junior high,” but feels the bassoon is the right fit for her, which is good for us.
Photo Credit: Paul Quackenbush Photography
Margaret hails from Texas, where she received a bassoon performance degree from the University of Texas in Austin. She and her trombonist husband, Greg Scholl, moved to the Pacific Northwest and are never moving again!
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