Principal Clarinetist Gene Kavadlo joined the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra in 1975, after leaving his position as principal clarinetist with the Jacksonville Symphony in Jacksonville, Florida.

Gene received his Bachelor of Arts in Music Education from Queens College in New York and his Master of Music degree with High Distinction in Clarinet Performance from Indiana University. He was also awarded Performer’s Certificate for Outstanding Recital Performance.

Some of Gene’s special interests include spending time with his family, taking road trips, seeing movies, performing klezmer music, and installing commodes. His klezmer band, Viva Klezmer!, can be found on the Web at ww.vivaklezmer.com

First year with the CSO: 1975

Education: B.A. in Music Education from Queens College in NY, M.M. in Clarinet Performance from Indiana University, Clarinet Study at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France and Klezmer Music Study at KlezFest in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Favorite concert experience with the CSO: The performance of Beethoven's 9th with Polish Orchestra in Warsaw, Poland during CSO tour.

Hobbies: Performing Klezmer music with my 2 ensembles, Viva Klezmer and Simkhe; movies in theaters; eating world class hot pastrami sandwiches.

Favorite thing about Charlotte: The temperate climate with a change of seasons. The city is small enough to meet people you know when going out, but big enough to be interesting. Enjoying the company of friends.

Drucilla DeVan

Drucilla DeVan joined the Charlotte Symphony in 1985. While receiving her Bachelor of Music degree from Georgia State University in Atlanta, Dru studied with Alan Balter, the principal clarinetist of the Atlanta Symphony. Afterward, she studied in Belgium with the prominent European clarinetist, Walter Boeykens, and received a Diplome D’Honneur in chamber music from the International Academy of Music in Nice, France.

Before joining the Charlotte Symphony, Dru served as regular extra clarinet for the Atlanta Symphony, principal clarinetist for the Atlanta Lyric Opera, and as a member and soloist for the Savannah Symphony. She also taught clarinet at several institutions including Davidson College, Queens University and Community School of the Arts.

Currently, Dru is also a member of a reed trio called TreVent, which performs regularly in the Charlotte area. The group has also recorded a CD of previously unrecorded reed trio music, offering fans the opportunity to hear music by French composers of the twentieth century.

In her spare time, Dru enjoys swimming and fishing off the North Carolina coast, crossword puzzles, bicycle riding, and golfing. She also teaches private clarinet lessons.

Allan Rosenfeld

Allan Rosenfeld began playing the clarinet as a seventh grader in the Michigan public school system, furthering his studies as a high school student at the Interlochen Arts Academy. He went on to receive a B.A. from Amherst College and a Master of Music from the University of Michigan. His principal teachers have been Fred Ormand, Michael Sussman, Frank Kowalsky, and bass clarinetist Lawrie Bloom of the Chicago Symphony.

In 1986 Allan was appointed clarinetist and bass clarinetist in the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. He has been featured as a concerto soloist with the Charlotte Symphony and orchestras in Massachusetts and Michigan, as well as a soloist and chamber musician in concerts throughout the region. He regularly performs in the Rhodora Quintet and enjoys sharing his love of the instrument with his students.

Allan has performed in numerous summer music festivals, including those of Aspen, Bowdoin, Sarasota, Yale at Norfolk, and Graz, Austria. He also has served as Principal Clarinet of the National Repertory Orchestra in Colorado under their national fellowship program.

In his leisure time Allan heads to the local mountains for hiking and backpacking. A yearning for adventure combined with rock and ice climbing experience has led to technical alpine ascents in the western U.S. and Bolivia, and a dog sledding expedition in Alaska.  He also enjoys tennis, photography, reading classic mountaineering tales, and endlessly tossing tennis balls for his Shetland Sheepdog, Kippen, to herd.

meet the musicians - BASSOON

Mary Beth Griglak

Mary Beth (Betsy) Griglak, principal bassoon, earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music and is a winner of ESM's Performers Certificate. While attending Yale University as a graduate assistant and performing with the New Haven Symphony, she was appointed Principal Bassoon with the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Costa Rica.

After joining the Charlotte Symphony, she competed and was a semifinalist in the International Bassoon Competition in Toulon, France. Betsy has performed as soloist with the American Wind Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, and the OSN of Costa Rica, as well as numerous appearances with the CSO. She has been a faculty member of Winthrop University and Davidson College, has taught privately for many years, and is active in the local chamber music scene.

Bassoonist Lori Tiberio was born and raised just outside of Pittsburgh and began her artistic life with tap and ballet lessons at the tender age of two. She credits those early lessons with giving her a sense of rhythm and love of music. She began piano lessons at the age of six and the guitar in the 7th grade. Her father was self-taught on the guitar and piano and Lori received much encouragement from her family in her musical studies. Lori went to Catholic schools through the 8th grade and sang in school chorus. In 9th grade, Lori transferred to public school and started to play in the band. She had begun studying the clarinet and saxophone the previous year, but dropped the clarinet in order to concentrate on the saxophone, which was her first love. She played lead alto sax in jazz band throughout high school and college.

The bassoon in high school was a secondary interest, as her concert band needed a bassoonist and Lori agreed to give it a try. In 11th grade Lori took private bassoon lessons with a music student at Duquesne University, as she realized this would help her get into music school. Bassoon became her major at Carnegie-Mellon because she had received a scholarship to study the bassoon (Her first love was still the saxophone). Lori's bassoon teacher at Carnegie-Mellon was Arthur Kubey, principal bassoonist with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Under Kubey's inspiring tutelage, Lori fell in love with the bassoon and symphonic music. In her sophomore year, she quit the sax to concentrate on the bassoon. Lori holds  BFA and BME degrees from Carnegie-Mellon and taught counterpoint and composition for one year at Butler HS in Pennsylvania after graduating.

Lori has been with the Charlotte Symphony for close to 25 years and her duties include playing the bassoon and the contrabassoon. She learned to play the contrabassoon "on the job" and plays on an instrument purchased by the Charlotte Symphony Women's Association (now the "guild").  She teaches at UNCC, coaches the wind section of the CSO Youth Symphony, runs the Providence Chamber Music series and maintains a studio of private students. She is very proud of the fact that her students always excel in competition, having earned 1st and/or second chair positions in all ALL State categories since 1994. Lori's favorite pastimes (when away from the bassoon) include gardening, birding, cooking, camping and spending time with her beloved dog, Bucks. She is also a member of Reid's wine club.

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Founded in 1932, the Charlotte Symphony aspires to serve the whole community through Classical music that educates, entertains and enriches the human spirit. Read more