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TBF Orchestra 2025
The TBF Orchestra is comprised of some of the finest early-music players in the Pacific Northwest. Its members include players from the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Pacific MusicWorks, and the Portland Baroque Orchestra and they have played at some of the leading early-music festivals around the world.
Christine Wilkinson Beckman, baroque violin​
Christine Wilkinson Beckman is a baroque violin specialist based in Olympia, WA. She enjoys performing throughout her native Northwest with early music ensembles large and small. She appears regularly with the Portland Baroque Orchestra, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, and the Oregon Bach Festival and has performed with Bach Collegium San Diego, Pacific MusicWorks, and the Seattle Baroque Orchestra where she served as principal second violin from 2020 to 2024. From 2015 to 2017 she directed the New Baroque Orchestra, one of the Community Collegia of the Early Music Guild of Seattle. Christine began her studies on baroque violin with Ingrid Matthews, and she graduated in 2013 with an MA from the Historical Performance Practices program at Case Western Reserve University where she studied with Julie Andrijeski. She has also participated in masterclasses with Marc Destrubé, Monica Huggett, and Cynthia Roberts. Christine’s modern performance studies began with Barbara Riley, and she received a BM in Violin Performance from St. Olaf College where she studied with Charles Gray. She has also studied with Walter Schwede and Grant Donnellan. In addition to performing, Christine maintains a busy Suzuki violin and viola studio in Olympia where she enjoys fostering compassionate hearts and a love of music and diligent work in her young students. Her Suzuki teacher training has been with Elizabeth Stuen-Walker, Dr. Susan Baer, Cathryn Lee, and Fernando Piñero.
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Darlene Franz, baroque oboe
Dr. Darlene Franz enjoys an active freelance career, appearing as a soloist, chamber music collaborator, and orchestral musician throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond. She is a sought-after performer on both modern and historical oboes, and has played with Seattle Baroque, Seattle Pro Musica, the Northwest Sinfonietta, Pacific Baroque Orchestra (Vancouver, B. C.), California Bach Society, and the Seattle Bach Choir among many other groups. In 2018 she gave the West Coast premiere of Joseph Pollard White’s Concerto for oboe d’amore and orchestra with the Thalia Symphony. Recent engagements include oboe soloist for Musical Prayer and Taizé services at St. James Cathedral, and as English hornist for The Passion of St. Thomas More, a chamber opera by Garrett Fisher, at Texas A&M University. Dr. Franz studied oboe with Rebecca Henderson, Alex Klein, and Robert Hubbard. Additional studies with John Mack and Margriet Tindemans profoundly influenced her musical development.
Ross Gilliland, bass, violone
Ross Gilliland performs regularly on modern and baroque bass and violone throughout the pacific northwest. He performs locally with period ensembled including the Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Sound Salon (formerly Byron Schenkman & Friends), the Whidbey Island Music Festival, Epiphany Parish, Tacoma Bach Festival, and Seattle Bach Choir. He also performs regularly on modern bass with numerous ensembles including the North Corner Chamber Orchestra (NOCCO), Seattle Modern Orchestra, Emerald City Music, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Auburn Symphony, Seattle Chamber Orchestra, and the Seattle ‘Candlelight Concert’ series. He is also active freelancing in theater and studio sessions, recording soundtracks for feature films, pop, bluegrass, video games, and other ‘attractions’. A Madison, WI native, Ross has been a long-time and continuing performer with the Madison Bach Musicians, the Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, collaborating closely with famed composer and Bach interpreter John Harbison, the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society. He has been a featured soloist with Seattle's Mostly Nordic concert series and live on Wisconsin Public Radio. Mr. Gilliland holds degrees in music performance, physics, and environmental policy.
Laura Kramer, baroque cello
​Laura Kramer has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician on baroque and modern cello. She has performed as continuo and solo cellist with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, NYS Baroque, the Grande Bande and Glimmerglass Opera. Laura also performs with many choral groups in the Seattle area, including Seattle Bach Choir, Mirinesse Women's Choir, Bellevue Chamber Chorus and Vespertine Opera.
Kris Kwapis, baroque trumpet
​Kris Kwapis appears regularly as soloist and principal trumpet with period-instrument ensembles across North America, including Portland Baroque Orchestra, Early Music Vancouver, Tafelmusik, Boston Baroque, Bach Collegium San Diego, Oregon Bach Festival/Berwick Academy, Staunton Music Festival, and Seattle Bach Festival, among others, making music with directors such as Andrew Parrott, Monica Huggett, Alexander Weimann, Barthold Kuijken, Matthew Halls, Jacques Ogg, and Masaaki Suzuki. Her playing is heard on Kleos, Naxos, ReZound, Lyrichord, Musica Omnia and Dorian labels, including the 2013 GRAMMY nominated recording of Handel’s Israel in Egypt, and broadcast on CBC, WNYC, WQED (Pittsburgh), Portland All-Classical (KQAC), Sunday Baroque and Wisconsin Public Radio. A student of Armando Ghitalla on modern trumpet, with a BM and MM in trumpet performance from the University of Michigan, Dr. Kwapis also holds a DMA in historical performance from Stony Brook University (NY), and enjoys sharing her passion with the next generation of performers as a faculty member at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music Historical Performance Institute (teaching cornetto and baroque trumpet) in addition to teaching at her home in Seattle and online. Aside from making music, Kris also creates visual art in the encaustic medium. www.kriskwapis.com.
Mary Manning, baroque violin
Mary Manning performs as a chamber musician, orchestral player, and soloist throughout the Puget Sound region. For over 20 years she served as Principal Second Violin of Northwest Sinfonietta, Tacoma and Vashon Opera Orchestras. She has been a member of several baroque orchestras and festivals performing on period instruments. She has recorded for Wildboar, Centaur, Virgin Veritas, and Reference Recordings. Mary began playing the violin in the 4th grade while attending the Tacoma public schools and in high school studied with University of Puget Sound professor Ed Seferian and Pacific Lutheran University professor Ann Tremaine. Her degree is from Oberlin Conservatory where she studied both modern and baroque violin with Marilyn McDonald. In masterclasses and auditions she has played for Monica Huggett, Elizabeth Wallfisch, Jascha Heifetz, and Dorothy Delay. Mary has been a private instructor for thirty years and coached chamber music at many camps and festivals. She taught violin at Pacific Lutheran University and was a member of the faculty string quartet from 2008-2019. She lives in Gig Harbor with her partner, John, an inventor and sometimes accordion player.
Anna Marsh, baroque bassoon
Anna Marsh, baroque bassoon is a multi-instrumentalist fluent in Renaissance, Baroque, Classical and Modern styles. Anna holds a doctorate of music in historical performance from Indiana University & has appeared worldwide with Opera Lafayette, Tempesta di Mare, Folger Consort, Musica Angelica, Tafelmusik, Washington Bach Consort and Atlanta Baroque among others. She has taught privately & at festivals at the Eastman School of Music, Los Angeles Music and Art School, Amherst Early Music, San Francisco Early Music Society, Hawaii Performing Arts Festival & Western Double Reed Workshops. She also has been heard on dozens of recordings & on Performance Today, Harmonia, CBC radio & recorded for Chandos, Analekta, Centaur, Naxos, the Super Bowl, Avie, and Musica Omnia's Grammy nominated album, Handel's Israel in Egypt.
Lindsey Strand-Polyak, baroque viola
Lindsey Strand-Polyak lives hyphenated life to go along with her hyphenated name: divided between viola and violin; living in Whidbey Island, WA and Santa Monica, CA. In California, she serves as Artistic Director of Los Angeles Baroque, Adjunct Professor of Baroque Violin at Claremont Graduate University, and Director of the San Francisco Early Music Society Baroque Workshop. In Washington, she is Principal Violist for Seattle Baroque Orchestra, and has performed with Pacific MusicWorks, Byron Schenkman & Friends, Salish Sea Early Music Festival and the Whidbey Island Music Festival. She has performed across the country in concert and festival appearances, including Musica Angelica, Baroque Music Montana, Bach Collegium San Diego, American Bach Soloists, Baroque Festival Corona del Mar, Oregon Bach Festival, and fringe concerts of Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals. In the non-baroque world, she has recorded for numerous film and TV scores, and performed with artists across the musical spectrum from Anne Akiko Meyers to Stevie Wonder. She holds a PhD/MM in Musicology and Violin performance from UCLA.
Paul Tegels, organ
Paul Tegels, a native of the Netherlands, is currently Director of Music at Christ Church Episcopal in Tacoma, where he plays a beautiful Brombaugh organ, and oversees an active music program. From 2002 until 2023 he was University Organist and first Assistant and later Associate Professor of Music at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Organ Performance and Pedagogy and his Master of Arts Degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Iowa, where he studied organ with Delores Bruch, and choral conducting with William Hatcher. Other degrees and awards include the Artist Diploma and the Master of Music Degree in organ performance from the New England Conservatory in Boston where he studied with Yuko Hayashi and William Porter. He is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship from the Netherlands-America Commission for Educational Exchange. He holds the teaching and performance degrees from the Stedelijk Conservatorium in Arnhem, The Netherlands, where he studied organ with Bert Matter and harpsichord with Cees Rosenhart Paul Tegels has performed extensively in solo and ensemble concerts in the United States, Europe, Japan, and New Zealand. He has performed at National Conventions of the Organ Historical Society, and has played some of the most significant organs in the US.