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TBF Orchestra 2026
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.
Elizabeth Brown, archlute, guitar
A specialist in standard classical guitar as well as various early guitars and lutes, Elizabeth C. D. Brown is a very active performer in the United States. Highlights from recent seasons include performing at the Music by Women Festival and Northwest Guitar Festival, performing concertos by Vivaldi and Sierra and premiering a new work for guitar and orchestra with the Seattle Symphony. She has performed with numerous choirs, including Choral Arts Northwest, Seattle Pro Musica, Seattle Peace Choir, Seattle Bach Choir, Skagit Valley Chorale; and PLU’s Choral Union and Choir of the West. Elizabeth's first solo recording, La Folia de España: Dances for Guitar, features works for baroque, 19th century, and modern guitars, and has been praised for its "...apparently effortless ease." (Lute News, UK) Her second solo recording, In Her Honor, includes music from the Princess [Queen] Anne Guitarbook and the Elisabeth of Hesse Lutebook, as well as her own arrangements of works by Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre. An enthusiastic advocate for the guitar and lute, Elizabeth has given numerous outreach performances at schools, senior centers, and community centers for the Seattle Classic Guitar Society and Early Music Seattle, as well as by arrangement while on tour. She is head of the Guitar and Lute program at Pacific Lutheran University and has taught at Cornish College of the Arts and Seattle Pacific University. See her on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/ElizabethCDBrown or for more information visit: www.elizabethcdbrown.com
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, 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.
Mary Manning, baroque violin
Mary Manning is longtime principal and section violinist with Northwest Sinfonietta, and an active freelancer in orchestral, operatic, chamber, and baroque ensembles throughout the Northwest. She has served as Lecturer at Pacific Lutheran University and was a member of the faculty string quartet. She has coached for many youth symphonies, summer camps, and maintains an active private teaching studio. Her extensive work as a baroque orchestral musician has included membership in the Seattle, Portland, and Pacific Baroque Orchestras, Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, and the Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra. Mary is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory where she studied both modern and baroque violin performance with Marilyn McDonald. More unusual gigs have included appearing in a Folgers coffee commercial, recording a soundtrack for a silent movie, and performing atop the Great Wall of China. Beyond music Mary is active in local environmental causes, community activism, and stewarding a small forest at her home.
Byron Rakitzis, baroque viola
Byron Rakitzis is a Seattle-based violinist and violist active in the region's early music community. Before his life as a string player, he was a baroque flutist and bassoonist playing in period instrument ensembles across North America: American Bach Soloists, Handel and Haydn Society, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, among others. During his studies in Utrecht and The Hague he became convinced he
wanted to be a multi-instrumentalist, in no small part because composers like Telemann and Quantz were known to play every instrument. He is a co-founder of the Seattle Bach Festival, where he performs
in the orchestra.
Cyrus Roat, baroque bassoon, dulcian
Since relocating to Seattle from the Midwest in 2014, Cyrus has appeared regularly on both modern and historical bassoons. He performs with the North Corner Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Rock Orchestra, Federal Way Symphony, and other local ensembles. Cyrus completed his Master of Music at Indiana University and his Bachelor of Music at University of Wisconsin - Madison. Primary teachers include Kathleen McLean, Michael McCraw, Martin Kuuskmann, Bill Ludwig, and Marc Vallon.
Adam Shapiro, baroque oboe
A seasoned performer on modern as well as baroque oboe, Adam Shapiro he has performed with the Seattle Symphony, and New Jersey Symphony orchestras, as well as with the American Bach Soloists. Adam is also a member of the Seattle 5th Avenue and Village Theater pit orchestras. Adam earned his DMA in Performance Practice from Rutgers University. As a teacher, Adam has been a lecturer at the University of Washington and maintains an active private studio. He is a frequent clinician in the US and Europe and has conducted residencies at UNLV, U of I Champaign Urbana, University of Kansas, and Cambridge University UK. He studied with Ray Still, Grover Schiltz, Ronald Roseman and Stephen Hammer.
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.