Straka, Paul

French horn and Wagner tuba player who attended Indiana University and studied with Frank Brouk, Phillip Farkas and Philip Myers.

On 18^th March 1981, he and fellow horn players Mary De Groff, Laura McCullough and Elizabeth Smith gave the world premiere of “Liu Xiang” by Ka Nin Chan at the University of Indiana.

He went on a tour of the United States with the Israel Philharmonic in 1982. Other groups with whom he has worked include the Britt Festival Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, the Halama Wind Octet, the Minnesota Bach Ensemble, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Minnesota Youth Symphony, the Orchestra of the Plymouth Music Series, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of Radio Italy and the Twin Cities Horn Sound.

On 3^rd May 1992, he and trumpeter Lynn Erickson, organist James Frazier, trombonists David Herring and Steven Lund, percussionist Jay Johnson and horn player Caroline Lemen accompanied the Dale Warland Singers, tenor Timothy McGlynn and altos Patricia Thompson and Sandra Walden in the world premiere of “Visions from Hildegard Part Two” by Stephen Paulus.

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra offered up an all-Baroque program in Benson Great Hall at Bethel College on 26^th January 2000 that included Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 6” and Antonio Vivaldi’s “Concerto in D minor” (“Madrigalesco”) and “Flute Concerto in G minor” (“La Notte”).

In 2007, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra interpreted Anton Bruckner’s “Symphony No. 7” at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois.

The Minnesota Orchestra appeared at Lincoln Center in New York in 2008 when they performed Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony No. 1”.

On 17^th January 2009, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra participated in the International Chamber Orchestra Festival where they presented Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Emperor” piano concerto, with Pierre-Laurant Aimard at the keys.

Paul reunited with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival for a wall-to-wall Wagner concert in June 2010.

On 26^th March 2011, he and flautist Alicia McQuerrey, clarinetist Timothy Paradise, oboist Thomas Tempel and bassoonist Charles Ullery interpreted Irving Fine’s “Partita for Wind Quintet” at the Capri Theater in North Minneapolis.

He and trumpeters Gary Bordner and Dan Fretland, tuba player Steven Campbell, trombonist Jeff Merriman and organist Aaron David Miller opened the Easter Sunday proceedings at the House of Hope Presbyterian Church with “Grand Choeur Dialogue” by Eugene Gigout and “Nimrod” from the “Enigma Variations” by Sir Edward Elgar on 31^st March 2013.

Recordings on which he appears include: A Christmas Prayer by James Kellerman; Dance Like the Wind: Music of Today’s Black Composers by Philip Brunelle; Daniel S. Godfrey: Wrinkled Moon with members of the SPCO; Motown Comes Home; Provocative by Johnny Gill; Winter Morning Walks with Maria Schneider, SPCO and Dawn Upshaw; Witness Collection by the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers; and Witness, Vol. III: Towards the Future with the Chorus and Orchestra of the Plymouth Music Series of Minnesota and the Ensemble Singers.

Sources:

Straka, Paul

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