Julia Gabaldon, 52, oboist and consultant
As the principal oboist for local symphony orchestras, Julia Gabaldon spent years entertaining concertgoers, and as a last request, asked that a memorial concert be held after her death, ensuring that friends and family would be entertained with the music she was passionate about.
``She was adamant about having a concert and having something that people can enjoy," said Katherine Evans, a friend of Ms. Gabaldon's for more than 13 years who had performed with her in various orchestras. ``She just wanted people to come together and have a good time."
Ms. Gabaldon, a musician who was also a local and international emergency preparedness consultant, died Aug. 15 of breast cancer at her home in Cambridge. She was 52.
Ms. Gabaldon was born into a musical family in Arlington, Va., and was raised in McLean, Va. Her father played the trombone, her grandmother was a concert pianist in England, and her aunt had played piano for silent movies, said Thomas Kaplan-Maxfield, Ms. Gabaldon's friend of more than 30 years.
Surrounded by musicians, her interest in music began early and was at times disruptive.
``She said she must have been about 3 or 4 and she had been learning show tunes," Kaplan-Maxfield said. ``She used to start singing them out loud in church, and her father would have to drag her out."
During the seventh grade, Ms. Gabaldon studied the oboe, because she did not want to play the same instruments her classmates were choosing, an early sign of her ``strong, contrary nature," Kaplan-Maxfield said. She continued studying the instrument through high school and beyond.
After she graduated from Langley High School in Virginia in 1972, Ms. Gabaldon moved to Boston after she was awarded a scholarship to attend the New England Conservatory of Music, Kaplan-Maxfield said. At the conservatory, she studied with Ralph Gomberg, the former principal oboist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
When she finished her studies at the conservatory, Ms. Gabaldon traveled to Mexico, where she briefly performed with an orchestra accompanying an opera, friends said. She returned to Boston and started playing for local symphonies, including the Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra, during the 1970s. She also played with orchestras at the Lowell House Opera at Harvard University and with the Harvard Brahms Society Orchestra. She performed as principal oboist for the Brookline Symphony and the North Shore Philharmonic Orchestra.
While playing with the North Shore Philharmonic Orchestra, Ms. Gabaldon experienced a highlight of her musical career when she performed an oboe solo in Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, Kaplan-Maxfield said.
``When some people think of the oboe, they think of this nasally sounding, thin thing, but her sound was really round and really full; it was just really lovely and mellifluous," Evans said. ``What I valued most about her, in addition to her playing, was how much she enjoyed it. She enjoyed music all the time."
Ms. Gabaldon earned her bachelor's degree in music from the University of Massachusetts at Boston in 1984 and later worked toward earning her master's degree in musicology from Tufts University.
When performing wasn't paying enough, Ms. Gabaldon decided to share her abilities with others and eventually became an oboe instructor at UMass-Boston, where she worked for about 10 years.
In 1988, Ms. Gabaldon became a project manager for Abt Associates in Cambridge, which propelled her to working in emergency preparedness for the state, Kaplan-Maxfield said. In 1991, she began working for
Ms. Gabaldon also served as emergency preparedness coordinator for Massachusetts General Hospital for two years, and she served as director of emergency preparedness for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for more than a year.
``She was super organized . . . and clearheaded," Kaplan-Maxfield said. ``One of the things I always felt with her was a delicate sensibility combined with forthright frankness. She was always known for getting things done and getting them done in a thorough way."
Ms. Gabaldon lived in Somerville and Dorchester before moving to Cambridge six years ago.
Her work with emergency preparedness gave her the opportunity to travel to various places including South America, but Ms. Gabaldon most enjoyed the beaches of Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, which she frequently visited, said her niece, Michelle Anders of Boston. She also enjoyed the opera and visiting New York to attend shows at the Metropolitan Opera.
In addition to her niece, Ms. Gabaldon leaves her mother, Joyce of Great Falls, Va.; two brothers, David and Richard, both of Maryland; and a sister, Linda Garrett of Potomac, Md.
Her memorial concert will be held Oct. 29 at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge.
