Meet the Musicians: Mary Lynch VanderKolk

By Leilani Polk

Since winning the Principal Oboe position and joining the Seattle Symphony in the 2014/2015 season, Mary Lynch VanderKolk has made a significant impact while experiencing some milestone moments in her career as a professional musician, from performing the world premiere Seattle Symphony Media recording of Marc-André Dalbavie’s Oboe Concerto, to giving the world premiere performance of Reena Esmail’s Re|Member during the 2021 Opening Night concert, to introducing her ongoing commissioning and performance project, Through Her Window, to Symphony audiences in the Octave 9 Series. 

“I consider it part art, part activism,” she says of Through Her Window. The title is a feminine twist on the quote by Lady Bird Johnson, “Art is a window to man’s soul,” with Mary’s project focused on the female perspective. “I wanted to start something that centered the voices of women, from different backgrounds and different time periods, and present their work with as much reverence as we tend to present the works of white men. I saw it as primarily a performance project, where I would perform recitals of these pieces as a window into the soul of the composers.” 

She started Through Her Window outside of the Symphony, spurred by feelings of frustration and powerlessness during the summer of 2020 and the political upheaval of that moment. For Mary, it was identifying how she could make a difference in her own small sphere of influence — classical music — and responding to those widely recognized issues within her own industry, namely, a lack of diversity in programming and creators.  

Mary says she was fortunate to get early support and funding, allowing her to commission new works to play in recital alongside those by little-known or rarely performed women composers. When she debuted Through Her Window in Octave 9: Raisbeck Music Center, she made the intentional decision to keep the focus on living composers. Those April 2024 concerts happened only a few days after a story was published alleging the sexual assault of a musician during her employment at a major East Coast orchestra, but Mary says the story was top of mind for many in attendance and “made it a much more meaningful and powerful experience for myself and the audience.”  

For her second Through Her Window program in the Octave 9 Series, “I really wanted to bring in a third musician. I love playing with [Principal Flute] Demarre [McGill], and there isn’t much repertoire for flute, oboe and piano, so I also wanted to expand the repertoire for these instruments.” She immediately thought of Valerie Coleman, a GRAMMY-nominated flutist (formerly of wind quintet Imani Winds) and a prolific composer with a wide-ranging catalog. “I didn’t believe, in my wildest dreams, that she would say yes but I reached out to her anyway. She responded within an hour.” 

Though not available personally, Valerie — who is on the Composition and Chamber Music faculty at Juilliard — floated the idea of assembling a team of her very best female-identifying student composers to each write a piece for the program. “I was so grateful, not only for her willingness to be involved but for her brilliant idea. It was so aligned with what I hoped to accomplish with Through Her Window, which was to elevate voices of women, and here I have three really unique composers, so different from each other: different backgrounds, upbringing, personal stories and overall musical aesthetics.” Mary will introduce audiences to these three emerging voices — Alyssa Mercedes Mena, Danae Venson and Elise Winkler — and premiere their works in Through Her Window on April 24, with Mary and Demarre joined by pianist Jieun Kim. You can also catch Mary in the next Chamber Series program on April 10, performing in the Ruth Gipps Quintet.  

Principal Oboe Mary Lynch VanderKolk’s position is generously supported by anonymous donors.