Meet the Musicians: Stefan Farkas

By Leilani Polk

For Seattle Symphony English Horn and Oboe Stefan Farkas, music wasn’t initially a calling but a condition of childhood. “My mom believed every child should get a musical education,” he recalled. The Long Island-born-and-raised musician started on piano, switching gears to saxophone in fourth grade. From there, his passion for woodwinds blossomed. He added the clarinet, and by middle school, the oboe had also entered the mix. He spent a few years juggling all three, but his teacher suggested that if he wanted to achieve excellence, he’d have to pick one and run with it. By high school, he’d narrowed his focus to oboe, thanks in part to its rarity and demand in school orchestras. 

It was through the oboe that he met its larger, deeper-voiced cousin, the English horn. “All oboists eventually play it,” he explained, “but for me, it felt natural right away.” The English horn’s more relaxed airflow and broader tone gave him a greater sense of expressive freedom and a greater ease of playing.  

He spent his first few years as an undergraduate at Indiana University, transferring to Manhattan School of Music and then freelancing for a year in New York City before getting his master’s at Julliard. Freelancing offered diverse experiences — from subbing with orchestras like the New York Philharmonic to playing live in Broadway shows — but the long-term goal was a full-time orchestra job. And when he was auditioning for orchestras, he noticed he was having more success with English horn than oboe. Specializing in English horn was not only a musical fit but a smart career move, and he landed his first major position as Principal English Horn of the Houston Symphony. A few years later, he took an audition with the Seattle Symphony and won. He started here in 2006.  

He performs both English horn and oboe, depending on the orchestra’s needs in any given program. “I still feel like an oboist,” he says, “but the English horn is my specialty.” 

He’ll be on English horn when he shares the solo spotlight with Principal Trumpet David Gordon in Aaron Copland’s Quiet City, which opens two Seattle Symphony concerts featuring Steven Mackey’s new Anemology: Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra, and John Adams’ Harmonierele (November 20 & 22). Stefan has performed Quiet City a few times, with his first performance outdoors in the Hamptons with composer and conductor Lukas Foss on the podium. “I was pretty young at that point and it was really exciting to be featured in that way.” 

Outside of music, his life is rooted in Whittier Heights, a high-walk-scoring neighborhood in Ballard where he and his family take full advantage of their easy access to local amenities, which includes strolling to the nearby Preserve and Gather café for a coffee and pastry or places like Atulea to satisfy his younger son’s current culinary obsession: boba tea.  

As he looks to the rest of the season ahead with new Music Director Xian Zhang, he’s filled with optimism. “She brings an incredible wellspring of energy and vision. She just seems so excited to work with us, to see what we can do, and we’re all excited to see where this relationship takes us musically. I’ve got a really good feeling about it.”