Strobe is an award-winning oboe quartet, founded in 2016 by oboist Laura Griffiths and cellist Krisanthy Desby. They have received grants from Chamber Music America, InterMusicSF, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for their work in commissioning new music for an oboe quartet. They have worked with four composers, adding six new works to the repertoire, and bringing neglected oboe quartets back into the canon. A grant from InterMusicSF helped produce a CD of the commissioned works. Strobe has performed on Noontime Concerts and other music series throughout the Bay Area, as well as for the San Francisco Symphony League, senior living centers, schools, and at San Quentin Prison.

Laura Griffiths is Principal Oboe of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and Professor of Oboe at San Jose State University. In demand as an orchestral musician, she has been Principal Oboe of the Cleveland Orchestra and the Rochester Philharmonic, and Acting Principal Oboe of the San Francisco Opera. She has also served as guest Principal Oboe with several orchestras, including the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Boston Symphony. She is active as a chamber musician with Strobe and other ensembles during the year, as well as summers at Midsummer Mozart Festival, Music in the Mountains, and the Britt Festival.

Laura Keller was born and raised in Honolulu, beginning violin studies at age 3 with protégés of Shinichi Suzuki. Her first solo performance was with the Honolulu Symphony at age 12, when she won the HSO’s concerto competition. She continued her studies with Miriam Fried at New England Conservatory, where she received her Bachelor of Music degree, and a Master of Music from Yale University, studying with Ani Kavafian. She has participated in Music@Menlo and the Aspen Music Festival. She is a member of the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and performs frequently with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony.

Elizabeth Prior is Principal Viola of the Santa Rosa Symphony, Associate Principal Viola of the Marin Symphony, and a member of New Century Chamber Orchestra.  She plays regularly with the San Francisco Ballet and Opera orchestras.  Before coming to the US, she played with the Cape Town Symphony in her native South Africa, and worked in Germany with the Basel Symphony and the Freiburg Philharmonic, where she was Associate Principal Viola. She founded the Broderick Ensemble and the Farralon Quintet, and organized the Devon House Garden Concert chamber music series during the COVID lockdown.  She has performed at the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival, Midsummer Mozart Festival, and the Sun Valley Summer Symphony.  Her new album, Viola Romance with pianist Miles Graber, can be found on Spotify and Apple Music.

Krisanthy Desby has performed in orchestras and chamber ensembles in the US, Europe, India, Mexico, and South Africa. She was Associate Principal Cello of both the Napa Valley Symphony and the Santa Cruz Symphony, and coached strings at University High School and the San Domenico School. Before coming to San Francisco, she played with the Houston Symphony, the Houston Ballet and the Houston Grand Opera orchestras, and was a member of the Tucson Symphony. She has performed with the Mendocino Music Festival, the Neuberg Kultertäge in Austria, and the Scotia Festival in Canada, and is a member of the Grand Teton Music Festival and the Midsummer Mozart Festival. She holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Music from the Shepherd School at Rice University.

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) – Phantasy Quartet. Benjamin Britten is one of the best-known British composers of the 20th century. He composed operas, symphonic pieces, chamber music, and a great deal of vocal music. While a student at the Royal College of Music, he wrote the Phantasy Quartet as his submission for the Cobbett Phantasy Prize. It has become, with Mozart’s Oboe Quartet, one of the anchors of oboe quartet repertoire across two and a half centuries.

Alexis Alrich – Water Colors: Ruby Rapids Alexis Alrich began learning piano and composition at a young age. She studied at Mills College, where she received a Master’s Degree in Composition, studying with Lou Harrison. She has been Composer-in-Residence for the San Francisco Choral Artists and founded the John Adams Young Composers Program at the Crowden School. Her Marimba Concerto was performed and recorded by famed percussionist Evelyn Glennie for Naxos Records. Ruby Rapids is part of her 4-movement piece Water Colors. The work depicts the bodies of water near her home, and references the synesthesia which causes her to see colors when she hears certain notes, as well as her own work as a watercolor artist.

Lennox Berkeley (1903-1989) – Oboe Quartet. Sir Lennox Berkeley showed interest in music during childhood. He attended Oxford to study French, but continued his music studies there as well. Friends in London introduced him to Maurice Ravel; after showing him his music, Ravel suggested he study with Nadia Boulanger. After finishing his degree, he went to Paris and studied with Boulanger from 1927 to 1932. Upon returning to England, he met Britten, with whom he became close. He worked at the BBC, then joined the faculty at the Royal Academy of Music in 1946, teaching composition until 1968 and receiving a knighthood in 1974. The oboe quartet reflects the neoclassicism of Stravinsky and Berkeley’s experiments with serialism.