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By Vivien Schweitzer
13 Feb 2007
Two principal players with Oregon's Eugene Symphony were killed on Sunday night (February 11), in a car crash caused by a driver heading down Interstate 5 in the wrong direction, reports The Oregonian.
The two musicians killed were Kjersten J. Oquist, 36, and Angela Svendsen, 31.
Oquist was principal violist with the Eugene Symphony and acting assistant principal violist in the Oregon Ballet Theatre orchestra; she also played with the Portland Opera.
Svendsen was the Eugene Symphony's principal second violin and also played with the Oregon Ballet Theatre and Portland Opera orchestras.
Oquist was driving her Saturn and Svendsen was a passenger in the front seat as they headed north on Interstate 5 on Sunday night. Kelly Gronli, 28, the Eugene Symphony's principal oboist, was in the back seat and suffered minor injuries.
The three were traveling home after rehearsal for a concert scheduled for Thursday (February 15) featuring flutist James Galway, according to the paper.
Fivea Sharipoff, 26, faces two counts of first-degree manslaughter and one count of second-degree assault for the collision.
"Both Angela and Kjersten were wonderful leaders," Paul Winberg, executive director of the Eugene Symphony, told The Oregonian. "We are still communicating this tragedy to the orchestra family, figuring out what we want to do, how we want to help our symphony deal with this tragedy."
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