Gustaf Applequist, Double Bass
Has played with the Salina Symphony since: 2008
Hometown: Salina, KS
Current City: Salina, KS
Education: BA, Business Management, Kansas Wesleyan University
Job Title: Owner of Fili Creative
Earliest musical memory:
My parents enjoyed taking me to the Christmas by Candlelight concert at Kansas Wesleyan. It remains a treasured part of our Christmas celebration.
Best part of being a Salina Symphony musician:
I very much enjoy getting to interact with other musicians and play music that I wouldn’t see if I weren’t in the symphony.
Most memorable performance with the Salina Symphony:
My first concert featured Gustav Holst’s The Planets. Space has always interested me and merging that interest with my love of music made that first concert special to me. During my first rehearsals and concert, I was humbled and intimidated by the seriousness and talent of the Symphony musicians. I have learned, in the years since, just how awnry these goofballs can be!
Favorite composers:
Because of the emotions that his music evokes in me, Stephen Sondheim is my favorite composer. Sondheim’s Into the Woods was among my first forays into the world of the musical pit. The song “No One is Alone” brings me to tears every time I hear it.
What song best describes you when you first wake up in the morning?
“The Elephant” by Camille Saint-Saens
What kind of music do you enjoy listening to?
Lots of acoustic, folk, and alternative bands. My current favorites include Alexi Murdoch, Julie Fowlis, and Jon Foreman.
How do you spend your free time?
It is my privilege to have mentored the Salina High School Robotics team, HorsePOWER, for 7 years. I play with Salina Symphony musicians, Cody Toll and Paul Austin, in a band called Everyday Lights. You can find my wife and I in the pit at many local musical productions. My other interests include astronomy, board games, podcasts, and travel.
Whom do you admire?
My wonderful and talented wife, Hannah, can be found in the percussion section. Since getting to know her in the pit of SCT’s 2012 production of Les Misérables, Hannah has graced my life with her love and her passion for music. I look forward to the day that the rest of the world gets to hear my Hannah play her marimba.
What is your greatest accomplishment?
Giving my life to Christ. If I can achieve anything in my life, it would be to fulfill God’s plan for me while spreading the love of Jesus Christ to anyone I meet. My hope is that the music we make would encourage people to find faith and spread love in a world that sometimes seems filled with pain and suffering.
“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.” – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring