Doug Westervelt, Viola

Doug Westervelt began his musical studies as a child on the Organ, perhaps explaining his affinity with Anton Bruckner. Despite some experimentation with piano and clarinet, Doug settled on violin and played actively in high school. He split time between the violin and viola sections in the University of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, but changed his academic goals from music to business.

After college,Doug stopped playing music and was busy working as a CPA for a "Big 8" accounting firm in San Francisco as well as in other financial and consulting positions in the Bay Area. In 1994, Doug moved to Eugene, studied Computer Science at University of Oregon and upon graduation, moved to Portland to start an Internet Service Provider which he continues to actively manage today.

In 2002, his wife April encouraged him to dust off the violin and return to playing. Starting with the Portland State University Symphony Orchestra as a violinist, Doug migrated to viola and soon found himself touring Europe with PSU, playing at the Astoria Music Festival, playing Principal Viola with Rose City Chamber Orchestra, and subbing for the Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra. In the following years, Doug became a core member of the CSO viola section and now also subs in the Eugene, Vancouver, Oregon East (Pendleton), and Newport Symphony Orchestras and plays free-lance gigs throughout the area.

An avid traveler and Europhile, Doug travels to Europe frequently both for pleasure and for performance including a regular opera orchestra principal chair with the Austrian American Mozart Academy in Salzburg, Austria. When time allows, Doug also is the steersperson for a championship dragon boat team which travels to races along the west coast of the United States and Canada.