Lamont Student Profile: Gabby Gillespie

For graduating senior Gabby Gillespie—this year's recipient of the Director's Award, the highest honor for an undergraduate—choosing the oboe started with a challenge.

At an instrument fair in sixth grade, Gillespie remembers trying instrument after instrument while searching for the right fit. She knew she wanted to play a woodwind instrument, but when she first picked up the oboe, she couldn’t make a sound.

“The person handing out the instruments said, ‘Why don’t you try another one?’” she recalls with a laugh. “And I decided to keep the oboe out of spite.”

That stubborn determination ultimately led Gillespie from her hometown of Henderson, Nevada, to the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music, where she will graduate next week with a Bachelor of Music in Performance.

Music had always been part of her life. Her mother is both a piano teacher and choir conductor, but Gillespie knew early on that she wanted to carve out her own musical identity.

“I wanted to pick my own thing that was away from choir,” she says. “And brass scared me. It was too loud.”

While her love for music came naturally, the realization that she wanted to pursue music professionally came more gradually. Gillespie attended the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts, where a pair of influential teachers helped shape both her musicianship and her confidence.

Her band director, John Seaton, pushed students toward ambitious goals while fostering genuine excitement about music-making. “He really pushed us to be the best that we could be,” Gillespie says. “He had a love of everything he was doing that was communicated so well to us that it made us excited about it. He had very high ambitions for us, and it made us want to meet those goals.”

Her oboe teacher, Dani McCracken, brought a different but equally important influence. “She was incredible and so much fun,” Gillespie says. “She encouraged me to play the stuff I was excited about. She made things interesting. She was a friend as much as a teacher.”

Even as her skills developed, Gillespie says she always viewed herself as an ensemble musician first. 

“I’ve always been more ensemble-focused rather than solo playing,” she explains.That collaborative mindset made Lamont feel like the right fit almost immediately.

Gillespie first connected with Lamont through the Lamont Summer Academy, where she studied with Professor Ian Wisekal. After additional trial lessons with Wisekal, she found herself drawn not only to the teaching but also to the overall atmosphere within the school.

“I was so impressed by the dedication from the professors,” she says. “I really liked the environment, and Gates Concert Hall is incredible. I also really liked the student culture.”

When she first arrived at DU, Gillespie enrolled as a Bachelor of Arts student in music rather than the Bachelor of Music program she would eventually complete. “I wanted to see what else was out there for me,” she says. “But I never once thought that music wouldn’t be part of my life. It was more a journey of figuring out how.”

That journey eventually expanded beyond performance and into arts administration. Since her sophomore year, Gillespie has worked at the Newman Center box office, first as a ticketing agent and now as an Event Lead. The position gave her an entirely new perspective on the audience experience.

“It’s nice to work with the people going to the shows,” she says. “You hear directly from people about their experiences, whether it’s complaints or praise. And it helped shape my own performance because now I know who my customers are, who my audience is." 

Following graduation, Gillespie will continue building that connection between performance and arts administration in a full-time role at the University of Colorado Boulder as a Box Office Services Coordinator. In the position, she’ll work closely with departments across campus, coordinating with event presenters, parking services, stage crews, and others involved in producing performances.

While the role represents a new professional chapter, Gillespie emphasizes that it will not replace performing. “I’ll always be performing,” she says. “I’m not worried that this new job will take the place of that.”

In fact, she already maintains an active performance schedule throughout the Front Range. Gillespie has frequently performed with the Littleton Symphony Orchestra under Music Director Catherine Sailer, has subbed with the Longmont Symphony Orchestra, and has also performed with a United Methodist church near DU. She plans to continue auditioning for local orchestras after graduation while continuing lessons with Ian Wisekal and Peter Cooper. She’s even considering eventually using CU Boulder’s tuition waiver program to pursue a master’s degree in either business or music.

Reflecting on her time at Lamont, Gillespie points to the school’s Centennial Concert performance of Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome as one of her defining musical moments. Performing the English horn solo alongside faculty and fellow students became a turning point in her confidence as a musician.

“I was completely confident,” she says. “I was thinking, I know how to play this, and I’m excited to play it. And getting to be surrounded by my amazing colleagues as well as faculty collaborators was really special.”

That confidence has grown steadily throughout her years at Lamont. In her final concert with the Lamont Symphony Orchestra, Gillespie performed Franz Liszt’s Totentanz, a piece she also played during her senior year of high school. Looking back, she sees the performance as a reflection of how much she has evolved both personally and professionally.

“I’ve become so much more confident in myself,” she says. “I’ve developed a higher level of professionalism. I can interact and be confident and know that I can go out in the world and make a mark.”

As graduation approaches, Gillespie says she feels ready for whatever comes next because of the growth she experienced at Lamont. “I know music is important to me,” she says. “I know its role in my life and the impact it can have and the impact it can make on other people.”

For Gillespie, success is less about following a single path and more about trusting the things that bring fulfillment and purpose. “It’s important to do what you love regardless of where that takes you,” she says. “Your strong suits will show.”