Brian Shifflet has filled his life with music and history. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)

BY SHERI TRUSTY

CATAWBA – Throughout Brian Shifflet’s life, music was always there. His mother filled their home with classical music, and his father enjoyed many genres. His grandmother loved jazz, and he often entered her home to the sounds of the crooning ballads and velvet-voiced jazz of Frank Sinatra. While many young children drag a blankie or a bunny around the house, Shifflet carried a Big Bird record player.

“There was always music around,” he said.

Brian Shifflet plays the cello during a Firelands Symphony Orchestra concert. (Submitted photo)

It is no surprise that music directed the course of his life. As a professional cellist with the Firelands Symphony Orchestra (FSO) and as a historical reenactor who incorporates traditional music into his presentations, he has carried an unbroken string of notes into adulthood. He performed with the orchestra for the first time in 1999, when he was a student in the FSO School of Music.

Shifflet, from Catawba, sat for his first piano lesson at age seven, began playing trumpet at age 10, and added cello when he was in middle school. Today, he holds a Masters of Music Education and is a season-long cellist with FSO and a member of its string quartet.

“I love many things about the orchestra,” he said. “I love the fact that it’s a regional orchestra. We’re in-between cities with very good orchestras, but they’re an hour-plus away in either direction. We are really good quality, right in the Shores & Islands backyard.”

Brian Shifflet leads a baking demonstration at Historic Lyme Village. (Submitted photo)

The orchestra performs in many venues in the area. Among other concerts, FSO or its quartets will perform on the Jackson Street Pier in Sandusky on July 4, at RiverFront Live in downtown Port Clinton on July 18, and at the Marblehead Lighthouse on July 26. This summer, FSO quartets will entertain seniors at local nursing homes as part of Tunes for Tuesdays.

In addition to being an FSO cellist, Shifflet serves as the musicians’ representative to the FSO board. He credits much of his musical success to his training at the FSO School of Music as a young man.

“One thing that is really important to me is the symphony school,” he said. “I really don’t believe I’d be here if I didn’t have those teachers.”

Brian Shifflet and Angie George often volunteer together at historic reenactments. (Submitted photo)

Shifflet’s day job is working as the Visitor Experience Manager at Shores & Islands Ohio, and in his spare time, he volunteers as a member of the North Coast Narrative historical reenactment group. He first became intrigued by reenacting when he saw a first-person interpreter portray Martha Washington at Colonial Williamsburg as a child.

“That individual perspective is not something you get in history class,” he said.

He was further inspired when he attended a historically accurate concert. When a coworker invited him to a reenactment, he was hooked.

“She said it was the first time she’d ever seen me so quiet,” he said. “I was figuring out how to do this. I can talk about history, but how do you be history?”

North Coast Narrative focuses on civilian life in the 1860s. They work mostly at Lyme Village in Bellevue, where members have taught cooking classes, hosted vintage teas and given dancing lessons.

During reenactments, Brian Shifflet can pair his passions for music and history. (Submitted photo)

“I teach people how to do the Virginia reel,” Shifflet said.

Shifflet, who converted to Judaism, often portrays a circa 1860 American Jewish man, and, of course, he incorporates music into the reenactments.

“I do music interpretations and cooking interpretations. I run the gamut,” he said. “I teach the language of flowers. People sent romantic messages through bouquets of flowers.”

For Shifflet, part of the fun of reenacting is the research to ensure accuracy and to answer the many questions he is asked at events.

“For a curious brain, reenacting is a never-ending source of things to research,” he said.

For more information on Firelands Symphony Orchestra, including a full summer schedule, visit https://www.firelandssymphony.com. For more information on North Coast Narrative, visit www.northcoastnarrative.org.