When Julie Giacobassi came to us her goal was simple, to make additional copies of her favorite shaper tip. She found it in the early 1970's while working with Richard White, the English Horn player in the National Symphony Orchestra. Richard had spent an afternoon browsing through a jumbled box of English Horn shaper tips at the venerable Ponte Music Company. Charles Ponte, the founder, had been an English Horn player himself at Radio City Music Hall. Richard handed her a tip and told her to give it a try. "It looks like a good one," he said...and indeed it was! This tip faithfully reproduces that original tip. It is sold by Westwind with Julie’s permission.

Westwind shaper tips—the best shapes made better. Unlike shaper tips made using traditional machining techniques, Westwind shaper tips use state of the art production techniques to ensure unsurpassed consistency, durability, and symmetry.

• Our precision production techniques ensure consistency. If you ever break or lose your tip, you can get another one exactly like it.
• Our tips are made of the highest-grade tool steel and the ears get a special treatment to improve durability. If your tip ever breaks, simply return it and we’ll send you a new one. No questions asked!  
• All of our shaper tips are perfectly symmetrical across the centerline in order to reduce the risk of leakage on one side of the reed.
• A 30-day trial is available for the Giacobassi English Horn shaper tip.

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About Julie Giacobassi

Julie Ann Giacobassi, English horn player with the San Francisco Symphony from 1981-2006, spent her playing career promoting, performing and recording new music for English horn and oboe d'amore. Her premieres include music written for her by Eric Ewazen, Richard Felciano, Deborah Kavasch, Aaron Kernis, John Marvin, Harold Schiffman and John Thow.

Ms. Giacobassi began her oboe studies at the age of fourteen with Gail Warnaar in Muskegon, Michigan. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan where she studied with Florian Mueller. Before joining the San Francisco Symphony, Ms. Giacobassi performed as English horn player and oboist with the Shreveport Symphony, the National Ballet Orchestra, the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, Wolf Trap, and the American Camerata for New Music. While in Washington, DC, Ms. Giacobassi studied with English horn player Richard White. Until her retirement, she performed regularly in the San Francisco Bay Area as part of Chamber Music Sundaes and the SFS Chamber Music Series.

In 1994, Ms. Giacobassi along with conductor Alasdair Neale and the San Francisco Symphony presented the world premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis' Colored Field for English horn and orchestraTheir recording of Colored Field (for Argo) was awarded France's "Diapason d'Or". Ms. Giacobassi’s other solo performances with the SFS included Copland's Quiet City, Farberman's Shapings, Honneger's Concerto da Camera, Sibelius' The Swan of Tuonela, Telemann's Concerto for Oboe d'amore, and John Thow's Bellini Sky. In addition to her CD of chamber music written for her, Ms.Giacobassi recorded the Summit Records Orchestral Excerpts for the English Horn CD, part of the Summit Records OrchestraPro Series. Other premieres include Harold Schiffman's Chamber Concerto for English horn and his Concerto for Oboe d'amore, which she recorded with Matyas Antal and the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra for North/South Records. Ms. Giacobassi can be heard on the Philips, London, Nonesuch, BMG and the SFS Media recordings of the San Francisco Symphony. She played a Laubin English horn and a Loree oboe d’amore, both with Lickman bocals, in all of these performances.

Though retired from performing, Ms. Giacobassi continues to promote new solo and chamber music for the English horn, oboe, and oboe d’amore through her publishing house Fish Creek Music.

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