Couple makes beautiful music together with Albany Symphony Orchestra

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Shannon Lowe’s and Peter Geldrich’s love song is more than the music they play.

As the principal bassoonist and clarinetist, respectively, for the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the married couple, who met while taking classes together at the University of Florida, has turned their love for music into careers that allow them to constantly explore their passions at the highest level possible.

“As principal clarinetist and bassoonist, we actually sit right next to each other during performances,”  Geldrich, who teaches clarinet in UF’s music program, said. “I guess you could say music brought us together, and now music keeps us together.”

Lowe and Geldrich will be sharing the stage of the Albany Municipal Auditorium Saturday when the Albany Symphony Orchestra presents its 2026-27 season-opening performance, “The Magic of Mozart Meets Carmen.” The first performance of the symphony’s “The Magic of Music” season has a 6:30 p.m. start time.

Lowe, whose love for music started at a young age, asked her parents when she was 5 if she could play the piano. Her dad, who’d done the same as a child but “hated the experience,” warned her that she’d be obligated to practice long hours.

“He said he hated the whole process, but I loved it,” Lowe, who teaches bassoon and aural studies at Florida, said. “My grandmother had a little parlor organ at her house, and when we’d visit I always tinkered with it.”

Geldrich, too, caught music fever early, so much so that by the time he reached middle school age in New York, he was playing in ensembles, school bands and orchestras, for choruses, in jazz bands and at various summer music festivals.

“My dad played clarinet for local bands and in the Army, so I heard it all the time growing up,” Geldrich said. “By fourth grade, I decided clarinet would be my instrument of choice, and I pretty much played or thought about playing music 24 hours a day.

Peter Geldrich and Shannon Lowe

“I never got tired of it; there were so many different kinds of music that kept me engaged.”

Geldrich and Lowe met while they were studying their specialty instruments at UF. Their eventual courtship and marriage seemed destined.

“We met at grad school at the University of Florida,” Geldrich said. “We were in the same classes, we performed together, and we generally ended up sitting next to each other when we performed. The music brought us together; it was organic.”

The couple both play with the Albany Symphony and Symphonic Gulf Coast Orchestra in Destin, Fla., and they frequently perform with the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra. Their performance schedule, as well as their academic commitments, leave them little time for outside interests, although many of those interests coincide with their careers.

“It’s hard to fit things in, with the teaching, performing and practicing,” Lowe said. “But we both enjoy traveling, so we get to do a lot of that. We also just got a new puppy, and he keeps us busy.”

So love will be in the air as the Albany Symphony Orchestra performs Saturday. And with Shannon Lowe and Peter Geldrich, it’s the kind of love that has its own special harmony.