Solomon Schweitzer – a life in a few facts

Here are some facts about Solomon Schweitzer, First Bassoonist with the Quonsettville Community Orchestra, and the man whose absence kicks off the action in The Absent Bassoonist.

Solomon’s full name is Solomon Barnabas Schweitzer. Friends call him Solomon, while colleagues call him Sol. His family call him Soli (or Dad), except his Miami-based twin sister Miriam: she calls him Skanky.

He is a tall man with large hands. While some might call him “burly”, he is well-proportioned and could certainly not be described as overweight. But he is a big man, with greying red hair and faint freckles on his nose and cheeks.

Solomon is aged 53 on the night of the concert. He was born June 10th, 1970.

Solomon grew up in Burlington, Vermont, and has lived most of his life in Vermont except for a brief period working as a stationery salesman in Helena, Montana (July 1992 to August 1994). He has lived in Quonsettville since November 1996, following his divorce from his first wife.

Solomon has been married twice. First to MaryAnn Savoy (1995 to 1998) and then to MaryAnn’s cousin Augustine Riccardo (2001).

Solomon has a daughter Maribelle with first wife MaryAnn (born 1997), and twin boys Richard and Kashmir (born 2004) with second wife Augustine.

He has lived in a rental home on Wockawocka Street in Fat Springs since separating from wife Augustine in May 2021. Augustine and their sons continue to live in the family home on Bathilde Avenue in Quonsett Cascade.

Solomon has taught music at the St. Everine Catholic Girls Academy in Quonsettville since August 1999. He plays bassoon, clarinet, piccolo, flute and English horn (aka cor anglais), and has been composing his own music since he was sixteen.

He lists his hobbies as learning to play new woodwind and brass instruments, and MahJong (not online: the real version with tiles and people sitting at the same table).

He enjoys a macrobiotic diet, and keeps company with a five-year-old Labrador called Sandy.

Solomon joined the Quonsettville Community Orchestra in 1999, as its original (and only) bassoonist. He became First Bassoonist when Bethany Thackeray joined the orchestra as Second Bassoonist in 2002.

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