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Ruth Kosmalski is a dentist who has a one-woman practice in Gresham. She was raised in Montana, attended dental school in Minnesota, and chose to settle in the Columbia River Gorge because she had become an avid windsurfer during her college years.

She was raised in a musical family (her three sisters are string players also), and when she reached the third grade, the school music teacher (who was also her mother) recruited her as a violin player. Her mother has been a church organist her whole life, and her father’s instrument is the French horn. Ruth played in the Butte Symphony with her father, a founding member, and in various school groups before she went away to college. At that time she took a break from violin playing that lasted fourteen years.

On a visit with her family she attended a performance that her sister took part in, and realized she envied her sister and would like to be able to play again herself. She came to a pops rehearsal to audition in spite of feeling "rusty," and has been in our second violin section since 1992.

In addition to the time she dedicates to the Pops, Ruth is involved in the Portland Sealant Program, a dental health program through local school districts, and she does volunteer sewing for the foster care program. She plays the piano, "just for fun." She says being a dentist appeals to her because she likes to work with her hands, and because of the artistry required of a good dentist. When she is asked what it was about orchestra performance that attracted her, she replies that is wonderful to be "in the middle of all that sound, and to see how the parts all fit together like a jigsaw puzzle."