Adriel's band releases first album

First album released by Whitman student band, Dabbles in Bloom

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Tuesday, Jul 27, 2010

From left to right: Adriel Borshansky, Rimmy Doowa, Robby Seager, Jonas Myers. Photos courtesy of Dabbles in Bloom.

The popular Whitman College music group, Dabbles in Bloom, has reached a musical milestone with the release of its first album, featuring the combined talents of band membersAdriel Borshansky ’12, Rimmy Doowa ’12, Robby Seager ’13 and Jonas Myers ’13. The album, titled, “Found It,” includes 11 original songs from the “jazz-influenced, indie-pop” band, and is now available for purchase from the iTunes Store, Amazon.com and other online music retailers.

Listen to a track from the CD
“Greetings”

The band’s new release, which features original cover art by Markel Uiru ’11, celebrates the fruitful collaboration of four Whittie musicians — and friends — who truly enjoy creating together. Though Borshansky and Doowa have collaborated musically for more than two years, Seager and Myers joined the group less than six months ago, quickly adding their own layers to the band’s unique, quirky style. “It’s been less than a year, but it feels like we’ve been playing together forever. We all just clicked right away,” Borshansky said.

Borshansky, a Ridgewood, N.J., native who plans to major in religion, is the band’s lead singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional piano player. Doowa, an economics major from Bangkok, Thailand, sings, develops musical concepts and plays several unique Indian and Thai instruments. On piano, keyboards and occasional bass is Myers, hailing from the Seattle area, who is still determining his major. Also from the Seattle area is Seager, the band’s drummer, who plans to study economics and mathematics.

“I chose Whitman College because of the amazingly diverse, inspired and energetic student body. I joined the band for the same reasons,” Seager said. “Adriel, Rimmy and Jonas all have such compelling, creative energy – and our different backgrounds complement each other musically and personally.

“Practicing with Dabbles in Bloom is similar to Whitman academics: One moment you're enjoying life to the fullest, and the next you realize that the whole time you've actually been getting things accomplished, too!”

In short order, these bright young musicians have swiftly carved out a place in Whitman’s entertainment scene, playing lively concerts at a number of the college’s fraternities and interest house gatherings last year. Though Borshansky will study abroad in Nepal this fall, he said the band will continue making music while he’s away.

“Dabbles in Bloom will definitely storm the campus when I get back this spring,” he said, referring to future concerts, including a large show the band hopes to play in the Reid Campus Center’s Young Ballroom.

While this is the first recorded album for the group, in 2009, Borshansky, with creative support from Doowa, had the opportunity to write and record a solo song for award-winning filmmaker Dana H. Glazer. Borshansky was commissioned to create a song for the soundtrack of “Evolution of Dad,” Glazer’s feature documentary, released in May 2010, about the changing role of fatherhood.

“It was an interesting experience for me,” Borshansky said. “Especially because I had never been asked to write a song for a specific subject, let alone something I couldn’t really relate to.”

The song, titled, “I Stepped Down,” was featured in the film and released in April as Borshansky’s first single. The track also appears on “Found It.”

While Dabbles in Bloom enjoy a growing following of fans, the members work to enjoy their time performing together without putting too much pressure on the future of the band.

“Who knows what will happen? There are infinite directions for us,” Borshansky said. “We’re just waiting to see what happens, and we’re letting our listeners determine that for us.”

Matt Solomon beats Maria Sharapova!!

Pretty funny story/video. Upon graduation Matt landed a job with IMG and has been working on the WTA Bank of the West tournament all summer. Besides his normal duties, Matt had the opportunity to play Sharapova in a point while dressed up has Bank of the West "Bear". Matt used the opportunity to ham it up a bit. Fortunately his sister took video of the event and put it on youtube.

Check out the video here

Christoph 1st team Academic All-American!

As a capstone to a stellar academic and athletic career, Whitman College tennis player Christoph Fuchs has earned Academic All-America First-Team honors.

Christoph Fuchs

Fuchs, a four-year mainstay in the Whitman tennis lineup, graduated magna cum laude in late May with honors in his biology major.

The Academic All-America first, second and third teams, sponsored byESPN The Magazine, are selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

Fuchs, who was part of three Northwest Conference (NWC) title teams at Whitman, is one of 17 student athletes voted to the men's At-Large Team in the College Division.

The At-Large Team represents a number of sports, including tennis, swimming and golf, while the College Division includes all schools affiliated with NCAA Divisions II and III and the NAIA.

Whitman students have earned Academic All-America honors 10 times since the school began submitting nominations in 2003. Fuchs is the first Whitman athlete, however, to receive first-team recognition at the national level.

More than 30 Whitman athletes have received all-district honors in recent years.

Fuchs travels to Houston, Texas, later this summer to begin medical school studies at the Baylor College of Medicine, which is part of the Texas Medical Center, the largest such center in the world.

In his four seasons at Whitman, Fuchs was part of a men's tennis squad that posted an overall win-loss record of 90-27, which included a 64-0 regular season mark against NWC teams. Whitman advanced to the NCAA Division III national championship tournament in each of those four seasons.

Fuchs made his share of contributions on the tennis courts, winning more than 100 career matches in singles and doubles.

"I want to say how thankful I am to my coach (Jeff Northam), teammates, Whitman athletics, and the Whitman faculty for a wonderful four years on the court and in the classroom," Fuchs said Monday. "I also want to say a special thank-you to my parents who sacrificed so much to help me achieve my goals."

Valerie Fuchs and Dr. Axel Fuchs, who live in La Center, Wash., have home schooled each of their four children. Dr. Fuchs, a graduate of the medical school at Germany's University of Dusseldorf, is an obstetrician-gynecologist.

Christoph Fuchs

Following his sophomore year at Whitman, Fuchs spent a summer as a volunteer nurse's aide at a hospital in Offenburg, Germany. His work ranged from basic patient care to making rounds with doctors and observing surgeries.

A year later, Fuchs received funding from the Whitman Undergraduate Research program to assist with breast cancer research at the University of Lousiville's Brown Cancer Center. His research that summer was the basis for his honors thesis on estrogen receptor protein modifications.

Fuchs was elected a year ago to Phi Beta Kappa, the national academic honor society. While at Whitman, he volunteered at a local AIDS clinic and for the Friends of Walla Walla, a group that mentors at-risk youth.

Last month, Fuchs was named Scholar-Athlete of the Year at the Blue Mountain Sports Awards, an awards program for high school and college student athletes in the Walla Walla Valley. The awards program is run by the Walla Walla Union-Bulletinnewspaper.

Fuchs was eligible for the Academic All-America Team based on his election earlier this spring to the Academic All-District First Team for 11 western states and British Columbia.

A year ago, following his junior season, Fuchs earned Academic All-District recognition and then was voted to the Academic All-America Third Team.

Fuchs is the second Whitman tennis player to earn Academic All-America honors in back-to-year years.Brad Changstrom '05 earned third-team recognition as a junior and senior.

Last fall, following the most prolific soccer scoring season at Whitman in two decades, seniorCorina Gabbert was voted to the Academic All-America Second Team.

Whitman is the top-ranked liberal arts and sciences college in the Northwest, according to the annual U.S. News and World Report survey of colleges and universities.

Since starting its program in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 15,000 student athletes in all NCAA championship sports.

Congratulations to Charlie Larson

Hardy congratulations to Whitman tennis alumni Charlie Larson ('99) for receiving his PhD in Biochemistry from Washington State University! Charlie reports that he has "decided to accept a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, MT. I am pretty excited to take the next step in my career and to move out of Pullman. More importantly, RML is one of the top infectious disease labs in the country/world. I’ll be working with Bob Heinzen on Coxiella burnetti (a pathogenic bacteria)".

Now that Charlie is in Hamilton (a great fly fishing area) he might get some unannounced visits from his old college coach!

Reid goes to Dartmouth Medical School!

I recently received word that Reid Bennett '09 was accepted to Dartmouth Medical school! I hate to sound like a proud parent but that is the third Whitman tennis alumni entering medical school this year -- Christoph Fuchs at Baylor, Thomas Roston at University of British Columbia, and Reid at Dartmouth.

Good luck and congratulations to all three!

Solomon falls in National Tournament

WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- A lost service game early in the first set proved costly as Whitman College senior Matt Solomon dropped a 6-4, 6-2 decision to Williams College senior Nick Lebedoff in this morning's opening round of the NCAA Division III National Tennis Singles Championship Tournament.

The 32-player singles tournament, taking place at Ohio's Oberlin College, continues through Sunday.


Matt Solomon
"It was a thrill to be invited to this tournament, but I definitely didn't play my best today," Solomon said. "This obviously wasn't the outcome I was expecting and wanted."

The difference in the first set came early, when Solomon dropped his first service game. After that the two players held serve until Lebedoff finished off his 6-4 first-set victory.

"I kept trying to change tactics to get back into the match, but I felt a little off my game the whole way," Solomon said. "I felt good from a physical standpoint, but I wasn't hitting through the ball as well as I can."

Lebedoff advances to play a second-round match today against the survivor of a first-round match between Chris Goodwin (Emory University) and Scott Sundstrom (Luther College).

The tournament continues Saturday with quarterfinal and semifinal matches. The championship finale is set for Sunday.

Solomon, a senior, is one of seven West Coast players -- but the only one from the Pacific Northwest -- invited to the singles championship. Invitations were issued to players based on win-loss records, rankings and strength of opposition.

Solomon, who has played No. 1 singles for Whitman since his sophomore season, led Whitman to a third consecutive Northwest Conference title this spring. He is a two-time NWC Player of the Year and was named the 2010 winner of Whitman's R.V. Borleske Trophy, which is presented annually to the top male athlete on campus.

"What a great season and great career Matt has had," Whitman coach Jeff Northam said. "He's had a huge impact on our team and athletic program in general.

"Our men's tennis program is stronger right now than it's ever been in my many years of coaching, and Matt is a big reason why that's the case."

Solomon is the first Whitman player to compete in the national singles championships since May of 2006, when Steven Ly got an invite to cap his junior season.

Tim Mullin made the national singles tournament in both 2001 and 2002. Mullin and Eric Bartee competed in the doubles championship bracket in 2000.

Solomon got his senior season off to a strong start last fall by winning the ITA's Pacific Northwest NCAA Division III singles title for a third consecutive season. He advanced to the ITA's National Small College Championships, where he won two of his four matches against other regional champs.

Solomon, who graduated from Whitman last Sunday with a degree in economics, starts work next Tuesday with IMG, the world's premier and most diversified sports, entertainment and media company.

Solomon, who is from Los Altos, Calif., will be working in IMG's San Francisco office, helping prepare for 40th annual Bank of the West Classic, which starts July 26 at Stanford University. The classic is the longest-running women-only professional tennis tournament in the world and the first stop of the Olympus U.S. Open Series.

Fuchs Named to ESPN The Magazine's Academic Team!

WALLA WALLA, Wash. -- Christoph Fuchs, a graduating senior on the Whitman College men's tennis team, has been voted for a second consecutive year to ESPN The Magazine's Academic All-District At-Large First Team.


Christoph Fuchs
Fuchs, who helped Whitman win its third straight Northwest Conference (NWC) title earlier this spring, is one 10 athletes chosen for the men's at-large team in the College Division of District VIII.

The district includes all NCAA Div. II/Div. III and NAIA schools in the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, Hawaii, California, Utah, Nevada and Arizona, as well as British Columbia.

The at-large teams represent student athletes in a variety of sports, including golf, skiing, gymnastics, ice hockey, swimming, lacrosse and tennis.

Players on all-district at-large teams from around the nation are now eligible for election to the Academic All-America team. Fuchs was voted to the All-America Second Team a year ago.

The College Sports Information Directors of America administers the nominating and voting process for the Academic All-America program, which is in its 59th year and has honored about 15,000 students at all levels for all recognized NCAA sports.

Fuchs, a member of the Phi Beta Kappa national academic honor society, graduates from Whitman this Sunday and begins medical school studies later this summer at the Baylor College of Medicine. He and three siblings were home schooled by their parents, Valerie and Dr. Alex Fuchs of La Center, Wash.


Christoph Fuchs at Baylor College of Medicine
Fuchs is one of seven graduating seniors on the men's tennis team who sailed through four seasons at Whitman without losing a single regular season match to a Northwest Conference team. Whitman's win-loss record during those four seasons was 64-0.

Fuchs was a consistent winner in his time at Whitman, collecting more than 100 victories in singles and doubles.

A biology major with a minor in chemistry, Fuchs received Whitman Undergraduate Research funding two summers ago to work on breast cancer research at the University of Louisville’s Brown Cancer Center. His research that summer was the basis of his honors thesis on estrogen receptor protein modifications.

In the summer of 2007, Fuchs was a volunteer nurse's aide at a hospital in Offenburg, Germany, as part of a program required of German students for medical school eligibility. Fuchs, who is fluent in German, handled duties ranging from feeding patients and taking vital signs to shadowing physicians on their rounds and assisting with surgeries.

While at Whitman, Fuch has been a volunteer for a local AIDS clinic as well as the Friends of Walla Walla, which mentors at-risk youth.

Earlier this week, Fuchs was named Scholar-Athlete of the Year at the Blue Mountain Sports Awards, an awards program for high school and college student-athletes in the Walla Walla Valley. The awards program is run by the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin newspaper.

Whitman is the top liberal arts & sciences college in the Northwest, according to the annual U.S. News & World Report survey of colleges and universities.