Mrs. Rose Marie Dunsford is a lifelong resident of Pacific Grove and a seventh-generation Californian whose Spanish heritage can be traced back to the Casa Boronda – the first and oldest adobe built outside the old Spanish Presidio in Monterey by her forefather, Don Manuel de Boronda. She is the mother of seven children (two of which performed violin with the Monterey Symphony as sectional violinists), and is married to Owen L. Dunsford, former associate concertmaster of the Monterey Symphony. In 2008 her son’s composition “Fanfare for the Eagles” was premiered by the Monterey Symphony under Max Bragado-Darman.

After graduating from Pacific Grove High School, Mrs. Dunsford studied violin for several years with Michael Rosenker, a pupil of Leopold Auer and associate concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic. She previously studied with Walter Kelsey, a former concertmaster of the Monterey Symphony. She joined the Monterey Symphony as a student player in 1960, and soon became a permanent member of the orchestra as a sectional violinist. During her historic tenure, she has served under no less than six conductors: Ronald Ondrejka, John Gosling, Haymo Taeuber, Clark Suttle, Kate Tamarkin, and Max Bragado-Darman.