Meet the Musicians

James Hamlin, Principal Trumpet of the GSO since 1983, did not always play trumpet. His first experience was in a drum and bugle corps when he was in fifth grade. The next time he played the trumpet seriously was after getting a B.A. in American History from the University of Pennsylvania. While living in England for a year James began taking trumpet lessons again, and from there it was five more years at the Manhattan School of Music. James is now a freelance player in the New York City area. He has played with many groups, including the New York Philharmonic, the American Symphony Orchestra, and the New York City Opera. Currently, he plays principal trumpet for the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic and the Greenwich Symphony. One of his interests is the natural trumpet and he has played with groups such as The Grande Bande, Concert Royale, the Fairfield Old Academy, and New York Collegium. James has recorded on the natural trumpet on Sony Classical and other labels. Teaching is also a big part of his musical life. For twelve years he taught at the Eastern Music Festival. Now, he is trumpet instructor at the Juilliard pre-college and the Hoff-Barthelson school. James received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his B.M. and M.M. from the Manhattan School of Music.

Denise Cridge, Violist with the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra since 1996, grew up in a musical family. Her teachers included Raphael Bronstein, Jesse Levine and David Wells. She has been an active freelancer in the New York metro area, as well as maintaining a teaching studio for over twenty years. In 1988, Denise lived in Lisbon, playing for the Novo Filarmonia Portuguesa. For several years she toured through France and Switzerland with Kammerensemble Köln, a baroque chamber ensemble. Returning to New York, she played and toured with many regional and national opera companies such as New York City Opera, Opera Ensemble of New York, and the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players. She served as concertmaster on a lengthy Broadway tour, doubling on violin and viola. Currently, Denise is playing with the Masterwork Chorale and the New Philharmonic, and the annual Bach festival at St. Peter's Church. She subs on a regular basis with the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic and the Orchestra at St. Ignatius. She performs in a violin-viola duo, and in the mixed ensemble Quentre. Her viola-cello duo held a grant from the CT Alliance for Music for several years, for doing outreach work. Denise holds a Master of Music degree in Performance from the Manhattan School of Music. She teaches a large class of viola students at the Allen-Stevenson School. She will play with the Lake Placid Sinfonietta for six weeks this summer.

Clifford Haynes received his BA and MA from New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas, New Mexico. In 1974 he joined the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Haynes became a member of the American Ballet Theatre in 1977 and in 1981, principal trombone. He has performed with Mostly Mozart, Dance at The Met, New York City Ballet and Opera, Bronx Arts Ensemble, Orchestra New England and many other ensembles, Broadway shows, and recordings. He was a founding member of the Apple Brass Quintet, the first brass quintet to win the Artist International Award. He is also trombone instructor at Wagner College. In February, 2000 he performed with the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra the Trombone Concerto written for him by conductor David Gilbert.

Peter Reit, principal horn of the Greenwich Symphony since 1989, also plays principal horn with the Westchester Philharmonic and Scandia Symphony Orchestras and is associate-principal/third horn with the Stamford Symphony Orchestra. He has performed with such illustrious ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, Orchestra of St. Luke's, and the New York City Opera Orchestra. He is a founding member of the New York Chamber Brass, and has toured worldwide with the American Symphony and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestras. He performs frequently in a duo with his wife, harpist Alyssa Reit, and with both the Greenwich Symphony Chamber Players and the New York Symphonic Brass. Mr. Reit is featured on CDs of all musical genres, and has been heard on television, radio, and movie soundtracks. His jazz experience includes performing as a member of the Mel Lewis Big Band at the Village Vanguard, plus recordings and worldwide tours with the Bob Belden Ensemble. He has played in the orchestras for many Broadway shows, and is currently in his twenty-third year with the Broadway hit ''The Phantom of the Opera.'' Mr. Reit teaches at SUNY Purchase, the Hartt School of Music, the Music Conservatory of Westchester, and Vassar College.

Diane Lesser, principal oboist of the Greenwich Symphony since 1980, is also principal oboist of the New York Pops, Long Island Philharmonic, Brandenburg Ensemble, Amici New York, and Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra. She also performs regularly in such vocal and instrumental ensembles as the Voices of Ascension Chorus and Orchestra, Musica Sacra, Oratorio Society, and National Chorale. For ten years she was principal oboist of the EOS Ensemble. Ms. Lesser has appeared as soloist with the Greenwich Symphony, Oklahoma's OK MOZART Festival, Dennis Keene Music Festival, Brooklyn's Bargemusic, and at the 1992 Festival Olympique Des Arts in Albertville, France. She made her solo debut at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center with Alexander Schneider and the New York String Orchestra. Ms. Lesser was the only oboist to be a recipient of an Affiliate Artist Award, resulting in solo recitals at the University of Pennsylvania, Weill Recital Hall and throughout the United States. She has played at the White House, Gracie Mansion, and for the visit of Pope John Paul II. Active in the world of commercial music as well, Diane Lesser has been heard in soundtracks to numerous films, and has recorded hundreds of television and radio commercials. Her playing has been featured on Good Morning America, the David Letterman Show and the Today Show. Diane received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Juilliard School, where she was a student of Robert Bloom. She earned her Master of Arts degree from Queens College, where she held the position of Adjunct Lecturer in Chamber Music.

Larry Spivack has been Principal Percussionist of the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra since 1999. He has also been a percussion substitute with the Broadway show ''The Phantom of the Opera'' for twenty years. As a freelancer in New York City, he has performed with the Metropolitan Opera, American Symphony, and 40 other Broadway shows. He is also a composer of music for theater, ballet, films, and concert works featuring percussion. Larry recently returned from Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where he played in the premiere of ''Space,'' a quartet commissioned by the Isotone Chamber Music Series presented at the American Museum of Science and Energy. He is currently adapting music for the Off-Broadway production of ''Engaging Shaw,'' produced by the Abbingdon Theatre Company. Larry is co-inventor of Cymbal Guy, a patented device that permits a percussionist to play a cymbal crash using a foot pedal. This instrument was featured in the Double Concertino for Timpani and Percussion commissioned by the Greenwich Symphony for its Young People's Concerts series.

Richard Schneider joined the Greenwich Symphony as principal tubaist in its 1977-78 Season. Richard arrived in New York City in 1968 following five seasons with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He had worked professionally as a college student with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, and upon the completion of post graduate work at Northwestern University, worked with the Louisville Orchestra. Richard considers himself a life-long pupil of the late Arnold Jacobs, noted brass and wind pedagogue and legendary tubaist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. During a wide and varied freelance career in the New York area, Richard has worked with the Royal Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet and other international dance companies, as well as Radio City Music Hall, the Goldman Band, Steve Reich and Musicians, the American Symphony, the New Jersey Symphony, the Canterbury Choral Society, the Greenwich Choral Society, the New Haven Symphony, the Ridgefield Symphony and the Greenwich Symphony Brass Quintet. Richard has also worked with Maestro David Gilbert in performances with the Wagner Theatre Program, and the Seniors Concert Orchestra. In January 2006, Richard was honored to appear as soloist with the GSO in Maestro Gilbert's Ballade Concertante for Tuba and Orchestra.

Susan Hytken, violinist in the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra since 1993, enjoys a distinguished and varied career as soloist, chamber musician, orchestral violinist and teacher. A native of Eureka, California, she now resides in New York City. Ms. Hytken is in great demand as a freelance violinist throughout the New York metropolitan region. She appears regularly as Assistant Concertmaster of the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra, as a member of the Chamber Players of the Greenwich Symphony, and as Concertmaster of the South Shore Symphony in Rockville Centre on Long Island. She teaches violin and chamber ensembles at the Spence School in New York City. Since 1996, Ms. Hytken has spent her summers in Boulder, Colorado performing with the Colorado Music Festival. She plays on an instrument made by William E. Hill and Sons, London, 1900. In addition to her busy performing season, Ms. Hytken is an avid student of tai chi chuan. She has studied with the Long River Tai Chi Circle on Manhattan's Upper West Side since January 2008.

Susan Rotholz, principal flutist of the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra since 1999, made her New York debut to critical acclaim in 1981 as a winner of the Concert Artists Guild Award. Principal flutist of the New York Chamber Ensemble and of the New England Bach Festival, she is a member of the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the New York Pops and The Little Orchestral Society, and has also served as principal flutist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, American Symphony, American Ballet Theater and Stamford Symphony. In 2003, Bridge Records released her recordings of the complete Bach Sonatas for Flute and Fortepiano and the Partita for Solo Flute, with fortepianist Kenneth Cooper. ''Irresistible in both music and performance'' (The New York Times). In 1988, she won the Young Concert Artists International Competition as a founding member of Hexagon, an ensemble for piano and winds. With her husband, cellist Eliot Bailen, Susan Rotholz is co-founder of the Sherman Chamber Ensemble in Sherman, Connecticut, now in their 27th year. She performs regularly with the Saratoga Chamber Players, the Sebago Long Lake Chamber Music Festival, The New York Wind Soloists, the Cape May and Caramoor Festivals, and has performed with the Mostly Mozart, OK Mozart and Marlboro Festivals. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Queens College and a Master of Music from Yale School of Music, and is on the faculties of Columbia University, Queens College: Aaron Copland School of Music, and the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College division. She lives in New York City with her husband and their three children.

Born in Poland, Krystof Witek, concertmaster of the GSO since 2003, came to the U.S.A. in 1987 to attend the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied with Joseph Fuchs and received his Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral degrees. Winner of the 1992 Artists International Auditions in New York, he has appeared as soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, Canada, Japan, Taiwan and the United States. He has served as concertmaster with the New Choral Society of Westchester, Stamford Symphony, Greenwich Choral Society, Jupiter Symphony, and the New York Symphonic Ensemble. He has performed with the Little Orchestra Society, the New York Chamber Symphony, the Mostly Mozart Orchestra, and the New York Pops. He has performed in many major Broadway productions, and is currently in The Lion King. Krystof is co-founder of the Forest Hills Chamber Players, the Ensemble-in-Residence at the Queens Museum of Art in New York City. His solo CD, on the Sanibel label, features works of Beethoven, Brahms, and Lutoslawski.

Daniel Miller, principal cellist of the GSO since 1988, is an active concert, theater, and recording musician. He has performed with the American Ballet Theater, American Symphony, Glimmerglass Opera, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and the New York Pops. He has appeared as soloist with the Greenwich Symphony, the Little Orchestra Society, the New Amsterdam Symphony, and the Mostly Mozart Festival. As a chamber musician, he performed at the Banff and Spoleto Music Festivals, with the Laurentian String Quartet, Musica Amici, and the Helios Ensemble. He has played in numerous Broadway productions, and has composed and recorded music for Nickelodeon and the Children's Television Network. He is currently playing the Broadway musical Wicked and is also the cellist for Cuartetango, the tango string quartet whose CD L'Atelier is on the EMI Classic label.

Constantin Popescu, principal double bass of the GSO since 1993, has distinguished himself in several fields since 1989, the year that he left his promising career in a harsh and restrictive communist Romania in order to defect to the United States, which he did while on tour with the Constanta Chamber Orchestra. A graduate of both the Bucharest Conservatory and The Juilliard School of Music, he has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Symphonies of New Haven, New Jersey and others. Popescu is a well-known luthier, trained in Bucharest, where he studied the artistry and craft of stringed instruments. He maintains two shops called Atelier Constantin Popescu – one in Westport and one in Cos Cob – where musicians from a wide geographic area seek him out to repair their instruments. Popescu is a teacher as well, the only one in southern Connecticut dedicated exclusively to the double bass.

Violist David Creswell has been performing in the New York area for more than ten years as an orchestra, chamber, and studio musician, while also keeping a busy schedule as a teacher and music coach. Mr. Creswell has been Principal Violist of the Greenwich Symphony since 2002, is Principal Violist of the Long Island Philharmonic, and is a member of the Northeast Pennsylvania Philharmonic. Mr. Creswell also frequently performs with the New York Philharmonic, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and the American Ballet Theater Orchestra. He is the former Principal Violist of the Sarasota Opera. As a chamber musician, Mr. Creswell has concertized with such renowned artists as Kathleen Battle, Sidney Harth, and Anthony Newman. His recordings include numerous film scores and popular releases as well as chamber music and projects with music icons David Byrne, Rufus Wainwright, Erasura, Linda Thompson, and Rod Stewart. He was the violist for the original Broadway productions of the Tony Award nominated ''Caroline, or Change,'' and ''The Color Purple,'' and currently plays in ''South Pacific'' at Lincoln Center. He continues to collaborate on collegiate teaching projects for students of the Juilliard School with the renowned teacher Heidi Castleman. In March of 2010, Mr. Creswell will solo in Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with the Long Island Philharmonic and concertmaster Erica Kiesewetter. Mr. Creswell studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Robert Vernon and Heidi Castleman.

Glenn Rhian, Timpanist of the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra since 1981, earned his Bachelor's degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and his Master's degree from the Juilliard School of Music, where he was winner of the Morris Goldenberg Award. A highly sought-after timpanist in the New York area, he regularly performs in Broadway and Off-Broadway shows and cast albums. Mr. Rhian is head/instructor of the Percussion department at the Hoff-Barthelson Music School in Scarsdale.

Phillip Bashor, has been principal clarinetist with the GSO since 1989. He studied at the New England Conservatory of Music with Harold Wright, principal clarinet of the Boston Symphony, and was a fellowship student at the Tanglewood Music Center for three summers. Mr. Bashor has been principal clarinetist with numerous orchestras, including the Cathedral Orchestra of Newark, New England Operetta and Amore Artis. Principal clarinetist of the Kansas City Philharmonic for seven years, he also played principal clarinet with the New Haven and New Jersey Symphonies, Brooklyn Philharmonic and the Dance Theater of Harlem. He has toured with the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble and played in thirty states with the Boris Goldovsky Opera Company. He has performed throughout the world at the International Contemporary Music Festivals of Chamber Music with the Lumina String Quartet, and performed 22 works specially written for him.