Shelagh Abate, french horn

Born on Long Island NY, Shelagh completed her musical studies in New England.  After finishing her BA at Boston College, she went on to receive her MM at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and her GD at The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where she studied with Gus Sebring.  Shelagh spent 5 years as a busy and versatile freelance musician in the Boston area performing with the Boston Pops, Boston Ballet, Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, The John Allmark Jazz Orchestra, the Greg Hopkins Nonet, and all of New England's regional orchestras.  Shelagh has held the position of Principal Horn with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Jaime Laredo, since 1999.  She is also Principal of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra and City Music Cleveland, directed by James Gaffigan.  In 2005 Shelagh moved home to NY, where she was hired into the original Broadway orchestra of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White and has been freelancing in NY ever since.  She currently performs regularly on many Broadway shows, including Mary Poppins, The Phantom of the Opera, and Wicked.  Shelagh has made several television appearances with Barry Manilow, including A&E's Live! by Request, Good Morning America, and a PBS special set to air this fall.  In addition, Shelagh can be heard on Trey Anastasio's self-titled solo CD on Elektra Records and has performed live with Barry Manilow, Ian Anderson, Linda Ronstadt, Olivia Newton John, and many other noted artists.

Stephen Banzaert, trumpet

Since receiving his Master's degree from the New England Conservatory, Steve has been an active freelancer in the Boston Area, serving as principal trumpet of the New Bedford Symphony and performing regularly with Boston Musica Viva, Emmanuel Music, and the Portland, Albany, and Vermont Symphonies.  A two-time trumpet fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he was awarded the Roger Voisin Trumpet Prize, Steve performed under conductors including Seiji Ozawa, Andre Previn, James DePriest and James Conlon and presented recitals as a member of the Tanglewood Music Center Brass Quintet.  As a soloist, Steve has performed with the Concord Chorale, Rome Symphony, and Georgia Philharmonic, performed Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Trumpets with Andrew Sorg in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's New Year's Concert, and has successfully (if reluctantly) performed Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 at 9am.  Steve's principal teachers include Boyde Hood, Peter Chapman, Ray Mase, Charles Schlueter, and Jim Pandolfi.

In his copious spare time Steve is an instructor at MIT and is on the faculty of Hampshire College, where he teaches electromechanics.

Wesley Hopper, trombone

Wesley studied at the Boston Conservatory under the tutelage of Larry Isaacson. Additional teachers include David Finlayson, Rick Stout, Gregory Cox and Michael Dunn. In demand as a freelance artist, he has performed with many New England ensembles including the Boston POPS, Vermont Symphony, Portland Symphony, Albany Symphony and Boston and Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestras. As a soloist he has performed both the Wagenseil and Larson concertos with the Boston Invitational Chamber Orchestra and as quintet soloist with the New York Pops. As principal trombonist of the Boston Metropolitan Orchestra, Wesley has appeared with Arturo Sandoval and Maynard Ferguson. His extensive chamber music experience has involved him with many of the country's finest chamber musicians including the Atlantic Brass Quintet, Bibi Black, David Ohanian, Wynton Marsalis and James Jenkins. As a music publisher Wesley has worked with the Boston POPS Orchestra, Warner Brothers (Mystic River soundtrack) and numerous artists including Cyndi Lauper, Diana Ross, Mandy Patinkin, Ricky Martin, Linda Eder and the Chieftains.

Currently Wesley is an adjunct trombone professor at Boston College. He is a faculty member for Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute and the Atlantic Brass Quintet Summer Seminar. Additionally, Wesley is producer, recording engineer and co-owner of S & M Industries, a independent hip-hop record label formed with former Triton Brass member, Andrew Sorg. Wes enjoys cooking, aggressive driving and spending time with his wife, Vanessa, and miniature Schnauzers, Pfritz and Max.

Andrew Sorg, trumpet

Andrew Sorg is an active performer, composer, chamber musician and trumpet teacher in the Boston area. Originally from New Jersey, he began playing trumpet at the age of eight. A graduate of The Boston Conservatory, Andrew is a proud member of two award winning ensembles, The Atlantic and Triton Brass Quintets. He is the recipient of the bronze and silver medals at The Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, The Spedidum Prize at The International Lyon Chamber Music Competition, and the Grand Prize Winner at The New York City Brass Conference Brass Quintet Competition. He has also performed with The Paramount Brass, The Innovata Brass, Bala Brass, The Royal Brass Quintet, The Nashua Symphony and Vermont Symphony Brass Quintets and is a member of The Old South Brass Ensemble. Andrew has performed with various orchestras such as The Vermont Symphony, The Iris Orchestra, Opera Boston, Opera North, The Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, The Portland Symphony, Emmanuel Music of Boston and was a soloist with Vermont Mozart Festival Orchestra and the Gardner Chamber Orchestra. He has performed under some of the world's top conductors and made recordings with The Vermont Symphony, The Vermont Symphony Brass Quintet and The Old South Brass Ensemble under Albany and Denouement Records. As an educator he holds teaching and residency positions at Boston College, The Boston Conservatory and The Boston University Tanglewood Institute, in addition to running two Atlantic Brass Seminars in San Francisco, CA and Boston, MA. He has given master-classes at The Boston Conservatory, Calvin College, MIT and has worked with The Vermont Youth Orchestra and The Boston Youth Orchestra. He is a former faculty member at Boston College and Eastern Nazarene College and his students have won first chairs in Massachusetts Central Districts, All-State, participated in All-Eastern and gone on to some of the top music schools in the country. Andrew's primary teachers are Phil Ruecktenwald, Steve Emery, Ben Wright and Jim Pandolfi.  

Triton, the first trumpeter

Son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and Amphrite, a Nereid, Triton is depicted in Greek mythology as a mer-man, with the body of a man and tail of a dolphin.  Triton is credited, in mythology, with the invention of the trumpet, and would blow his conch shell both to announce the arrival of Poseidon and to control the waters in response to Poseidon's commands, blowing softly to soothe the waters and ease the passage of sailors, and blowing loudly to raise storms to smite those who offended Poseidon.