Who We Are, What We Are, etc.

To see more about us, including all KINDS of useful stuff, please scroll down past the roster of musicians.

Who We Are: Members of the Musica Bella Orchestra for Our June 2010 All-Mozart Concerts (Listed alphabetically)

Violin Kristine Cangcuesta Evonne Cho Stanichka Dimitrova Ginger Dolden Aaron Johnson,    concertmaster Austin Ku Joanna Lundberg Adam Mirza Jessica Scrimale,    principal second violin Cindy Yu Viola James Eng Meredith Jensen Jhoana Pino Michael Wilson

Violoncello Anahit Harutyunyan Gaskill,     principal Linda Harrison Edward Lee Contrabass Morton Cahn, principal Pedro Giraudo Jonathan Harris Flute Kevin Lam Shoji Mizumoto, principal Oboe Scott Brodie Colleen Makary

Clarinet Heather O’Gara Jill Simon Christine Todd Bassoon Phil Fedora Nicholas Theocharopoulos Horn Margaret Hoppe David Moldenhauer Daniel Nimetz Violin Soloist Stanichka Dimitrova

Manager/Executive Director   Anahit Harutyunyan Gaskill Stage Managers   Morton Cahn, Shoji Mizumoto Music Director/Conductor   Phillip Gaskill Chorusmaster   Aram Tchobanian

To see a similar roster of the musicians who played in each prior Musica Bella orchestra concert, go to the Our History page and choose a concert. These entries are sadly not up to date at the moment; we hope to be able to rectify that at some point in the future.       To see a list of all the musicians who have ever played in any Musica Bella orchestra concert, listed by instrument and then alphabetically by musician’s name, click here. Again, we apologize that this list is not up to date at the moment.       Some of the musicians’ bios indicate “CHARTER MEMBER OF MUSICA BELLA”; these, of course, are people who have been with us continually, or close enough to continually, since our very first concert in January 2002. However, there are instruments (clarinets, trumpets, trombones, tuba, percussion) that, because of our intentionally slow growth in our first year of existence, we didn’t use at all until our third, fourth, or fifth concert; thus, people who have been with us ever since we first used their instrument are listed as “ASSOCIATE CHARTER MEMBERS,” for lack of a better term. (If anybody can suggest a better term, please put me out of my misery and E-mail me quick.) There were also certain soloists on our two debut concerts who we knew were not going to be able to stay with us after those concerts; therefore, these instruments are also counted the same for this purpose.

What we are: The Musica Bella Orchestra of New York, Inc., founded in 2001 and incorporated in the State of New York as a Not For Profit Corporation in January 2004, is a very high-quality non-professional orchestra. Membership is by invitation or audition only. Why we exist: Click here to read our Mission Statement, which by law is part of our Certificate of Incorporation with the State of New York. How we sound, Part I: Read some testimonials from distinguished musicians who have heard us. How we sound, Part II: Listen to a brief recording of Musica Bella in rehearsal or concert! Sorry, nothing new has been added recently—but that will change when and if we can actually find some spare time to do it. A little about our history: The Musica Bella Orchestra of New York, Inc., was founded and organized by cellist Anahit Harutyunyan Gaskill in 2001 and began rehearsals late in the same year. The orchestra made its concert debut on January 20, 2002. We completed that first season (2001-2002) with another concert in January and one in June, and we now have seven more seasons (2002-2003, 2003-2004, 2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2006-2007, 2007-2008, and 2008-2009) of four, seven, ten, nine, twelve, fifteen, and seven orchestra concerts, respectively, under our belt, and we’re in the middle of our 2009-2010 (ninth) season of five orchestra concerts. This all means, if our math is correct, that by the end of this season we will have played a grand total of 72 orchestra concerts in our history. In addition, by the end of the season we will have presented a total of 28 chamber music/solo recital concerts. (Note that 72 plus 28 equals 100!) Please click on the “Our History” link at the left of any page for a more detailed look at our past concerts (sadly not nearly up to date at the moment; we’ll try to get caught up one of these days), and on the “Future Concerts” link for all the currently available information on our schedule for this season. Admission to our concerts is by donation (we suggest a very reasonable $15.00, student/senior $10.00). By “by donation,” we mean that we ask you to kindly make a donation of any size, but preferably of at least the recommended minimum size if you can afford it, in order to help us continue to present these concerts. Donations: Please feel encouraged to make a donation to Musica Bella, in addition to your donation at the door. You may donate as much — or as little — as you want; every penny is appreciated. It’s really not too dramatic to say that our very survival depends on your generosity, since putting on these concerts is incredibly expensive. For more details, click here or on the “Donations” link on the left of any page. Please note that your donation is tax-deductible, as Musica Bella is a 501(c)(3) organization. Management: The music director and conductor of Musica Bella (and the Webmaster of this Web site) is Phillip Gaskill. The chorusmaster is Aram Tchobanian. The founder, driving force, executive director, and manager of the orchestra is Anahit Harutyunyan Gaskill. This site’s history: This Web site went public on Sunday, January 6, 2002, exactly two weeks before our very first concert ever, and moved to this location (musicabella.com) on Sunday, October 5, 2003, coincidentally exactly two weeks before our first Mahler concert (a significant event in itself). The “redesign” (moving the links to the left instead of the bottom) was launched on Tuesday, June 15, 2004. The last modified/updated dates are automatically displayed at the bottom of each individual page (except for the bios, where we’re interested in the date the bio information itself was last updated, as opposed to the concerts-played information). TO CONTACT US: By Phone: Call 917-579-7535. By E-Mail: Please be aware that you’ll probably be caught by our spam filter, since your E-mail address probably isn’t already in our Address Book. Please don’t be offended by this. We check our “Suspect” E-mail folder at least once a day, so we’ll see your message and add your address to our Address Book. You’ll immediately get an automated message that mentions how you can let us know about the existence of your message, and you can do that, but you don’t need to: we would just see your message a little bit quicker, that’s all. • Click here to send an E-mail to Musica Bella’s administration in general. • Click here to send an E-mail directly to executive director/manager Anahit Harutyunyan Gaskill. • Click here to send an E-mail directly to music director/conductor Phillip Gaskill. • If you experience a problem with this Web site (or just want to give us some feedback or whatever), click here to send an E-mail to Webmaster Phillip Gaskill. Postal Address: The Musica Bella Orchestra of New York 442 15th Street, Suite 2L Brooklyn, NY 11215 JOIN OUR MAILING LIST: To join Musica Bella’s mailing list, click here to send an E-mail to us (please read the long-ish paragraph in the “By E-Mail” section above); or write to us at our postal address listed immediately above. Just mention that you want to join our mailing list. This page was last modified Monday, May 24, 2010. The Musica Bella Orchestra of New York, Inc., a New York State Not For Profit Corporation, was incorporated in 2004 and became a 501(c)(3) organization the same year. For further information about becoming a donor, please visit our Donations/Support page.