Boston Symphony Orchestra Player Bios

[Derek Reaban]

Benjamin Wright



Boston Symphony trumpet player Benjamin Wright represents his family's fifth generation of trumpet players; in the 1800s his great-great grandfather was bandleader and first cornet in Buffalo Bill Cody's Circus Band. Mr. Wright started music as a three-year-old Suzuki violinist, switching to trumpet at age ten. In high school he attended the Interlochen Center for the Arts and the Interlochen Arts Academy, during which time he was a finalist in the Seventeen Magazine/General Motors Concerto Competition. Mr. Wright earned a bachelor's degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Michael Sachs. While in Cleveland he won the International Trumpet Guild and National Trumpet Competitions, as well as the school's Concerto Competition, and was awarded the Bernard Adelstein Prize for Trumpet Performance upon graduating. He then left Cleveland to continue his studies in New York City with Mark Gould. Mr. Wright has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. During his two summers as a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow he was awarded the C.D. Jackson Prize and Wynton Marsalis Fellowship, and performed in the 50th-anniversary production of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes. A former member of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra and of the Chicago Symphony, he joined the BSO trumpet section in July 2002. Currently a faculty member at the New England Conservatory of Music and the Longy School of Music, Ben is married to Miriam Bolkosky, a cellist from Michigan.

Player bio taken from the Boston Symphony Orchestra web site from 2005.

A former member of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra and of the Chicago Symphony, Benjamin Wright joined the Boston Symphony trumpet section in July 2002. While a student in Cleveland, Wright won the International Trumpet Guild and National Trumpet Competitions, as well as the Cleveland Institute of Music Concerto Competition, and was awarded the Bernard Adelstein Prize for Trumpet Performance upon graduating. Wright has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. In June of 2006, he performed as guest principal trumpet with the San Francisco Symphony including performances of Mahler's Eighth Symphony.

Wright served as acting assistant principal trumpet in the BSO from 2006 to 2008, and as of February 2010 is the permanent second trumpet in the BSO. He has given masterclasses at the Manhattan School of Music and Interlochen Center for the Arts, and has been a guest faculty member for the Bar Harbor Brass and the National Orchestral Institute.

B.M., Cleveland Institute of Music with Michael Sachs; additional studies with Mark Gould, Charlie Geyer, and Chris Gekker. Also faculty of the Boston Conservatory.

Updated bio taken from the NEC website from 2010.
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Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe Winds / Symphony of the Southwest

[Derek Reaban]

Rolf Smedvig



He has performed as soloist with many orchestras, among them the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony, Cambridge Chamber Orchestra, the New World Symphony, and the NHK Orchestra of Japan, performing there under the direction of Seiji Ozawa. In 1995 Mr. Smedvig made his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival. In 1997 he appeared on tour with the Atlantic Classical Orchestra and was a guest at the 41st Eastern Band Festival. He has been a frequent guest at festivals: at Tanglewood, Wolf Trap, Chautauqua, at the Bach Festival in Marlboro and the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.

As a founding member and first trumpet of the Empire Brass Quintet, Mr. Smedvig has toured 35 countries in North and South America, Japan, Russia, Europe and Great Britain. The quintet is not only an acclaimed chamber group; it also performs with orchestras like the Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra and the Boston Symphony. It is a frequent guest of nationally syndicated radio programs including St. Paul Sunday Morning and Traditions and has been televised on Good Morning America, the Today Show and Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. In 1996 at the Pacific Music Festival he was named International Principal with members of the Berlin and Wein Philharmonic.

Mr. Smedvig has served as Music Director of the Williamsport Symphony and has also conducted the Cambridge Chamber Orchestra. Other recent conducting engagements include the Honolulu Symphony, Northwest Chamber Orchestra, Tohnhalle Orchestra of Zurich, and the Simon Bolivar Orchestra of Caracas, Venezuela. With the Venezuelans he has appeared numerous times and on tour. Mr Smedvig was instumental in bringing the entire orchestra to Tanglewood for instruction with Seiji Ozawa. Rolf Smedvig also conducted a full length CBS television broadcast from Boston's Government Center. During the 95,96, and 1997 concert season Smedvig was a frequent guest of the New World Symphony Orchestra where he served as conductor and soloist.

He was born in Seattle and made his debut as a soloist with the Seattle Symphony when he was 13. He studied at Boston University with such teachers as Armando Ghitalla, Raphael Mendez, and Maurice Andre. While studying at Tanglewood in 1971 he was invited by Leonard Bernstein to perform as soloist in the world premiere of the composer's Mass that marked the opening of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. At the age of nineteen he was appointed Assistant Principal Trumpet of the Boston Symphony by Seiji Ozawa, becoming the youngest member of the orchestra. Having served the orchestra in performance and recordings for eight years, in 1979 he was appointed Principal Trumpet and held that position until 1981 when he left to pursue a career as soloist and chamber music player.

Mr. Smedvig has served on the faculty of Boston University and the Tanglewood Music Center and he founded the Empire Brass Seminar at Tanglewood. Currently he holds the International chair at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and is a clinician for the Selmer Company. He is an accomplished arranger/composer, with hundreds of works recorded and published by the G. Schirmer , KRS Publishing and the International Music Company. In 1996 he was featured in the Warner Brother's Video the 21st century Band Method.

Player bio taken from the [url=http://www.musiciansgallery.com/start/brass/trumpets/smedvig(rolf).html]Musicians Gallery[/url] web site from 2005.
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Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe Winds / Symphony of the Southwest

[Derek Reaban]

Armando Ghitalla



Following his musical training at the Juilliard School, Ghitalla performed in the New York City Opera and Ballet and the Houston Symphony before settling in Boston, where he spent twenty-eight years in the Boston Symphony, fifteen as principal.

Ghitalla was one of the earliest American classical soloists to garner substantial recognition for his recordings. Throughout his career, he remained active as a recitalist and soloist, performing widely in the United States, Italy, and Japan. His recordings can be found on the Cambridge, Deutsche Grammophon, and Premier labels.

His distinguished career as a pedagogue included membership in the faculties of Boston University, the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford, the New England Conservatory, the Tanglewood Insitute, and the University of Michigan. At the University of Michigan, Ghitalla received the Alumni Teaching Award and the Haugh Teaching Award. From the International Trumpet Guild, received an honorary award, and from Illinois Wesleyan University an honorary doctorate. Ghitalla was serving on the faculty of the Shepherd School of Music (Rice University, Houston) at the time of his death.

Ghitalla's impact as a performer and pedagogue is well reflected in the fact that his students populate university faculties, orchestras, and other performing ensembles throughout the United States and the world.

Player bio taken from the Windsongpress.com web site from 2005.
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Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe Winds / Symphony of the Southwest

[Derek Reaban]

Roger Voisin



Arguably one of the most influential trumpet performers and teachers of the twentieth century, Voisin joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as assistant principal trumpet in 1935 at age seventeen, and became principal trumpet in 1952. He performed in the Boston Symphony for 38 years, until 1973. During this period, he was also principal trumpet with the Boston Pops Orchestra.

Voisin moved to the United States as a child when his father, René Voisin, was brought to the Boston Symphony as fourth trumpet by Sergei Koussevitzky in 1928. He was initially a student of his father, but he later studied with the Boston Symphony's second trumpet Marcel LaFosse (1895-1969) and principal trumpet Georges Mager (1885-1950). He also studied solfege with Boston Symphony contrabassist Gaston Dufresne.

He is credited with premiere performances of many major works for trumpet including Paul Hindemith's Sonata for Trumpet and Piano (with Hindemith at the piano), and Alan Hovhannes' Prayer of St. Gregory. He is also credited with the US premiere of Alexander Arutiunian's Trumpet Concerto, performing with the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1966. Leroy Anderson's A Trumpeters Lullaby was written for Roger Voisin in 1949, and first recorded with Arthur Fiedler conducting Voisin and the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1950. Leroy Anderson states that "(A Trumpeter's Lullaby) had its beginning backstage at Symphony Hall in Boston. In addition to composing and conducting, I was arranger for the Boston pops Orchestra for a number of years --- and after one of the concerts I was sitting talking with the conductor Arthur Fiedler and the first trumpet of the Boston pops, Roger Voisin. Suddenly Roger Voisin asked me why I didn't write a trumpet solo for him to play with the orchestra that would be different from traditional trumpet solos which are all loud, martial or triumphant. After thinking it over, it occurred to me that I had never heard a lullaby for trumpet so I set out to write one --- with a quiet melody based on bugle notes played by the trumpet and with the rest of the orchestra playing a lullaby background."

He has also been involved with many early recordings and performances of both solo and orchestral works including J. S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #2, Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, Aaron Copland's Quiet City, Franz Joseph Haydn's Concerto for Trumpet in Eb, Alexander Scriabin's The Poem of Ecstasy, Georg Philipp Telemann's Concerto for Trumpet in D, and Antonio Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Trumpets in C.

Roger Voisin was with the Boston Symphony at the inception of the Tanglewood Music Center in 1940, and continues to serve on the faculty there, coaching the orchestral winds and teaching solfège to the conducting class. He became chair of the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) brass and percussion department in 1950 and was the primary trumpet teacher at NEC for nearly 30 years. In 1975 he became a full professor at Boston University, teaching trumpet and chairing the wind, percussion and harp department until his retirement in 1999. In 1989 Voisin donated much of his personal music library to Boston University, where it is housed in the Mugar Library's "Special Music Collections". He was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the New England Conservatory in 1991, along with legendary jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. He has served on the jury of the Maurice André trumpet competition since 1988.

Player bio taken from the wikipedia.com web site from 2005.


Boston Globe, February 15, 2008

Roger Louis Voisin, one of the most influential orchestral trumpet players of the mid-20th century, died after a long illness Wednesday at a nursing home in Newton. Mr. Voisin, who at 17 became the youngest musician ever to join the Boston Symphony Orchestra, was 89.

more stories like thisOne of the few remaining links to the storied Koussevitzky era of the BSO, Mr. Voisin joined the trumpet section in 1935 and retired in 1973. His career spanned four music directors, and he served as the BSO's principal trumpet from 1950 to 1965.

"Roger was legendary in the trumpet world and had a very elite status among American brass musicians," said Thomas Rolfs, the current principal trumpet of the BSO. "He was admired as a player, for his contributions to premieres and recordings, and as an educator." A critic reviewing one of Mr. Voisin's albums in The New York Times in 1959, wrote: "Here is the French school of brass playing at its coolest and suavest. No big, fat, blary German tone, only controlled, sweet sound."

Mr. Voisin was born in Angers, France, and moved to Boston at age 11. His first teacher was his father, Réne, who was also a member of the BSO, and he later studied with BSO players Marcel LaFosse and Georges Mager. In 1933, Mr. Voisin met future BSO horn player Harry Shapiro at a stage show at the Metropolitan Theatre, a meeting Shapiro still recalled more than seven decades later. "This kid who had won a newspaper contest showed up to play a solo." Shapiro told the Globe in 2004. "He blew the hell out of the trumpet - Roger was playing his father's horn - and I said to myself, 'I gotta meet this guy.' "

At around the same time, Mr. Voisin was serving as a signaler at the Esplanade concerts, recalling orchestra and audience members after intermission, when he came to the attention of Boston Pops conductor Arthur Fiedler. He later joined the Boston Pops and then, with a nod from Fiedler, auditioned for the BSO at age 17. His father was vehemently opposed to the idea.

"He said, 'you don't know anything,' " Mr. Voisin told the Globe in 2006, adding that he did not try to argue. "I just said, 'oui, papa.' "

Finally, after another BSO colleague intervened, Mr. Voisin, joined the BSO and embarked on a highly successful career.

After serving in the Navy during World War II, teaching trumpet and conducting, Mr. Voisin succeeded Mager as the principal trumpet, adding to the French sheen that the Alsatian conductor Charles Munch polished during his tenure as music director from 1949 to 1962. In Munch's New York Times obituary, Mr. Voisin is quoted likening the conductor to "a great impressionist painter."

Mr. Voisin lent his brilliant sound and distinctive vibrato to many early recordings of the modern orchestral repertoire (including works by Bartok, Scriabin, and Stravinsky), but he also made numerous albums of solo trumpet works, bringing the trumpet's charms as a solo instrument to the ears of a broader public.

Over the years, he edited dozens of editions of trumpet works for International Music, including several volumes of orchestral excerpts, which aid students by serving, effectively, as road maps of the orchestral trumpet repertoire.

After his retirement from the BSO, he taught at New England Conservatory and Boston University and at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he both coached performance and taught solfege.

His trumpet students have taken up positions in professional orchestras from Honolulu to Montreal.

Peter Chapman, second trumpet of the BSO, studied with Mr. Voisin, and he recalled going to his teacher's home on Sunday mornings in 1969. "He had a library wall of repertoire in alphabetical order, and he started with A and kept going until I said, 'I don't know that one.' He'd put it on the stand and off we'd go. It didn't seem to matter to him how hard it was."

Chapman added: "He was an exceptionally exciting player. He had all kinds of flair and personality in his playing, something maybe you don't hear so much in the symphonic world these days."

Mr. Voisin seemed to agree with this broader assessment. He told the Globe in 2003, "What I miss when I listen to orchestras today is the signature of individual players and of the ensemble. When you used to listen to an orchestra, Philadelphia or Boston or New York, you would know immediately which one it was; nowadays I have a hell of a time finding out who's playing. It is superb; it is beautiful; but it doesn't have a signature."

Mr. Voisin leaves his wife, Martha H.; a son, Peter G. of Hendersonville, N.C.; a daughter, Anne M. Roy, of West Stockbridge; five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at a later date.
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Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe Winds / Symphony of the Southwest

[Derek Reaban]

Georges Mager



Georges Mager is sitting in the first row in the center of the picture with the BSO brass section (1921)
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Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe Winds / Symphony of the Southwest

[Derek Reaban]

Gustav F. Heim

Principal Trumpet:

1925-1928....New York Symphony Society
1923-1924....The Cleveland Orchestra
1921-1923....Philharmonic Society of New York
1920-1921....Detroit Symphony Orchestra
1914-1919....Boston Symphony Orchestra
1905-1907....The Philadelphia Orchestra
1904-1905....Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
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Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe Winds / Symphony of the Southwest

[Derek Reaban]

Thomas Siders



A native of Champaign, IL, Tom Siders grew up in a musical family. He began playing the piano at age six and the trumpet at age ten. Mr. Siders was fortunate to have terrific trumpet instruction throughout middle school and high school, studying with Michael Allen, Sal Percoco, Ray Sasaki, and the late Dr. Michael Ewald. He pursued further study with Professor Sasaki at the University of Texas at Austin, and graduated with high honors in 2007. Although his first love was jazz, Mr. Siders decided to shift his focus to orchestral trumpet playing. He attended Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, where he studied with Marie Speziale. After receiving his master's degree in 2009, he joined the New World Symphony in Miami Beach. Mr. Siders was a Tanglewood Music Center fellow in 2008 and 2009, and was the recipient of the 2009 Voisin Trumpet Award. In May 2009 he was a featured performer in the Conservatory Project, part of the Millennium Stage series at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. He has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera Orchestra, and the Santa Fe Symphony. Mr. Siders joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as Assistant Principal/Third Trumpet in January 2010.

Player bio taken from the BSO website from 2010.
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Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe Winds / Symphony of the Southwest

[Derek Reaban]

André Côme



Born in Cambridge, MA in 1934, Andre Come (BSO 1957-1987) studied trumpet with his uncle, Marcel Lafosse." During the Korean War, Mr. Come was a member of the Air Force Band and on discharge became a member of the Baltimore Symphony. In 1957, he succeeded his uncle as second trumpet of the Boston Symphony. He served on the faculties of the New England Conservatory, Boston University, Boston Conservatory and Brown University. He was for many years principal trumpet of the Boston Pops. His untimely death in 1987 resulted in a fellowship being endowed in his memory at the Tanglewood Music Center by his many colleagues and friends.

Andre Come Topic on TH

Player bio taken from the ITG Journal from Dec. 1990 (Page 23)
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Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe Winds / Symphony of the Southwest

[Derek Reaban]

Michael Martin



A native of Marietta, Georgia, Michael Martin joined the trumpet section of the Boston Symphony and the Boston Pops as Fourth/Utility trumpet in October 2010. Mr. Martin attended Northwestern University where he received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in trumpet performance studying with Barbara Butler and Charles Geyer. Mr. Martin was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in 2006 and 2008, receiving the Roger Voisin Trumpet Award both summers. He has performed with orchestras across the country and around the world including the Atlanta, Baltimore, and Chicago symphonies and with the Pacific Music Festival of Sapporo, Japan, and the Grand Teton Music Festival of Jackson, Wyoming. He has performed as guest principal trumpet with the Honolulu Symphony and the Seoul Philharmonic and with the Malaysian Philharmonic of Kuala Lumpur. From 2006 to 2009, Michael was a regular member with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the training orchestra of the Chicago Symphony. A champion of new music, Mr. Martin has performed with acclaimed contemporary music groups eighth blackbird and the Pacifica Quartet and has also performed with members of the Chicago Symphony as part of their "MusicNow" series at the Harris Theater. An award-winning composer, Mr. Martin has also studied composition at Northwestern University and orchestration at the University of Chicago with renowned composer, orchestrator and conductor Cliff Colnot and has been commissioned by members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Chamber Musicians.

In addition to being the first brass player in 25 years to win the Northwestern University Concerto Competition, in 2006 Mr. Martin was also the winner of the National Trumpet Competition in Washington, D.C. and was subsequently invited to perform at the Kennedy Center representing Northwestern University as part of "The Conservatory Project," an initiative aimed at highlighting the nation’s most distinguished collegiate musicians. A devoted teacher, Mr. Martin has taught students ranging from age 10 to 24 and in middle and high school concert and marching band programs around the country. Mr. Martin is also a brass instructor with the Drum Corps International World Champion Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps of Rockford, Illinois. He currently consults with the Arizona Academy of the Performing Arts of Tucson. Prior to joining the Boston Symphony, Mr. Martin enjoyed a dynamic freelance career with a diverse group of ensembles and performing artists including Sufjan Stevens, the Burning River Brass, and the Still Swingin’ Big Band of Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Martin has been a finalist for positions in the President’s Own United States Marine Band, the Cleveland Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic as well as the symphonies of Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, and San Francisco. Mr. Martin is also co-Artistic Director of the National Brass Symposium.

Player bio information taken from the Boston Symphony Orchestra website from 2011
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Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe Winds / Symphony of the Southwest

[Trompeter]

From the Schagerl website:

Ben Wright, Michael Martin, Thomas Rolfs, Thomas Siders

[Derek Reaban]

Thanks Trompeter! Great photo of the current section!
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Derek Reaban
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe Winds / Symphony of the Southwest