GREATER NEW HAVEN
YOUTH ENSEMBLES

Meet our Conductors:

Adrian Slywotzsky, Conductor, Greater New Haven Youth Orchestra and Greater New Haven Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Slywotzky has taught violin, viola and chamber music at Neighborhood Music School and serves as Director of Instrumental Music at Hopkins School in New Haven. He completed his first season as conductor of the New Haven Chamber Orchestra, and as the first conductor of the newly founded Yale Medical Symphony Orchestra. In addition, Mr. Slywotzky serves on the conducting staff of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras. He has participated in chamber music festivals including Tanglewood Music Center, California Summer Music, and the Norfolk Contemporary Music Festival. He holds a BA in Architecture and an MM in Violin Performance from Yale, where he conducted the Jonathan Edwards Chamber Players and Berkeley College Orchestra. His principal violin teachers have been Wendy Sharp, Kyung Yu and Robert Lehmann.

Mark Gahm, Conductor of the Greater New Haven Concert Band and Symphonic Wind Ensemble, received his B.A. from Yale University where he studied conducting with Thomas C. Duffy and trombone with John Swallow, and his M.M. from the University of Massachusetts where he studied conducting with Malcolm W. Rowell, Jr. and trombone with David Sporny.  As Asst. Conductor of the Massachusetts Youth Wind Ensemble at New England Conservatory, Mr. Gahm conducted concerts in Spain, Great Britain and Canada.  Mr. Gahm was also Director of the University of Massachusetts Youth Wind Ensemble for two years and has been a Guest Conductor of the Yale Concert Band and the UMass Symphony Band.  Currently, Mr. Gahm is in his tenth year as a music teacher at Guilford High School, where he directs the Concert Band, Marching Band, Sports Band, and Wind Ensemble.  Under his direction, the Concert Band and Wind Ensemble have received top awards at music festivals in CT, MA, FL and VA. In 2004, the Wind Ensemble was invited to perform at Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood.  Mr. Gahm is an active member of the Connecticut Music Educators Association, and has twice acted as Festival Chair for the CMEA Southern Region Festival.

Marvin Warshaw, Conductor of the Greater New Haven Concert Orchestra, received his B.A. from Brandeis University and his M.M. and  M.M.A. degrees from Yale University, where he studied conducting with Otto-Werner Mueller. Mr. Warshaw holds the position of Principal Violist of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and the Bellingham Music Festival. He is the violist and manager of the Wall Street Chamber Players as well as viola faculty at Wesleyan University and the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven.

John Gage, Assistant Conductor for the Concert Band, received his B.M.E. and M.M. from Central Michigan University. A percussionist, he studied with Robert Hohner and has been a featured soloist with the Windsor, Midland and Birmingham/Bloomfield Symphony Orchestras. He is an annual performer at the Montreux-Detroit International Jazz Festival and a soloist at the Aquinas Jazz Festival and Notre Dame Jazz Festival. He is a Principal Percussionist with the West Shore Symphony Orchestra. He teaches instrumental music at the Country School in Madison and is the Director of the Guilford High School Percussion Ensemble. He is a member of the Percussion section of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and the Wallingford Symphony.

Sue Zoellner-Cross, Wind Sectional Coach for the Greater New Haven Concert Orchestra, received her B.M. from Hartt School of Music, and her M.M. from Yale University. Mrs. Cross is Chair of the NMS Wind Department, Co-director of the NMS Summer Band Program, as well as a faculty member teaching bassoon and chamber music. She is also on the faculty of Choate–Rosemary Hall, Wallingford. Mrs. Cross holds the positions of Assistant Principal bassoonist with both the New Haven Symphony and Orchestra New England and has appeared as a guest soloist with the Albany Symphony and Orchestra New England. In addition, she is an active freelance performer throughout the state in orchestra and chamber music concerts.