Meet the Musicians
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Violin I
Augusto Diemecke, Concertmaster Debrah Devine, Assistant Concertmaster Jessica Tae Anthony Chet Chang Lisa Lantz Herbert Poetzl Hannah Kim Lia Kettlekamp Violin II
Craig Evans, Principal Margaret Matthews Gary Chollet Don Webster Tracey Ingerick Grace Cox Viola
Max Buckholtz, Principal Joanne Lowe John Paul Tobin Ashley English Tobin Megan Wike Amelia Abouljoud Cello
Christine Lowe-Diemecke, Principal S. Shade Zajac Gilbert Antoine Eric Johnson Rintaro Wada |
Bass
Mario Pietra, Principal Nic Mathisen Leo Gonta Flute
Jeanne Sperber, Principal Laura Campbell Melissa Moore, piccolo Oboe
Susan Laib, Principal Anita Pawlak Lesley McClelland, English horn Clarinet
Emily Dobmeier, Principal Richard MacDowell Bassoon
Joseph Swift, Principal David Resig French Horn
Madison Warren, Principal Kyle Schober Rebecca Dodson-Webster Linda Bergstrom |
Trumpet
Younghwi Kim, Principal Lindsey Burroughs Larry Burroughs Trombone
Duane Smith, Principal Sarahjane Harrigan Craig Harrigan Tuba
Adam Peck, Principal Timpani
Emily Ickes, Principal Percussion
Simon Bjarning, Principal Chris McAllister Harp
Rosanna Moore, Principal (on leave) Catherine Caton, Acting Principal |
Meet our Principals
Every instrument family (or section) of the orchestra has a principal musician who is generally responsible for leading the group and playing orchestral solos. This is your chance to learn about the extraordinary talent that you can hear at each of our concerts.
We are very proud to have such a wonderful group of musicians.
We are very proud to have such a wonderful group of musicians.
Augusto Diemecke, Concertmaster
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Augusto Diemecke started his violin studies at age 11 with his father Emilio Diemecke. Mr. Diemecke continued his violin training with Joanna Maikovska, Enrique Espin Yepes, Jorge Risi, Manuel Suarez, Fredell Lack, and Kenneth Goldsmith. Augusto has participated in master classes with Itzhak Perlman, Henryk Szeryng, and Sergui Luca. Mr. Diemecke is a very active performer. He has played with orchestras such as the Mexico City Philharmonic, OFUNAM, Guanajuato Symphony, Houston Symphony, Houston Ballet Orchestra, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra do Norte do Portugal, and as concertmaster with Orquesta Philharmonique du Tuornon in France. He is currently the concertmaster with the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes (OSFL). As a soloist he has performed with the Guanajuato Symphony, Morelia Symphony, Orquesta Ollin Yolistly, Orquesta de Camara de Bellas Artes, Corning Youth Orchestra, North Houston Symphony, Orquesta do Norte do Portugal, and Colgate Symphony. He has performed chamber music recitals in France, Portugal, Peru, Mexico, and the United States.
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Debrah Devine, Assistant Concertmaster
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Debrah Devine studied Violin Performance at SUNY Fredonia and CUNY Brooklyn College with Cornelius Dufallo and Liang Chai. Her talent has placed her on stage with many regional orchestras and performing organizations including the Binghamton Philharmonic, the MostArts Festival Orchestra, the Tri-Cities Opera Orchestra, the Catskill Symphony Orchestra, the Clinton Symphony Orchestra, the Orpheus Theater Orchestra, the Catskill Choral Society, the Glens Falls Symphony and the Colgate University Orchestra.
As an in-demand violin and viola teacher in the Cooperstown NY Region, Debrah has been teaching strings in Upstate NY for thirteen years. She maintains private teaching studios in Norwich, Oneonta and Mt. Vision NY and has a combined 35-40 students in her studio. In June 2016, Ms. Devine was appointed to the role of Conductor for the Preparatory Orchestra of the Little Delaware Youth Ensemble based in Oneonta, NY. Additionally, Ms. Devine conducts the Junior String Ensemble. |
Craig Evans, Principal Second Violin
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Craig Evans holds a bachelor’s degree in music education from Ithaca College, a master of music performance (violin) and a master of music education from the Florida State University, and a doctor of education in educational leadership and education law from the University of Central Florida. After several years teaching in central Florida, he became a school principal in Orlando, and then in Ithaca, NY. He also conducted one of the Florida Symphony Youth Orchestras in Orlando, leading the group on tours to Carnegie Hall and Europe. Since 2004, he has served in senior-level positions in higher education and other nonprofits, leading philanthropy efforts for those institutions. He retired last summer from his most recent position, associate dean at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education. Dr. Evans continues to perform in New York State and in his current residence of Baltimore, as well as work as an executive coach and leadership development trainer through his consulting business, EvansLeadershipCoach.com. He also serves as the OSFL’s orchestra personnel manager and music librarian.
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Max Buckholtz, Principal Viola
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Max Buckholtz began playing the violin at the age of three under the direction Mary Cay Neal (the founder of The Buffalo Suzuki Strings) with whom he toured beginning at the age of ten to Europe, the Former Soviet Union and Hungary under Dr. Shinichi Suzuki’s philosophy of world peace through music. He began his studies on viola at the age of 11.
Max has participated in Master classes and collaborated with Leila Josefowicz, Hilary Hahn, David Kim, Yair Dalal, Gangadar Pradhan, and Oguz Kaan Birhekimoğlu. He has also served as a guest artist/lecturer at Cornell University and Ithaca College lecturing and performing Jewish Moldavian, Romanian Lauteri, Turkish and Indian Music, and has advised students participating in The National String Project at SUNY Potsdam: Crane School of Music. Other appointments include accompanying dance installations in Rome, Italy and collecting Jewish Moldavian Music from Botosani, Romania with a grant from Ithaca College. Max performed and composed music to go along with selected readings and spoken word from internationally renowned Fulbright Scholar Indian Author Kiran Nagakar in a program entitled There is Only One God and Her Name is Life. Max has served at Wells College and SUNY Cortland, lecturing and conducting orchestra and jazz band. He currently serves as a dance accompanist, performer, and composer at Cornell University in the Department of Performing and Media Arts and directs the world music group Journey West which explores melody as it moves across borders. www.journeywestmusic.com |
Christine Lowe-Diemecke, Principal Cello
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Christine Lowe-Diemecke holds a degree in music performance from the University of Connecticut. She is currently the principal cellist at OSFL and the assistant principal cellist in the Tri-Cities Opera. She maintains a studio of over 35 cellists at 171 Cedar Arts, Ithaca Talent Education and the Ithaca Waldorf School. Lowe-Diemecke was formerly a cellist in the Mexico City Philharmonic, as well as principal cellist in Theatre Under the Stars in Houston, TX.
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Mario Pietra, Principal Double Bass
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Mario Pietra is an upright and electric bassist, composer, and educator from Upstate New York. He performs and records actively in the northeast with a variety of jazz groups, orchestras, and other musical projects. Mario holds a master’s degree in music from Syracuse University and is the principal bassist for the OSFL.
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Jeanne Sperber, Principal Flute
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Jeanne Sperber has been known to Southern Tier audiences for over twenty years, as a soloist and orchestral flutist. She serves as principal flute of the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes in Corning and the MostArts Festival Orchestra, performing each summer in Alfred, New York. She also teaches flute privately and at Binghamton University and SUNY Broome.
Before relocating to beautiful upstate New York, she was a freelance flutist in New York City, performing in legendary venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Weill Hall and Trinity Church. She has toured South America and Cuba twice as a concerto soloist. Radio and television coverage have included a BBC broadcast of one of her Trinity church recitals as well as various television commercials and public radio and television broadcasts. Now happily settled in the Binghamton area of New York, she has been critically acclaimed for “...her brilliant, as usual, display of musicianship.” Williamsport Sun-Gazette. |
Sue Laib, Principal Oboe
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Susan Laib, principal oboist of OSFL since its inception, previously held the same positions in the Corning Philharmonic and Elmira Symphony. She came to the Twin Tiers in 1989 to join the faculty of Mansfield University, where her primary duties are teaching oboe, bassoon and coaching chamber music. An active performer, she is also principal oboe in the Williamsport (PA) Symphony Orchestra. In frequent demand as a free-lance oboist and double reed clinician, she has performed with numerous organizations throughout Pennsylvania and New York, including the Williamsport Chamber Choir and Orchestra, Lycoming College (PA) Close-Up Concert Series, Ithaca Bach Festival, Rochester Bach Festival, and presented master classes in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
Sue was an invited performer at the 2007 International Double Reed Society convention at Ithaca College as a member of the Mansfield Wind Trio and was also a featured performer at the 1988 IDRS convention at the University of Victoria, Victoria, B.C. Previously, Sue was a member of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, and on the faculty of Tennessee Technological University. As a member of Tennessee Tech’s Cumberland Quintet, Sue toured Belgium and Holland in the spring of 1988 and performed in the group's successful 1986 debut in the Carnegie Recital Hall in New York City. Sue’s students have been frequent winners of the MU orchestra’s concerto competition, and double reed alumni who have chosen to continue their studies on the graduate level have been accepted by such schools as the University of North Texas, The Eastman School of Music, Arizona State, Louisiana State, Stoney Brook, and Carnegie-Mellon. Sue holds degrees from The Eastman School of Music, University of Colorado, and Florida State University. Her teachers include Robert Sprenkle, Thomas Stacy, David Abosch, Ronald Roseman, Richard Killmer, and she has attended master classes with Barrick Stees, Christopher Weait, John Mack, Joseph Robinson, and the 2005 Glickman-Popkin Bassoon Camp. |
Emily Dobmeier, Principal Clarinet
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Based in Rochester, New York, Emily Dobmeier is an active clarinetist and educator, currently pursuing her doctoral degree in Clarinet Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music. She is a faculty member at the Eastman Community Music School, teaching private instruction and leading their Pathways Clarinet Choir. In addition to her teaching and performing career, Emily serves as Program Director at Luzerne Music Center in Lake Luzerne, New York, combining her love for music and the outdoors.
Emily has appeared as a featured artist at Midwest ClariFest and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp’s Summer Music Series and has performed with the Oistrakh Symphony in Chicago and Madeline Island Chamber Music Camp in La Pointe. She has held teaching positions as a Teaching Assistant at the Eastman School of Music, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp and as the Woodwind Fellow for the DePaul University Community Music Division in conjunction with the Chicago Public School System. A native of Central New York, she completed her bachelor’s degree in Music Education and Clarinet Performance from Ithaca College and received her master’s degree at DePaul University, studying under Chicago Symphony Orchestra Principal Clarinetist, Stephen Williamson. Other primary teachers have included Jon Manasse, Kenneth Grant, and Richard Faria. |
Joseph Swift, Principal Bassoon
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Joseph Swift serves on the faculty at Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts. As a performer, Joseph has played with orchestras across the United States and Canada, in addition to chamber performances throughout the East Coast, Midwest and London, England. He has performed with the New Jersey Symphony, South Bend Symphony Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony, York Symphony Orchestra, and Napa Festival Orchestra among others.
His debut solo album Room to Breathe was released in March 2023 receiving high acclaim across distinguished musical journals Joseph holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Western Michigan University’s Dalton School of Music, Master’s Degrees in Bassoon Performance and Chamber Music from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in SUNY Stony Brook University’s Music Department. |
Madison Warren, Principal Horn
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As a freelance horn player, Madison Warren performs with several groups in the Rochester area including the Rochester Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Symphoria, and the Binghamton Philharmonic. She is looking forward to serving as principal horn of OSFL for their 2023-24 season. Madison completed her bachelor’s of music at Oberlin Conservatory and received her master’s of music as a recipient of the Performer’s Certificate at the Eastman School of Music. When not making music, Madison enjoys being outside, and growing, cooking, and eating plants.
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Younghwi Kim, Principal Trumpet
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Younghwi Kim, hailing from South Korea, is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Trumpet Performance and Literature under the guidance of Professor Andrew McCandless at the Eastman School of Music, where he is the trumpet studio teaching assistant. His musical journey began at Seoul Arts High School, and he subsequently earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in Hungary as a recipient of the Hungarian government scholarship. From 2020 to 2022, he continued his musical journey by participating in the Korea Military Academy Army Band. He taught at the Music Department of Dulwich College Seoul and served as a guest trumpet player with the Wonju Philharmonic Orchestra in the first half of 2023.
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Duane Smith, Principal Trombone
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Duane Smith is currently principal trombone with the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes and principal trombone with the Northern Tier Symphony. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Duane has also performed with the Akron Symphony and the Northeast Pennsylvania Philharmonic and recently retired from thirty-three years as an instrumental music educator.
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Adam Peck, Principal Tuba
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Adam Peck has been a substitute tuba player in the OSFL for several seasons and now is honored to be appointed the OSFL's new tuba principal. He has been principal with the Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra, B.C. Pops and Tri-Cities Opera Orchestra for 38 years. Adam studied Music Education and Performance at Ithaca College and regularly performs with orchestras and brass groups in the two-state region including the Williamsport Symphony and Billtown Brass. An unabashed Bruckner lover, he lives in Muncy, PA with his wife Tena and six fur babies.
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Emily Ickes, Principal Timpani
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Emily Ickes grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and graduated from Western Michigan University in 2007 with a B.M. in percussion performance. She went on to Ithaca College, where she studied with Gordon Stout, and received her M.M. in 2009. Emily was an instructor at the Ithaca College School of Music from 2013-2021, teaching music theory, aural skills, and percussion classes. She also served twice as a semester-long substitute applied percussion professor, teaching private lessons and coaching the percussion ensemble and steel band.
Emily began playing with the OSFL in 2008 in the percussion section and became the orchestra’s principal timpanist in 2012. Currently, she is an active performer in both the Southern Tier region and southwestern Michigan. She plays electric vibraphone in the Ithaca-based group the OXtet, a jazz-fusion group heavily influenced by the music of Frank Zappa, and she also performs on solo marimba for weddings and other special events. Recently, she discovered her entrepreneurial side and launched her own business, Emily Ickes Music LLC, where she has created an online intensive educational course specializing in advanced marimba technique. |
Simon Bjarning, Principal Percussion
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Simon Bjarning is originally from Denmark and has a Master’s degree in Classical Percussion from the Royal Danish Academy of Music. He has performed professionally with the Danish Radio Sinfonietta, Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Lancaster Symphony, Ensemble X, Endless Mountain Music Festival and MostArts Music Festival. Simon has performed several musical theater productions ranging from shows such as Phantom of the Opera, The King and I, Chicago, The Producers and Wicked. Simon is an active member of the Sabian Education Network and D’Addario Education Collective and plays Sabian Cymbals exclusively.
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Rosanna Moore, Principal Harp (on leave 24-25)
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Rosanna Moore holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts, with a minor in theatre and an Arts Leadership Certificate, from the Eastman School of Music. She studied in the studio of renowned harpist Kathleen Bride, and was gratefully supported by the Eileen Malone Scholarship. Originally hailing from the UK, Rosanna graduated with honours from the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in 2011, where she studied with the renowned Welsh harpist Eira Lynn Jones.
Known for her quirky and engaging performances, Rosanna is fast gaining recognition as both a harpist and actor. Comfortable performing as a soloist, chamber musician or orchestral player, she actively performs around the US and Europe. She has won accolades for her performances with the World Harp Festival, Marcel Tournier and Tierra47 competitions. Her writings have recently been published by both Harp Column and Contemporary Music Review. She premiered ‘Extraordinary Motion: Concerto for Electric Harp and Orchestra’ by Grammy winner, DJ Sparr in April 2024 and will be premiering Sean William Calhoun's Concerto in October 2024. As an educator, Rosanna is the Professor of Harp at Dublin Conservatoire, Ireland and Opus Ithaca. |
Catherine Caton, Acting Principal Harp
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Catherine Caton started playing the harp at a young age, beginning lessons at the Eastman Community Music School with Dr. Nan Gullo Bassett. She was principal harpist of the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, and during her time there, was the winner of the RPO League’s Helen Greer instrumental award. Following high school, she enlisted in the Marine Corps before returning to finish her education at the Eastman School of Music under the instruction of Professor Kathleen Bride.
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Musicians for Hire
Looking for classical musicians for a wedding, cocktail party, wine tasting, or other special event? The Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes can help put you in touch with talented professional musicians who will dazzle your guests. Please feel free to contact the office with any questions at (607) 936-2873, or via e-mail [email protected].
OSFL Brass Quintet at GlassFest 2022
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OSFL Viola Section at Holiday Concert 2019
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