Ensembles
The Syracuse Symphony Orchestra has eight permanent ensembles which perform regularly in a wide variety of settings including schools, libraries, health centers, senior centers, colleges and performing arts centers. These ensembles include three string quartets, two brass quintets, two woodwind quintets, and percussion ensemble. Ensembles perform formal concerts, informal clinics, and everything in between.
A major emphasis is placed on educational performances with approximately sixty concerts given each year in educational settings for over 10,000 students. Funding for chamber ensembles in schools may be available, so be sure to ask the SSO Education Manager about ideas and opportunities, including the SSO's Adopt-a-School Program.
To learn more about chamber ensembles, call the SSO Education Department at 315.424.8222, ext. 272.
BRASS QUINTET
Tuba (or bass trombone), trombone, horn, 2 trumpets. Brass instruments were first used for communication over long distances, then to announce battles, hunts, and ceremonies. The music for brass spans the centuries, from arrangements of Renaissance dances to current works composed for the modern brass quintet.
Symphony Brass Quintet
George Coble, Trumpet
Ryan Barwise, Trumpet
Jon Garland, Horn
William Harris, Trombone
Edwin Diefes, Tuba
Symphony Brass Quintet II
John Raschella, Trumpet
Ryan Barwise, Trumpet
Stephen Laifer, Horn
Douglas Courtright, Trombone
Jeffrey Gray, Bass Trombone
WIND QUINTET
Bassoon, horn, clarinet, oboe, flute. Composers have long recognized the potential of this combination of instruments for great expressiveness and variety of mood. The music for wind quintet was written in the last 200 years, though arrangements of earlier music are often played to great effect.
Symphony Wind Quintet
Deborah Coble, Flute
Philip MacArthur, Oboe
Allan Kolsky, Clarinet
Gregory Quick, Bassoon
TBD, Horn
Symphony Wind Quintet II
Linda Greene, Flute
Patricia Sharpe, Oboe
John Friedrichs, Clarinet
Stephanie Almeter, Bassoon
Jeffrey Stockham, Horn
STRING QUARTET
Cello, viola, 2 violins. Nearly all of the great composers in the past two centuries created some of their most beautiful music for string quartet. Made up of different sized instruments of the same type, the string quartet produces a perfectly balanced sound and choral effect which is unique among ensembles.
Onondaga String Quartet
Andrew Zaplatynsky, Violin
Rose MacArthur, Violin
Eric Gustafson, Viola
David LeDoux, Cello
String Quartet I
Cristina Buciu, Violin
Petia Radneva-Manolova, Violin
Li Li, Viola
Lindsay Groves, Cello
String Quartet II
Fedor Saakov, Violin
Julianna Methven, Violin
Amy Diefes, Viola
Walden Bass, Cello
PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE
Over 100 instruments! Percussion instruments are the oldest instruments in the orchestra family. They include tuned and untuned instruments that are struck, scraped, or shaken. The first ensembles, combinations of percussion and wind instruments, were the beginnings of today's chamber ensembles.
Symphony Percussion Ensemble
Herbert Flower
Ernest Muzquiz
Michael Bull
Laurance Luttinger