| POP A QUESTION
Have a question about music? What it’s
like to be a professional musician? How a musician gets
started in a career? Here’s your chance to “Pop
a Question” to a New York Pops musician. Send
e-mail to one of the musicians below and receive a personalized
response. It’s free! Everyone is invited to participate:
students, teachers, music fans, composers, musicians…
everyone!
Erica
Kiesewetter
 Violinist
Erica Kiesewetter is concertmaster of the American Symphony
Orchestra, Opera Orchestra of New York, Solisti New
York Chamber Orchestra, Stamford Symphony Orchestra,
Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic and the Long
Island Philharmonic. She has performed as concerto soloist
with all of these orchestras and most recently with
the American Ballet Theatre at City Center. Ms. Kiesewetter
is the violinist of the newly formed Columbia Synfonietta.
She became concertmaster of The New York Pops in the
spring of 2005. In the chamber music arena, she was
the violinist of the Leonardo Trio for 14 years, and
was also the first violinist of the Colorado Quartet.
Ms. Kiesewetter received her musical training at the
Juilliard School, and has studied with Ivan Galamian,
A. William Live, Margaret Pardee, Charles Castleman,
Emanuel Vardi, Joyce Robbins, Gerald Beal, and the Juilliard
Quartet. Ms. Kiesewetter is on the faculty of Columbia
University.
Ronald
Arron
 Violist
Ronald Arron, a native of Chicago, began his studies
at the age of seven with his father and renowned violin
teacher, Samuel Arron. A graduate of Northwestern University,
Ronald Arron was a member of the United States Army
Strolling Strings from 1966 to 1969, performing regularly
at the White House. For seventeen years, Mr. Arron was
the assistant principal violist of the Cincinnati Symphony
Orchestra and is currently a member of the Metropolitan
Opera Orchestra. He has also served as principal violist
for the Stamford Symphony as well as the New York Pops
and has performed as a member of the Richmond (VA) and
Florida Symphonies.
As a chamber musician, Mr. Arron performs frequently
in the New York area and has appeared in such venues
as Lincoln Center and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie
Hall. Mr. Arron is also the Artistic Director of the
Counseling Center Chamber Music Series in Bronxville,
New York. He was a founding member of the Symphony String
Trio of Cincinnati, and has participated in numerous
summer festivals, including the Garth Newel Chamber
Music Festival, the Sun River Music Festival and the
Santa Fe Opera. A dedicated teacher, Mr. Arron has been
a faculty member at the Congress of Strings and the
Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division.
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Jeff
Carney
As one of the most in demand bassists in New York City,
Jeff Carney’s resume reads like a who’s
who of the world’s elite recording artists. As
an accompanist, Jeff could be heard alongside jazz greats
Stan Getz, Art Farmer, John Abercrombie, Bobby McFerrin,
Dewey Redman, Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Henderson, Woody
Shaw, Freddie Hubbard, Cedar Walton, and Clifford Jordan,
and with pop icons such as Sting, James Taylor, Billy
Joe, Elton John, Barbara Streisand, Blues Traveller,
Portishead, and Aerosmith (on the soundtrack for Armageddon).
He is currently principal bassist with The New York
Pops Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, and has worked with
The New York Philharmonic and The San Francisco Symphony
Orchestra. He could also be found in the Broadway production
of Beauty and the Beast, and as a studio player on many
Jingles and film soundtracks including Lethal Weapon
III, Prelude to a Kiss, Interview with a Vampire and
Pocahontas. Jeff is currently a faculty member at New
York’s New School of Music, and maintains an active
clinic and workshop schedule around the world.
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Mark
Patterson
 Mark
Patterson’s collection of twentieth-century trombones
has been heard in concert halls and jazz clubs with
Clark Terry, Sir Roland Hanna, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra,
Jaki Byard, and Dale Bruning; and on tour with the Maria
Schneider Jazz Orchestra, Convergence (with Greg Gisbert),
David Matthews' Manhattan Jazz Orchestra (with trombonists
Jim Pugh, Bill Watrous, and Dave Taylor), the New York
Pops Orchestra (with Skitch Henderson), and vocalists
such as Audra McDonald. His pencils, sharpened in studies
with Bob Brookmeyer and Jim McNeely, are employed in
works for BMI Jazz Composers’ Orchestra, the new
music group Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and Mark’s
own groups, including Convergence. The fresh viewpoints
of young (and older!) musicians keep Mark enthusiastically
returning to teach at various jazz camps in the summer.
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Diane
Lesser
 Oboe
Diane Lesser is the Principal Oboist of the New York
Pops, EOS Ensemble, Long Island Philharmonic, Brandenburg
Ensemble, Solisti New York, Ascension Music, and the
Greenwich Symphony. In addition, she is the solo English
horn player of the Little Orchestra Society and Concordia.
Ms. Lesser has appeared as soloist with the OK MOZART
Festival, Dennis Keene Music Festival, Brooklyn's Bargemusic,
and at the 1992 Festival Olympique Des Arts (Winter
Olympics) in Albertville, France. She made her solo
debut at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center with Alexander
Schneider and the New York String Orchestra.Ms. Lesser
was the recipient of an Affiliate Artist Award, resulting
in solo recitals at the University of Pennsylvania,
Weill Recital Hall and throughout the United States.
Other awards include the Performers of Connecticut Woodwind
Competition, Institute of International Education Grant
and the Wind Soloist Competition at The Juilliard School.
She has played at the White House, Gracie Mansion, and
for the visit of Pope John Paul II. Active in the world
of commercial music as well, Diane Lesser has been heard
in the films What Planet Are You From? You've Got Mail,
Fargo, The Untouchables, It Takes Two, The Spanish Prisoner,
and 8 MM. She has recorded hundreds of television and
radio commercials and on albums with such artists as
The Three Tenors, Celine Dion, Boyz II Men and Elton
John. Ms. Lesser performed in the orchestra for the
Grammy Awards and on Sesame Street. Lesser received
her Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School,
where she was a student of Robert Bloom. She earned
her Master of Arts degree from Queens College, where
she held the position of Adjunct Lecturer in Chamber
Music and studied with Leonard Arner. Born in Norwalk,
Connecticut, Ms. Lesser lives in New York City with
her husband Richard Pollan and daughters Julia and Rachel.
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Charles
McCracken
Bassoonist Charles McCracken enjoys a career which covers
every facet of musical performance; from Placido Domingo
to Jewel, Itzhak Perlman to Eric Clapton, from the Guarneri
Quartet to KISS, Charles has, for the last 27 years,
performed and recorded in an astonishing array of divergent
styles.
One of New York’s busiest free-lance musicians,
he is currently Principal Bassoon with the American
Symphony Orchestra, The New York Pops, the EOS Orchestra,
the OK Mozart Festival in Bartlesville Oklahoma and
is in the pit at Broadway’s long-running hit show
Beauty and the Beast. He has also performed as Principal
Bassoon with the Metropolitan Opera, Orpheus Chamber
Orchestra, New York Chamber Symphony, New Jersey Symphony,
Mostly Mozart, American Composers Orchestra, Brooklyn
Philharmonic and is a frequent guest artist with the
New York Philharmonic, the Chamber Music Society of
Lincoln Center, the Orchestra of St. Lukes, New York
City Opera, New York City Ballet and can be heard, anonymously,
on countless film soundtracks and television and radio
commercial “jingles”.
Summers find Mr. McCracken at prestigious music festivals
across the country, including Caramoor, Ravinia, Mostly
Mozart, the JVC Jazz Festival and as a guest artist
in chamber music festivals in NY, NJ, PA, MA, CT, ME,
NH, VT, NM and in Kuhmo, Finland.
Charles has given recitals and Master Classes at Ohio
State University, Ithaca College, Louisiana State University,
North Carolina School of the Arts and has been invited
to perform at several of the annually held conferences
of the International Double – Reed Society.
After more than 15 years of living in Bergen County,
Charles recently moved to suburban Westchester and is
the proud father of Ian, 17 ½, and Grace, 14.
Charles enjoys spending his free time with Ian and
Grace and is renowned in the free-lance community for
his cooking and home-made bread. He likes traveling
on vacations to places much less crowded than the NYC
area and, from 1985 to 2000, was a vocational competitive
runner.
In September of 2002, Charles married Anne Briggs
and is living happily ever after.
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Jane
Cochran
 Jane
Cochran, a native of Manhattan, started playing Oboe
while attending the Music and Arts High School. During
this time she discovered the English horn and by college
she was devoting all her energies to this tenor member
of the oboe family. After attending Queens College,
where she majored in anthropology, she freelanced and
toured extensively finally settling in Leonia, New Jersey.
Jane has played at the Saratoga and Mostly Mozart festivals,
substituted in the orchestra pits of many Broadway shows,
and is the Associate Principal Oboe and English horn
player at the New York City Ballet. She has played with
The New York Pops since “day one,” and greatly
appreciates the variety of their repertoire.
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Cynthia
Otis
 Cynthia
Otis is a well-traveled performer who can boast to having
appeared as a soloist or chamber artist in every state
in the continental U.S. as well as throughout Canada.
Cynthia started harp at a young age and first debuted
at Carnegie hall under the baton of Rudolf Ganz at the
age of 16 as the winner of the Young People’s
Concerts Competition held by the New York Philharmonic.
This was just the beginning of a career that included
becoming a member of the orchestras of New Haven, Hartford,
and Springfield as well as New York’s famed Little
Orchestra Society and Connecticut’s legendary
Goodspeed Opera House. She has also performed as part
of the New York Concert Trio which toured under the
auspices of Columbia Artists.
These days Cynthia divides her time between her home
on Cape Cod and her place in New York City where, in
addition to playing with The New York Pops, she spends
thirty weeks a year as principal harpist and occasional
soloist with the New York City Ballet Orchestra, a position
she has held since 1959.
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John
Moses
 John
Moses is New York City's leading free-lance and recording
clarinetist. Having performed with virtually every musical
group in the area, he is currently the first clarinetist
with: American Composers Orchestra, The New York Pops,
The Little Orchestra Society, and The Westchester Philharmonic.
He has performed regularly with: The New York Philharmonic,
The New York City Opera, The St. Louis Symphony, The
San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and The Royal Philharmonic
of London. Mr. Moses has been involved with many Broadway
shows including: Wicked, 2002 Oklahoma!, Titanic, Nine,
Into The Woods, Crazy for You, Jerome Robbins Broadway,
and Sweeney Todd. He has also been featured on over
150 film scores including: You've Got Mail, Analyze
This, Beauty and the Beast, SWAT, and Aladdin. He has
also appeared on: The David Letterman Show, Good Morning
America, Ainsley Harriott and The Rosie O'Donnell Show.
A graduate of Juilliard, he is currently on the faculty
at Brooklyn and Queens College, and has lectured at
Yale, Curtis, Eastman, Mannes, and the Manhattan School
of Music. His recordings include works with many solo
artists: Marilyn Horne to Celine Dion, Placido Domingo
to Mandy Patinkin, Wynton Marsalis to Judy Collins,
as featured on RCA, Angel, Elektra, CRI, Varese Sarabande,
BMG, and Columbia. He lives in Leonia, NJ with his wife,
Lori, and their three children, Leah, Rachel, and David.
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Katherine
Fink
 Flutist
Katherine Fink enjoys a multifaceted musical career
that includes orchestral, chamber, solo and commercial
performance. She is principal flute with the Brooklyn
Philharmonic, the New York Pops and the Eos Orchestra
and she performs regularly with the Metropolitan Opera
Orchestra. Ms. Fink is a member of the Borealis Wind
Quintet, well known throughout the United States for
its recitals, master classes and recordings. She has
appeared as soloist and chamber musician with the Brooklyn
Philharmonic, the New York Pops, the Bronx Arts Ensemble,
Lincoln Center Chamber Music ensembles, Philharmonia
Virtuosi, the New York Chamber Symphony and the Hong
Kong Philharmonic. Ms. Fink also plays in the orchestra
fro Disney’s Broadway production of “Beauty
and the Beast.”
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David
Heiss
 David
Heiss is principal cellist for The New York Pops orchestra
at Carnegie Hall under Skitch Henderson. He enjoys playing
his beautiful 1789 John Betts cello in a wide variety
of musical settings. He is a member of the Metropolitan
Opera Orchestra, where he has played solo cello continuo
for over 250 performances of Mozart’s operas.
He is a sought-after guest artist for many New York
area chamber groups and orchestras, additionally David
is a veteran of over 500 recording sessions for films,
television and commercials. Featured in Musical America
as a “Young Artist to Watch”, Mr. Heiss
won the Artists International Competition and made a
highly successful Carnegie Recital Hall debut. He played
the American premiere of Theodore Antoniou’s Jeux
at Tanglewood, a performance in which The New York Times
wrote, “a lot of aural excitement was churned
up by the virtuosic Mr. Heiss”. In the 2001-2002
season, he was involved in two world premieres: Alain
Gagnon’s “LeRameau de Soie” for solo
cello and chamber choir and Robert Manno’s “Cello
Sonata No. 1”, with pianist John Churchwell. As
the onstage solo cellist in The Elephant Man, Mr. Heiss
performed his own arrangements of incidental music for
the Tony-award winning drama on Broadway. Called “a
remarkable cellist” by the Chicago Sun Times,
he studied with Leonard Rose at The Julliard School.
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Tony
Kadleck
 Trumpeter
Tony Kadleck has been free-lancing in the New York area
since 1986. After college, Tony did some touring with
Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, and Blood, Sweat &
Tears. His recording credits range from Dizzy Gillespie
and Natalie Cole to Michael Jackson and Luther Vandross.
In concert, Kadleck has performed with many greats,
including Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder, Tony Bennett,
and the Boston Pops. In addition, Tony has also worked
with the big bands of Joe Henderson, Don Sebesky, Bob
Mintzer, Dave Grusin, and Buddy Rich. He has been a
member of the New York Pops since 1996.
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Marcus
Rojas
Tubist Marcus Rojas has performed with such diverse
groups as The Metropolitan Opera, The American Ballet
Theatre, American Symphony Orchestra, Radio City Music
Hall, and ensembles led by Lionel Hampton, David Byrne
and P.D.Q. Bach. An avid proponent of contemporary,
improvised and classical music, he has performed the
premieres of such notable composers as LaMonte Young,
Gunther Schuller, and Peter Schickele. He has recorded
with CBS Records, Sony Records, A&M Records and
has been heard on countless film scores, including Interview
With A Vampire and Sleepless in Seattle.
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Norman
Freeman
 The
Reverend Norm Freeman has earned Bachelors and Masters
of Music Degrees from The Juilliard School, and a Masters
of Divinity Degree from the General Theological Seminary.
Norm's musical career includes performances with The
New York Philharmonic, The Metropolitan Opera, Barbra
Streisand's 1994 Concert Tour, Rick Wakeman, The Moody
Blues, Lionel Richie, Barry White, Rosemary Clooney,
and The Jesse Norman/Kathleen Battle- Spirituals Concert.
Norm has performed on four Grammy nominated projects,
including the Grammy Award winning New York Philharmonic
recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 In D
Minor. Since entering the General Theological Seminary,
receiving pastoral training at Bellevue Hospital in
NYC, and being ordained an Episcopal Priest, Norm has
performed for The New York Pops, the MTV Music Video
Awards Broadcast 9/9/99, Saturday Night Live
with Pavarotti and Vanessa Williams, Metallica, numerous
Broadway Shows, the New York premiere of Paul McCartney's
Standing Stone with The Orchestra of St. Luke's,
and Jesse Norman's Christmas CD, In the Spirit.
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Sid
Jekowsky
Sid Jekowsky was born on June 5, 1919 in New York City.
He grew up in Brooklyn and attended Eastern District
High School. There he began saxophone lessons with a
W.P.A. teacher starting clarinet lessons senior year
of high school. He attended NYU School of Education
and received a B.S. in Music Education before serving
in the US Army infantry in the Pacific during World
War II. After his discharge he returned to NYU for his
Master of Arts degree.
He soon met Nick Perito and Don Costa who encouraged
him to study flute and introduced him to a career in
recording and the jingle industry. In 1957 Mort Lindsey
hired him to play with the ABC Orchestra for Pat Boone
where he joined the staff orchestra playing TV shows
like the Firestone show and Dick Cavett.
Sid has played on Broadway in many musicals both as
a sub and as a regular and has never stopped playing
for weddings, dances, and private parties. He started
with Skitch and The New York Pops at its founding in
1983 and he’s still with it.
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Daniel
Culpepper
 Daniel
Culpepper is a very active freelance Horn player in
New York City. After studies at Eastman, Berlin Hochschule
and Yale, Mr. Culpepper was principal Horn with the
U.S. Air Force Band in Washington, DC performing frequently
at the White House. He performs regularly with the New
York City Ballet, New York Pops, Little Orchestra Society
and at Radio City Music Hall. Mr. Culpepper’s
career has been both diverse and eclectic. He has performed
or recorded with Frank Sinatra, Elton John, Joshua Bell,
James Taylor, Pavarotti, Sting and Yo-Yo Ma, among many
others. He tours and records frequently with the Borealis
Wind Quintet. He has recorded many film scores including
Ransom, You’ve Got Mail, and 8mm
as well as the TV themes for Monday Night football,
ABC Evening News, ESPN Sportcenter and the last four
Superbowls. Mr. Culpepper has appeared on David Letterman
and Good Morning America and recorded numerous T.V.
and radio commercials. On Broadway, he has been a member
of the orchestras for Les Miserables, Miss
Saigon and is currently Principal Horn of Phantom
of the Opera.
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Education Department, please e-mail:
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