Bringing Broadway's incredible musicians from the pit to the stage!
Keith Bonner, flute
Flutist Keith Bonner is a diverse freelance musician who actively performs with symphony and opera orchestras, chamber groups, and Broadway pit orchestras, as well as regular studio work on film and television soundtracks. Currently principal flute of the New York Symphonic Ensemble and Riverside Symphony, Mr. Bonner has also performed with the New Jersey and Stamford Symphony Orchestras, New York City Ballet Orchestra, Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra, Strathmere Festival Orchestra, and the Brooklyn and Long Island Philharmonics. Past positions have included principal flute with the Sarasota Opera Orchestra, the Ashlawn-Highland Opera Festival, and the Dicapo Opera Orchestra.
As soloist, Mr. Bonner has performed concertos by Gluck, Telemann, Bach, Doppler, and Mozart with various orchestras in the New York metropolitan area and across Japan with the New York Symphonic Ensemble. He has also performed chamber music with the Lenape Chamber Ensemble, ElmCity Chamber Fest, Carolina Chamber Music Festival, Wind Soloists of New York, and on the St. Alban's Recital Series.
Mr. Bonner can be heard in the orchestra of the twenty-fifth-anniversary production of Les Misérables on Broadway, and has traveled the country as principal flute of the national touring company of The Phantom of the Opera. Additional Broadway credits include Cinderella, Ragtime, Nine, Fiddler on the Roof, Beauty and the Beast, Mary Poppins, Porgy and Bess, and South Pacific. He is currently on the faculty of Brooklyn College and the 92nd Street Y.
David Mancuso, percussion
A graduate of Oberlin Conservatory and Temple University, percussionist David Mancuso has performed and recorded with symphony, opera, and ballet orchestras, and in new-music ensembles. Additionally, he has served as drummer, percussionist, and assistant conductor for a roster of Broadway shows, and as part of the music-coordination team with Disney's productions of The Lion King in Paris, Sydney, Hamburg, Scheveningen, Las Vegas, Madrid, Saõ Paolo, and two U.S. national tours.
Based in New York City, David currently performs a wide array of music—from pop, rock, world music, and contemporary chamber music, to the standard orchestral and choral repertoire. He recently recorded two albums with the Fireworks new-music ensemble, and also enjoys practicing and teaching meditation and the art of Japanese swordsmanship.
Andrew Beall, percussion
Hailed by New York Classical Review as "spectacularly virtuosic," percussionist and composer Andrew Beall's works have been performed in Siberia, Italy, Germany, China, Lithuania, Sweden, the U.K., South Africa, and Mexico, amongst others. His second major orchestral work, Affirmation, was premiered at Avery Fisher Hall and recently recorded by the Siberian Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Beall has performed on Broadway in The Lion King, Les Misérables, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, In the Heights, and A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, and with orchestras such as the American Symphony Orchestra, Columbus Symphony, Greenwich Symphony, and the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas. Additionally, Mr. Beall is the drummer for the eclectic rock quartet Cordis and the Broadway dance company American Dance Machine.
Mr. Beall has released two solo albums on BMP Records, Deliverance and Glass Jungle, and his third album, Concerti, will be released this spring. President Emeritus of the Percussive Arts Society New York Chapter and owner of Bachovich Music Publications, Mr. Beall is an endorsing artist for Pearl Drums, Sabian Cymbals, Innovative Percussion, Latin Percussion, and Evans Drumheads, and holds degrees from Manhattan School of Music and New York University.
Mr. Beall's musical, Song of Solomon, recently finished a sold-out run at the Thespis New York Festival, where it was nominated for Best Musical and acclaimed as "a breathtakingly epic crescendo," followed by a sold-out concert performance with Tony-nominated Robert Cuccioli at the Actors Temple in New York and the Wick Theater in Boca Raton, Florida. Song of 'Almah, featured on this BCP program, was originally written as a duet for marimba and soprano—a twenty-minute song cycle that has since been expanded into the full two-hour Song of Solomon. "Musical Illusions" marks the world premiere of the new version for marimba and flute.
Lynne Cohen, oboe
Oboist Lynne Cohen is a staple of the New York freelance scene, with twenty years of experience performing with the orchestras for Broadway productions including the revival of Les Misérables, Miss Saigon, The Wizard of Oz, La Bohème, Little Women, Mary Poppins, Ragtime, Porgy and Bess, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and South Pacific.
Ms. Cohen has held full-time positions with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Florida [Ft. Lauderdale Symphony]; Greater Miami Opera; Palm Beach Symphony, Opera, and Ballet; and Miami City Ballet. A four-year stay in Europe brought her opportunities to perform with L'Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, Collegium Academicum de Genève, and the Hofer Symphoniker in Germany, in addition to teaching chamber music at the Hindemith Institute in Blonay, Switzerland.
Ms. Cohen was heard on the 2013 NBC special The Sound of Music Live!, and her playing is featured on the albums of Harry Connick Jr., Jason Robert Brown, Kelli O'Hara, John Miller, and numerous cast recordings. Lynne currently serves on the faculty of Kean University and maintains an active teaching studio in Chatham, New Jersey.
Michele Fox, violin
Canadian violinist Michele Fox has maintained an active freelance schedule since moving to New York City in 2012, working on Broadway as a substitute for such shows as Newsies, Porgy and Bess, The Lion King, Les Misérables, and On the Town, as well as the 2013 and 2014 productions of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.
While in Canada, Michele was active in the Toronto theater circuit for over a decade, and was frequently featured as concertmaster on such shows as The Lion King, The Producers, Annie Get Your Gun, The Lord of the Rings, and Wicked. In 2008, she became concertmaster of the Stratford Festival of Canada, performing Cabaret, Evita, and West Side Story, among others. Ms. Fox was also a regular substitute player with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Canadian Opera Company, which included numerous recording projects and international tours.
An avid chamber musician, Michele founded the Harbour String Quartet while serving as concertmaster in the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, and has toured Europe, Canada, the U.S., and New Zealand with pianist Cordula Hacke.
Laura Bontrager, cello
Laura Bontrager received her bachelor's and master's degrees at the Juilliard School, where she studied with Lorne Munroe and Joel Krosnick as a William Randolph Hearst Foundation and Leonard Rose Memorial Scholar. Her commitment to contemporary music began with her well-received North American premiere of Richard Barrett's Ne songe plus à fuir for solo cello at Juilliard's Focus! Festival, and continued in featured performances of works by Roger Sessions and John Tavener with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble.
Ms. Bontrager has appeared with a wide variety of orchestras and chamber ensembles, in jazz and popular settings, on Broadway, and frequently in solo recital. She has performed with Leonard Bernstein, Michael Tilson Thomas, Leonard Slatkin, Bernadette Peters, Elvis Costello, and she has recorded on the RCA Victor and Sony Classical labels, among others.
Most recently, Laura recorded David Wolfson's Sonata for Cello and Piano on the Albany Records album 17 Windows. Ms. Bontrager is a longtime member of the cello quartet CELLO, the Aurasuono Trio, and regularly performs with the Springfield [MA] Symphony and American Modern Ensemble. She is a certified Suzuki teacher and is a faculty member at Manhattan's Diller-Quaile School of Music and the Chapin School.