Year you joined the ECSO: 2019

I started with piano. Not for me. Then violin. Not for me. Then cello. That was it! I loved my first teacher, Mary Wortreich. She sent me to her teacher, Orlando Cole. After two years I went to Eastman where my teachers were Steven Doane and Paul Katz. Great influences. I’m lucky that I got to play in the Baltimore Symph, the Kennedy Center, NJ Symph, Philadelphia Orch, Mostly Mozart, Papermill Playhouse, Phantom on Broadway, Reading Symph, National Symph and now ECSO! Looking forward to great things here. My best wishes to all. 

Hidden talent(s):I’m a really good cook. And I love playing games. (I usually win!) I’m also a dog and cat whisperer.

Favorite musical memory: Playing Copland Symphony No. 3 with Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood. Or maybe it was in Japan, on tour with the Baltimore Symph and Yo-yo Ma. After the Elgar concerto, he’d come sit with me for Rachmaninov Symph #2.

Favorite Motto or Quote:First, it’s important to practice slowly. Then very slowly. Then finally, slowly. -Saint-Saens

Favorite Composer:Bach, Mahler, Mozart, Prokofiev, Puccini, Strauss, Stravinsky

What/Who inspired you to take up your instrument:Hearing Rostropovich’s recording of the Dvorak Concerto with Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic.

Year you joined the ECSO:1981

Corinne holds a Bachelor of Performance degree, graduated from the Alternate Route to Certification Program, holds a Master of Music Education, Master of Science in Education and a 6th year certificate in Educational Leadership. She was a contributing author for the MENC book Teaching Music in the Urban Classroom and presented at music education conferences on the state, regional and national level. She is recently retired from public education as a PreK-12 music educator and administrator. Corinne taught, coached, and conducted at the Hartford Conservatory and later served on the Board of Trustees.

In addition to playing with the ECSO, Corinne is a member of the Wallingford Symphony, and has been a substitute in Hartford, Springfield and Bridgeport symphonies. Corinne maintains an active freelance schedule with Suite Occasions, O’Brien Strings, Power Station, Michel Entertainment, Connecticut area chorale societies and theater venues.

Corinne’s lifelong passion for learning and commitment to the performing arts has placed her in biography in Who’s Who in American Women, Who’s Who in American Education, Who’s Who in the World, the Sterling Registry and she is a 2018 recipient of the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award.

Hidden Talent(s):Gardening, building rock walls, Zumba, Yoga, being a grandmother of 6 and going 70 on a wave runner.

Favorite Musical Memory:Being part of the 2001 North American Andrea Bocelli tour

Favorite Motto Or Quote:“If we fail to raise our children nothing else in life really matters” Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Favorite Composer:Gustav Mahler

What/Who Inspired You To Take Up Your Instrument:The cello was love at first sight and sound.

Year you joined the ECSO: 2015

Jenna Calabro is a freelance cellist based in the Greater Boston area. She earned a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance from the Boston Conservatory in 2015 as a student of Sato Knudsen. Jenna was a fellowship recipient at the 2015 Texas Music Festival in Houston, TX and the 2016 Marrowstone Music Festival in Bellingham, WA. She performs with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony, the Cape Ann Symphony, and the Golden Scroll Soloists. She also records and gigs with local musicians, and is a member of an alternative electropop group, fiThe Cherry Treefl. Jenna has taught students privately and as an ensemble instructor at the Waldorf School of Lexington, MA, and Indian Hill™s SummerDayMusic in Littleton, MA. Along with being a freelance cellist, Jenna is a freelance artist with Riverbend Cards.

Favorite Composer:Sergei Rachmaninoff

Year you joined the ECSO:2001

After earning an Artists Diploma at the Academy of Arts in Tirana in her native country of Albania in 1995, Matilda was chosen from the France-USA Center International for the Performing Arts to debut with the 4th Annual Mostly Mozart in Napa Valley Concert in California. Matilda earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Instrumental Performance at the Hartt School of Music in West Hartford, Connecticut, where she studied under Steven Thomas. She studied under internationally respected musician Piero Farulli at the Academia Musicale Chigiana in Italy.

Matilda has been a cellist with the New Britain Symphony Orchestra since 1997 and with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra since 2001. She received the Best Musical Ensemble Award, representing Albania in the 1993 Balkan Festival in Delphi Greece.

Matilda was honored to play the Kosovo National Anthem at the Kosovo Proclamation of Independence ceremony in Hartford Connecticut in 2016. She continues to perform within Connecticut and in Europe.

Interests:Lifelong interest in human development, goal achievement and motivation. Writing a program on maximizing professional potential.

Quote:“When a blade of grass is cut , the whole universe quivers”