The members of the Westchester Philharmonic’s cello section, including Sarah Carter, Roberta Cooper, Chris Finckel, Maureen Hynes, Melissa Meell, and Lanny Paykin, perform works including music of Saint-Saëns, Borodin, Satie, Sibelius, Joni Mitchell, the Beatles…and Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasillieras No. 5. With Jeanne Ireland, mezzo-soprano.

Sarah Carter performs with the Westchester Philharmonic, American Symphony Orchestra, American Composer's Orchestra, Stamford Symphony, Opera Orchestra of New York, Little Orchestra Society, Riverside Symphony, and Oratorio Society. She has been the principal cellist of the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra for several years. Broadway shows include "Damn Yankees," "The King and I," "Parade," "The Music Man," "Oklahoma," "Never Gonna Dance" and "South Pacific." She has recorded with artists such as Audra McDonald, Mandy Patinkin, and Kelli O'Hara and was a featured guest artist on Chuck Mangione's CD, "The Feeling's Back." Her class of private cello students is a great source of joy.

Roberta Cooper won the Artists International Competition which sponsored her Carnegie Hall debut. She is a member of the Walsh-Drucker-Cooper Trio, performing in Washington, D.C., New Orleans, New York City, and Europe. Ms. Cooper is a member of the Westchester Philharmonic and American Composers Orchestra and is assistant principal cellist of the American Symphony Orchestra. She has performed in the Berlin Philharmonic, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the New York City Opera, and the orchestras of both the NYC Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. She has been a guest with the Emerson Quartet in concerts in the US and Europe. Ms. Cooper has been the continuo player for the Berkshire Bach Society since 1993. She has been a regular participant at festivals including Classical Tahoe, Festival Napa, and the St Bart’s Music Festival (in the Caribbean). Roberta was a featured soloist on Linda Ronstadt’s recording of jazz standards, titled “Hummin’ to Myself,” which also performed for an A&E TV special and at Jazz@ Lincoln Center. 

Chris Finckel began his studies with his father George Finckel and is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Mischa Schneider and Orlando Cole. He is the cellist of the Manhattan String Quartet which performs throughout the United States and Europe. A frequent guest artist with such renowned ensembles as the Tokyo String Quartet and the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, Mr. Finckel has appeared at the Casals, Santa Fe, Ravinia, Saratoga, Norfolk, and Rockport Chamber Music festivals, and has recorded for the Nonesuch, New World, CRI, Bridge and Vanguard record labels. A dedicated performer of 20th-century music, Chris has been affiliated with the New York New Music Ensemble, Parnassus, The Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, and Speculum Musicae. He has participated in the premieres of the works of over 100 composers including pieces by Milton Babbitt, Jacob Druckman, Elliot Carter, Mario Davidovsky, Donald Martino, Steve Reich, and Charles Wuorinen.

Maureen Hynes performs regularly with the Westchester Philharmonic, American Ballet Theater, American Symphony Orchestra, Opera Orchestra of New York, American Composers Orchestra, Bard Festival Orchestra, New York Virtuosi, and Queens Symphony. She has also appeared with the Royal Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet, at the Spoleto and Aspen Festivals, and at the Lake George Opera Festival. Her work in New York has also included many Broadway shows and solo and chamber performances at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and Kennedy Center. Ms. Hynes is an Adjunct Professor of Cello and Director of Orchestral and String Studies at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, conducts the C.W. Post Orchestra and C.W. Post String Ensemble, is co-founder of the C.W. Post Chamber Music Festival, and Director of the Merriweather Consort which specializes in Renaissance music.​ 

Melissa Meell has the rare distinction of twice winning the prestigious Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award. As a result, she was presented in critically acclaimed debuts at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, commissioned new work, and performed in every major concert hall throughout the U.S. Ms. Meell is an active member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with whom she has recorded extensively for Deutsche Grammophon and Nonesuch records. In addition to their annual series at Carnegie Hall, they have been featured on the PBS series, “Live From Lincoln Center” with such luminaries as Gil Shaham, Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, and Renee Fleming. Melissa has performed with Frank Sinatra, Sting, as a member of “The Guys All-Star Shoe Band” on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, and starred in an Off-Broadway show written for her string quartet by Tina Howe and directed by Andre Gregory. She has collaborated with Musicians from Marlboro, Bridgehampton Chamber Music, Chesapeake Chamber Music, and North Country Chamber Players.

Lanny Paykin was born in New York where he attended the High School of Music and Art. He received his BA from Wesleyan University and the MM in Cello from the Juilliard School. He maintains a diverse career in the New York area, appearing regularly with the Westchester Philharmonic, NY City Ballet, Metropolitan Opera, American Composers' Orchestra, NY City Opera, and American Symphony Orchestra. He has toured Asia with New York Philharmonic and performed with them at Avery Fisher Hall. His honors have included the Juilliard Alumni Award and the Paderewski Foundation Award.

Jeanne Ireland, mezzo-soprano, recently finished her tenure at the Académie de l’Opéra national de Paris. In 2020 she returned to Paris for four productions, including the title role in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges at the Palais Garnier. As a member of the Académie, she sang in galas at the Palais Garnier, performed as Prince Orlofksy in the Académie’s productions of Die Fledermaus and the role of Stubenmädchen in Philippe Boesmans’s Reigen. In recent years she sang Brahms’s Liebeslieder Waltzer and Op. 91 Zwei Gesänger at the Festival Le Grange au Lac in Évian, France, Bernstein’s Songfest at the esteemed Maison de Radio France with the Orchestre national de France, and made her main-stage debut in Paris, singing the Kitchen Boy in l’Opéra de Paris’s Rusalka. Ms. Ireland recently made her Canadian debut at the Montreal Chamber Music Festival, in which she sang Respighi’s Il Tramonto with the Quator Danel. She is a recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant, through the Shoshana Foundation, as well as the 2018 winner of the Prix du Cercle Carpeaux.

This concert is made possible, in part, with the generous support of the Brian Wallach Insurance Agency, White Plains, New York. Personal and Commercial Insurance since 1949.