Our Conductors
Israel Herman taught instrumental music in the secondary public schools of Prince George County Maryland and has taught at the Raritan Valley Community College, the Peddie School, and Mercer County Community College, where he taught Music Theory, Chamber Ensembles, Music History, Music Appreciation, The Business of Music and Applied Trumpet.
He is an active classical and Dixieland trumpeter, with an avid interest in the performance of early brass and woodwind music on replicas of original period instruments. His other conducting activities include the Lawrenceville Reading Orchestra, the New Jersey Intergenerational Orchestra (Princeton), opera, and other guest conducting appearances. Mr. Herman has been Musical Director for shows from Playful Theater Productions, The Yardley Players, the Pennington Players, Maurer Productions On-Stage, and Theater to Go. Now in his 26th season with the BSO, he looks forward to the continuing mesh of his over 60 years of conducting experience with the wonderful spirit of community musicianship present in this orchestra and cherishes the opportunity to help bring it to its highest level.
He is the creator and host of On The Wind, which broadcast weekly for 7½ years on New Jersey's only 24 hour professional public radio station devoted solely to classical music, WWFM.org (Trenton, NJ), The Classical Network, as well as in syndication.
Mr. Herman studied conducting with Harold Farberman, Apo Hsu, Milan Horvat, Robert Page, and Acton Ostling, Jr.
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Christopher Minarich, is an experienced orchestral and chamber musician. He has performed at Carnegie Hall with the Polish American and New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestras; has traveled and performed with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony and has held principal and section positions with numerous community orchestras in NYC. Currently, he is a member of the BSO and the Plainfield (NJ) Symphony Orchestra. He is founding violinist of Claremont Baroque, a period instrument ensemble which explores many unpublished and undiscovered works transcribed from 17th century manuscripts. His cabaret experience includes playing with "Les Faux Amis" backing up Belgian chanteuse Micheline van Hautem. He has studied with Gregory Fulkerson and Gary Kosloski at Oberlin Conservatory, Judith Cohen at the College of Wooster, and Vladimir Tsypin of the New York Philharmonic. Christopher has participated in the Bennington Chamber Music Institute, the Rafael Trio Workshop, the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute, and the Albuquerque Summer Baroque workshop. He holds an MA in Music Education from Hunter College, CUNY, and is full time Early Childhood Music Specialist at the Episcopal School in the City of New York.
Assistant Conductor
Conductor/Music Director
Music Director/Conductor