FLUTE
JOHN GREEN (Principal Flute) chose flute for his junior high school band after being influenced by an opera conductor who worked with his father (along with the conductor’s charming daughter who also played the flute). His father Daniel Green was the lead baritone with the Miami Opera Guild during his childhood in Miami. Soon after that he discovered recordings of James Galway and has since been on an ongoing quest to play beautiful music with the instrument. Over the years, John has benefited from talented mentors and has played in off Broadway productions, chamber groups and larger organizations. He graduated with honor from Georgia Tech with a degree in physics and then went to osteopathic medical school. John married Elaine Howard in 1993 and now practices internal medicine in Fort Myers.
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BARBARA HARTZ was born in the outskirts of Reading, PA, graduated from high school, had two years of college and became mother to three children. She married her second (and current) husband Rich almost forty years ago. Though she started playing the flute in 6th grade, Barbara had no opportunity to play after high school until she discovered a community orchestra in her home town. She played there for 25 years before moving to Fort Myers in 1997 and immediately joined the Gulf Coast Symphony. Barbara was a member of the board and/or president of GCS for 7 years. She is also active in the Fort Myers Power Squadron (a boating club) and in her church where she often plays her flute. She has two surviving sons, two step-daughters, eleven grandchildren and one great grandchild.
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SHERRIE MANGAN began her musical career in elementary school studying flute, then later included the piccolo. She was the principle flutist in High School and performed solos, competitions, and musicals including Guys & Dolls, Oliver, and Fiddler on the Roof. After schooling and taking time off for marriage and family, she again began to play first at home for her own enjoyment and love of music. She began playing solos and accompaning for various churches in 1992. She has been a member of the First Assembly of God orchestra and the I Musici di Napoli Orchestra and Chorus, both for 10 years. Sherrie played in one of the formative years of the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra and returned in 2006.
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PICCOLO
SHERRIE MANGAN (see above)

OBOE
PAUL BREWER (Principal Oboe) is a graduate of Ithaca College, with a BM in Oboe, 1969. Paul played professional and jazz piano in Manhattan in the 1970's, as well as jazz and blues piano in Florida since the 1980's. He has been the pianist, music assistant and jazz band director at the Grace Church, Cape Coral Florida, since 2000 and member of Gulf Coast Symphony since 2002.
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ENGLISH HORN
PAUL BREWER (see above)

CLARINET

SARAH BAMBREY currently resides in Fort Myers, Florida. This is Sarah's second season with the symphony playing in the clarinet section. She teaches middle school band in Lehigh Acres Florida at Veterans Park Academy for the Arts. This is Sarah's 5th year teaching band. Sarah taught elementary band in Alexandria, Virginia three years prior to moving to Florida. Sarah was born and raised in Northern Virginia. She graduated from East Carolina University in 2001 with a bachelor of music degree. Her previous performing experiences were with the Annandale Symphony from 2002-2005.
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JOHN GIACCO (Principal Clarinet) BS, MA, Woodwind specialist, clinician, conductor, arranger. John has a music degrees from SUC at Fredonia, N.Y. and Columbia University, NYC. He has performed with numerous professional groups over the past 45 years including: USMA Band at West Point, N.Y. , Hudson Valley Philharmonic Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Studio Orchestra, Tr-State Opera Orchestra, and the Newburgh Symphony Orchestra. Presently John resides in New Windsor, N.Y. and Bonita Springs, Fl.
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JACOB H. GOLDBERGER was born in the Czech Republic and raised in Israel where he began studying clarinet at age of eleven. He immigrated to the United States at age 13 and continued studying at New York School of Music. Jake interrupted his musical education while pursuing a medical career at Indiana University and Brown University. A practicing surgeon in the Fort Myers area since 1982, he has been playing with the Gulf Coast Symphony since 1998 and is continuing his musical studies with Scott Ellington.
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BASS CLARINET
JACOB H. GOLDBERGER (see above)

JUDY ROSE is originally from Rochester, NY. She loves Fort Myers as a “winter escape” and place to see her beloved Red Sox train. Judy graduated from the State University of New York and retired from teaching computer science at the secondary level. She and her wonderful husband Bill have been married for 35 years with five children and fifteen grandchildren. Clarinet was a major part of her pre-college education and she resumed studies after joining the New Horizons Band, a continuing education program offered at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. While in Southwest Florida, playing in the Gulf Coast Symphony and Naples Orchestra fulfills her love of music. In New York, she plays as a bass clarinetist in the New Horizons Symphonic Band, in a clarinet choir, in the Second Winds quintet, Irondequoit Town Concert Band and Penfield Pops. Music fills her life. Her remaining time is spent traveling and gardening.
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BASSOON
ROBERT CARR is a retired District Judge from Michigan. Robert formerly played bassoon for the University of Michigan Band under the baton of William Revelli and graduated from that University in 1950. He holds a bachelors degree from University of Michigan, a Master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh and a JD degree from the Detroit College of Law. Fifty years later, Robert began playing again as an avocation. He shares life with his wife Joan and has four adult sons.
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THOMAS DRANEY has been a teacher, administrator, representative for Catholic schools to NYS legislature, and the founder/director of Christ House in the South Bronx, for political asylum cases and victims of torture. He came to Florida in '99, worked in ministry with migrants and returned to playing bassoon after a hiatus of forty years. He officially retired in September, 2006, and enjoys playing in many groups.
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STACEY GOSSMANN (Principal Bassoon) started playing the bassoon in junior high school. She went to the Cleveland Institute of Music to get her Bachelor of Music degree, and then she went to Germany to live with her sister. While there, she played part time in an orchestra and tried to get into an orchestra full-time, but she was not lucky in that respect. She came back to Cleveland to get her Master of Music degree, and while she was there, she took a job at Xerox. She stayed there for fifteen years, until she had a brain aneurysm, ending her work at Xerox. Since the aneurysm, she has steadily worked back into music, and now she plays with the Edison College Band and Orchestra, as well as the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra. She also plays in a number of ensembles, and she plays some concerts on her own.
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FRENCH HORN

BEVERLY OSTEIN has been playing the French Horn since 7th grade. After a 25 year hiatus following college, she began playing again. She was in the Naples Community Orchestra from 1998 to 2002, the Lee County Community Band from 2002 to 2005 and the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra from 2000 to the present. She has studied under Mark Castellanos and Cheryle Naberhaus. She is a graduate of Michigan State University, holds Masters degrees from University of Arizona and University of Colorado, and is an RN and Nurse Practitioner.
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LANI POYNTER

TOM SCHILLER (Principal Horn) started playing French horn at age nine in Tacoma, Washington. He continued to play through high school, Whitworth College (Spokane) and Vanderbilt Medical School (Nashville). Dr Schiller is a practicing pediatrician in the Fort Myers area for the past twenty years, now with the Lee Physician Group. He lives with his wife in Fort Myers, and has a teenage daughter (18) and son (16).
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BETHANY SMITH is originally from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and is a graduate of Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music in Berea, Ohio with horn as her major instrument and a degree in music education. In the past, Bethany has taught band out in Sterling, Colorado. Since her move to Florida in 2005, she has been a traveling music teacher in several private Christian schools in the general Fort Myers, Florida area teaching band and keyboarding classes. Bethany has been enjoying her first season as a part of the Gulf Coast Symphony’s horn section.
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TRUMPET
DAVID HARLER (Principal Trumpet) started playing trumpet at age 9. He played throughout high school, taking lessons first with Larry Tichenor of the US Marine Band and later with Lloyd Giessler, principal trumpet of the National Symphony. David served his military service in the 1st Army Field Band in Fort Meads, MD, after which he played for fours in Atlanta rock bands. At age 26, Dave put his horn away for 27 years and didn't play again until 2000. He began studying with Chuck Seipp, solo trumpet in the US Army Band. Dave joined the Gulf Coast Symphony in 2004 and his musical journey continues.
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STEVE MONDORA, at age 8, after attending a children’s concert by the Youngstown Symphony, had no doubt that he wanted to play the trumpet. By the time he was 10, he had managed to fend off his father’s desire for him to play the accordion and had met Bill Omeis, a former Ringling Circus trombonist turned school music teacher. Three years later at age 13, Steve began playing professionally in concert bands, swing bands and brass ensembles in the Youngstown, OH area. He even played concerts with the Youngstown Symphony while a music education major at Youngstown State University. After two years at the Dana School of Music, Steve switched his course of study to engineering and finally ended up working in the computer industry for 35 years. Steve’s love for music never waned. He has continued to play his trumpet wherever and whenever possible. He has especially fond memories of the many people and musical organizations that have provided him with the opportunity to play his horn. And that would include Dr. Andrew Kurtz and The Gulf Coast Symphony.
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JIM TAYLOR is the Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Family Health Centers of Southwest Florida. He is a former trumpet player with the Southwest Florida Symphony where he also served for numerous years in various roles on their Board of Directors. He currently serves as the Vice-President of the Gulf Coast Symphony. He has participated in brass ensembles at numerous local churches and with the Gulf Coast Symphony. For the last two years he has played second trumpet for the Gulf Coast Symphony. In addition, he is active in his church choir and sings with the MasterSingers in our local community. He is a member of Symphonia Medicus, a physician group dedicated to the support of orchestral music and “classical” healing.
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JOHN WINTERS

TROMBONE
ART BLATT received his Bachelors degree in Music Education and Master's Degree in Performance from Temple University in Philadelphia. He has performed as a trombonist with the San Antonio Symphony and various orchestras in the Philadelphia area. His experience includes playing opera, concerts and variety shows. He played for headline stars including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Milton Berle, Bobby Darin, Burt Bacharach, Liza Minelli, and many other headliners in the Philadelphia, New York and Atlantic City area. Art’s vast jazz experience includes playing with the big bands of Thad Jones-Mel Lewis, Buddy Rich and Tex Beneke. He is also well known as a dynamic Dixieland Jazz musician on both trombone and tuba. His teaching experience includes teaching at Settlement School in Philadelphia, where he helped Robin Eubanks and John Lofton achieve prominence in the world of jazz and symphonic playing. He was also employed for many years as a Middle School Band Director. Art retired to Naples in 2003 and continues his professional work as a trombonist with the Port Charlotte Symphony, the Gulf Coast Symphony, and the Southwest Florida Symphony. Art can be heard playing his trombone and tuba with many local bands and orchestras in Fort Myers and Naples.
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AL FRENCH grew up in New Orleans and graduated from Louisiana State University with a bachelor of music degree. After flying in the Navy for 11 years and for a commercial airline for 27 years, he retired in Cape Coral. He began playing again in 1999.
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SCOTT LAYMAN (Principal Trombone) is from Peoria, Illinois. He started playing professionally with a local dance orchestra at age 15. Through and after college, Scott performed with numerous bands, combos, and symphony orchestras in a three state area. He has toured for a year each with the Jan Garber Orchestra and the Al Pierson Orchestra. Scott also spent a year serving on the M.S. Independence with American Hawaii Cruise Lines and 2 years on the M.S. Caribe with Commodore Cruise Lines.
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KATHY LIGHT

TUBA
TODD HANDLEY is a graduate of Florida State University where he received his Bachelors in Music with a minor in Psychology. While attending Florida State he studied with Mr. Paul Ebbers, one of the country’s foremost teachers of brass pedagogy. After his graduation, he moved back to Fort Myers and began working full-time at Cadence Music. In addition to working full-time, he also teaches private music lessons and plays the tuba professionally in the surrounding area. This is his first season playing with the Gulf Coast Symphony; he also plays with several chamber groups, the Southwest Florida Symphony and the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. In his remaining spare time, Todd enjoys playing golf and riding his motorcycle.
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