FRANKLIN VERBSKY

MUSIC DIRECTOR/CONDUCTOR

            This season represents Mr. Verbsky's 44th season with the Queens Festival Orchestra/Forest Hills Symphony Orchestra.

            Mr. Franklin Verbsky received his B.A. from Queens College of CUNY and his M.A. from Hofstra University.  He studied piano with various teachers, the last of whom were Arcadie and Marie Kouguell, and cello with Alexander Kouguell, Professor of Music at Queens College.  He attended the Kneisel Hall at Blue Hill, Maine and at the Taos School of Music, in Taos, New Mexico.

            Before assuming the duties of Conductor and Music Director of the Queens Festival Orchestra in March 1968, Mr. Verbsky was principal cello and appeared as soloist with the orchestra under the baton of founder/conductor Jerome Laszloffy. He also acted as Assistant Conductor.  Mr. Verbsky has played with several area orchestras, i.e. Queens Symphony, and summer orchestra music festivals, i.e. New Hampshire Music Festival He has also appeared in chamber music recitals in Town Hall and Lincoln Center.  Presently he is a free-lance musician in the New York City, Long Island and Upstate areas.  He was principal cello of the Massapequa Philharmonic Orchestra for ten years and is conductor of the Island Senior Symphony String Orchestra in Huntington, which provides programs at assisted living and nursing home facilities and children’s concerts at area libraries. Most recently, Mr. Verbsky has been heard as soloist with the Island senior Symphony, in cello concertos by Schumann and St. Saens.

            Above and beyond his musical activities, Mr. Verbsky is an educator, having taught in the public schools of Nassau and Suffolk Counties from 1965 until his retirement in 1998.  In those years he has taught all ages:  elementary, junior high, high school and college students.  Prior to retiring, Mr. Verbsky taught Orchestra at Uniondale High School and since 1985 is an adjunct Assistant Professor of Music at Hofstra University. Beginning in 2005, Mr. Verbsky has been teaching private instruction for cello, violin, and viola at Five Towns College in Dix Hills. In a new program, originally sponsored by Hofstra University’s continuing education department, Mr. Verbsky began offering a program encouraging adults to begin learning to play a stringed instrument. New Horizons String Music and New Horizons String Orchestra is now in its tenth year and is enjoying a very enthusiastic following. It is designed to reach and encourage adults who wish to play a stringed instrument or who wish to come back to a stringed instrument that they played years ago. It includes instructional components with an emphasis on ensemble playing. 

Leslie Grazi—Flute solo

            Continuing a family tradition that stretches back many generations, Leslie has been a musician as long as she can remember. She has been playing the flute since childhood.  A graduate of the LaGuardia High School of Music and the Performing Arts, she has performed with the Cornell University Symphony Orchestra and the Brooklyn College Wind Ensemble.  Leslie is an avid chamber music player and performs with various ensembles at schools, community events and fundraisers.  Her special interest is children. She especially enjoys entertaining young audiences, who are typically delighted by their first exposure to classical music.  

            Leslie is a pediatric occupational therapist and a mother of six.  This is her second year performing with the Forest Hills Symphony Orchestra.

Ed Flowers—Oboe solo

            Edward B. Flowers, solo oboist of the Forest Hills Symphony Orchestra has played woodwinds since the fifth grade. For the last ten years, he has concentrated on the oboe. Ed currently plays oboe in a trio, a quintet and two orchestras.

            Ed is Professor of Economics and Finance in the Tobin School of Business at St. John's University. A graduate of Emory University, Emory University Law School and Georgia State University, Ed practiced law in Atlanta, Georgia, was a policy officer in the US Treasury Department, Washington, D.C. and has taught finance at St. John's University for 35 years.

            Ed will be heard in the first program of the season playing the Haydn Concerto for Flute and Oboe.

NEAL WACHENHEIMER, VIOLINIST

            Neal Wachenheimer graduated from the Manhattan School of Music, with a Bachelor of Music, Master of Music, and Music Education Degree.  He studied with Fritz Kramer, Raymond Le Mieux, and  the late Raphael Bronstein.  He toured Austria with Fritz Kramer, giving lecture recitals.  Recently retired, Neal was a Music teacher and Choral Director of P.S. 250 in Brooklyn and his chorus has performed all over the Metropolitan area.  He has been a member of the first violin section of the Forest Hills Symphony since 1986.  In June 1989, Neal appeared in a chamber music concert at the Lincoln Center Library Auditorium. He has appeared many times as soloist with the Forest Hills Symphony.  This season, Neal will be heard in the Mozart Violin Concerto #2 and the Bach Brandenburg Concerto #5