Carter Mountain Brass Band Members

Ralph Bowie grew up in Keene N.H. and is a graduate of Boston Conservatory and Boston University.  He taught in Raymond and Portsmouth and spent his last twenty-five years In Lebanon, N.H. He is now retired.  He spent one summer hiking the Appalachian Trail and has climbed all forty-seven of New Hampshire's Four Thousand footers.

Twice.

John has been playing trumpet with Carter Mountain since early 2004, and playing trumpet in general since the age of 9. During the day, Mr. Cardin directs the bands and teaches music classes at Memorial Middle School in Laconia, NH.

When not teaching or playing music, John can be found online as a Jedi Master; he leads a Star Wars gaming group of his closest friends. He is an amateur tennis player, eager to play whenever he gets the chance. John currently resides in Concord, NH and originally hails from the Seacoast region of New Hampshire.

Paul Sanborn started playing trumpet at the age of 10.During his high school years, he was the number one trumpet player in the NH All State Music Festival, the first trumpet player from NH to be invited to play in the All-Eastern Band in Washington DC., and was invited to tour Europe as part of the All New England State College Choir and Brass Ensemble as their second chair trumpet.

Paul is a 1971 Graduate of the Naval School of Music, Little Creek, VA. Being a retired Nuclear Marine Electrician gives him more time to play in numerous bands such as the Newmont Military Band, Gilford Community Band and the Carter Mountain Brass Band. Paul now drives a school bus for fun and profit!

Iris Sindelar of Hopkinton is a telecommunications software engineer. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin (in Russian), she played cornet and French horn there (women did not participate in the marching band in those days!). She studied Slavic Linguistics for 4 years at the University of California/Berkeley, but considers her prime accomplishment during the 70's and 80's to be the raising of two fine sons.

During the '70's, she was the editor of the American Whitewater Journal. She later received a Master's in Computer Science from UNH, after which she worked at Bell Labs, where she played trumpet with the Bell Labs Jazz Ensemble, for 16 years.

Currently she plays flugelhorn and cornet with Carter Mountain Brass Band, trumpet in husband Jim's Dixieland band, and French horn with the Upper Valley Community Band, the Nevers Band of Concord and Hopkinton Town Band.

May grew up in the Midwest and started playing the piano when she was four years old.  Her father was a Presbyterian missionary among the American Indians and her family lived on various Indian reservations until she was in high school. 

May started playing the trumpet in junior high school.  She performed with the University of Minnesota Marching Band while receiving her B.S. in Biology.  After graduate work at the University of Wisconsin, May migrated east and now lives in Laconia with her husband and their four children.

Val Zanchuk has been a trumpeter and cornetist since the age of nine.  He has performed with Pennsylvania and New Hampshire-based musical groups that have taken him from Carnegie Hall to concert venues in Europe and throughout the United States. 

Val received his engineering degrees from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA.  He is currently the owner of Graphicast, Inc., a Jaffery, NH-based manufacturing company.

Jim Sindelar of Hopkinton is a retired professor of Electrical Engineering Technology, which he taught at NHTI in Concord for 26 years. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, he played clarinet in the UW concert and marching bands, and was an honorary member of the tuba section.

He currently plays his antique Cerveny Eb tuba in the Carter Mountain Brass Band; clarinet, soprano, alto and tenor sax in his Dixieland band, the Fountain Square Ramblers; clarinet and soprano sax with the Hopkinton Town Band; bass clarinet with the Upper Valley Community Band; and tenor sax with the Nevers Band of Concord. He inherited his love of music from his father, who played in several bands in Wisconsin during the Big Band era and beyond.

He is especially interested in antique brass instruments of which he owns several. Another of Jim's avocations is whitewater boating, which he began as a grad student at UW, continued during three years at Berkeley, Calif. in the 60's, and still enjoys today. He was part of a 5-man team that explored the headwaters of the Amazon in Peru by kayak in 1975 (see Cal Giddings' book Demon River Apurimac, the First Navigation of the Upper Amazon Canyons).

Caryn received her B.S. in Music Education at Plymouth State College in 1990. She has been a music teacher in NH public schools for 15 years and is currently employed by the Governor Wentworth Regional School District.

Her biggest interests are her two children, Audrey and Trevor.

Robin has been playing French Horn in and around the Lakes Region since 1984. She is a founding member of the Belknap Brass Quintet and the Corno-copia Horn Quartet. She plays regularly with the area's two community music groups – The Lakes Region Symphony and the Gilford Community Band.

Four years ago she learned to played an instrument similar to the French Horn - the Alto Horn - in order to play with the 12th NH Regiment Serenade Band, a Civil War era living-history band and, subsequently, the Newmont Military Band, which specializes in music of the early 1900's. A member of CMBB since its inception, she has been its manager for the last 3 years.

When not playing music, Robin helps her husband manage their printing business, Paramount Press/Laconia Offset located in Belmont.

A retired stockbroker, Suzanne was born in Brooklyn, NY, and has been immersed in music since the age of five, when she was introduced to piano and ballet. In high school, she started playing the oboe under private instruction from the world-renowned Bruno Labate, and she went on to play at Carnegie Hall with the All-City Symphonic Orchestra.

She still plays piano and has recently taken up the French Horn. She is on the Board of Directors of the Lakes Region Symphony Orchestra and plays 4th Horn with them; as well as playing with several community bands in the area, the Baker Valley Band, and the pit orchestra for the Franklin Footlight Theatre.

She just completed construction of her first house, built on a lake in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, where she now resides. In addition to music, she enjoys rollerblading, skiing, computer programming and landscape design. She hates bugs.

John B. Welch grew up in the Chicago, Illinois area, began playing brass instruments at age 10, and the French horn at age 12. Has played in amateur groups all of his adult life. He is a retired physician, enjoys music, motorcycles, and airplanes, is married, and lives in Concord.

Vickie always wanted to be an accompanist, so she studied piano withJoseph Esposito and Natasha Magg.  Graduating with  a music degree. she is now a United Methodist pastor.  She has given up the other instruments of her youth - clarinet and violin - and concentrates on directing handbell choirs and playing
 piano, French horn, natural horn, and Wagner tuba.

She is proud of her three children.

Jeff Lizotte has played in both U.S. Navy Band and the 39th Army Band, serving in both branches of the military. He attended Berklee School of Music and Laney College in Oakland, CA. He spent 10 years with Nevers 2nd Regiment Band and has enjoyed playing with the pit orchestra for the Community Players musicals, Strafford County Wind Symphony and numerous community bands.

He is a past president of the Concord Music Club. He is enjoying life with his lovely wife and two wonderful daughters.

Erich has been playing euphonium and trombone since the age of seven, and holds degrees in Criminal Justice and Computer Science. He is currently VP of Engineering for CommonPlaces e-Solutions, a professional services company in Hampsted, NH. He also writes software in his spare time.

Erich lives in Sandown, NH with his wife, two sons, and two weimaraners.

Residing in Grafton, NH, Steve Gasiorowski is a Ph.D. Analytical Chemist currently operating his own consulting firm. Steve has been deeply involved in music from an early age, playing trombone, bass trombone, baritone horn, Eb, and CC tuba. When in graduate school at UNH, students and faculty eventually got used to him practicing in the lab late at night (what great resonance!).

He discovered the wonders of mid-19th century brass horns and brass band music in 1975 and collects and plays horns of that period in groups such as Yankee Brass Band (18 years),the 12th NHV Regiment Serenade Band, the Newmont Military Band of Windsor, VT, the Centennial Cornet Band of Portland, Maine, and on occasion, the Federal City Brass Band in Maryland (http://www.jvmusic.net/FCBB.html).

Steve also plays with the Upper Valley Community Band from Lebanon NH and the Temple NH Town Band, the first town band in the US.

Keith Parrish calls home Beaver Falls, PA. and has resided in Gilford since 2000. He has three children - Heather, Katie and Jamie.

During the day, he works as a Doctor of Chiropractic and at night plays trombone with the Lakes Region Symphony, Gilford Community Band, Plymouth University Symphonic Band and high school musical productions.

He is active in his church choir and a vocal quartet called the Parish Quartet.

A senior at Laconia High School, Alex will be graduating in the spring of 2006. He is a member of the high school marching band and symphonic band on the trombone, as well as the pep band, jazz band, and pit orchestra for the school musical. He accompanies  the high school chorus on piano as well. Next May the marching band, along with the concert choir, will be  traveling to Toronto to compete with bands and choruses from across the country.

Outside of school-related groups, Alex  is a member member of the Lakes Region Symphony Orchestra as well as Carter Mountain Brass.