Jim Bogdan

Jim Bogdan has played tenor and bass trombone in a variety of classical, jazz, and theater ensembles over the past twenty years in the Boston area and Twin Cities, MN. Most recently, Jim was bass trombonist and board member of Concord Orchestra, and frequent sub with Symphony Pro Musica, Lincoln-Sudbury Civic Orchestra, and brass quintets. Earlier in life, Jim was a ten-year member of the Newton Symphony. While growing up in Lexington, Jim studied with Hal Janks (pre-Met days) and Paul Gay. Later, he studied with George Osborn at Eastman School of Music. Jim works in health care analytics and holds an MBA from Boston University.  He lives in Arlington and is a member of the Bay Colony Brass board.

Bill Griffin

Bill Griffin has been a trombonist of various styles in the Boston area for over 15 years. Classically, Bill has studied with the Empire Brass Quintet and with trombonist Lawrence Isaacson. Bill received an undergraduate minor in music performance at the University of New Hampshire, where he studied with Nicholas Orovich, principal trombonist for the Portland Symphony. Bill studied jazz techniques in high school and college and has studied and played with such jazz performers as Clarke Terry, Milt Hinton, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and Lew Tabackin. Bill also plays in rock horn bands, in which he doubles on baritone sax. Outside of Bay Colony Brass Bill also freelances in local jazz, classical and rock groups. Bill works in the financial services industry and holds an MBA from the University of Massachusetts.

Roger Hecht

Roger Hecht was a trombone student of Emory Remington, Edward Kleinhammer, Byron McCulloh and Douglas Yeo. Before coming to Boston, he was a member of the Syracuse Symphony and the Lake George Opera orchestra. In New England, he has been a member of the New Bedford Symphony, the Cape Ann Symphony, the New England Philharmonic, and Lowell House Opera, where he was also Orchestra Manager. He now plays with the Mercury Orchestra. Roger is a classical CD critic for American Record Guide, the oldest English language recording reviewing journal in the United States. He is also a contributor to Listener's Guide to Classical Recordings, a comprehensive guide to classical recordings (Backbeat Books, 2002). His specialties include English music, late 19th Century and early 20th Century Romantics, and neo-classical and neo-romantic Americans. (He wrote three major survey articles on English music and one on Stravinsky for ARG.) Roger has contributed articles on music for Positive Feedback magazine and The Elgar Society Journal of the British Elgar Society. He recently published Audition and Other Stories (English Hill Press). Audition is a novella about a musician's experience auditioning for a major orchestra. Roger also wrote two novels.  

Photo: Alan Masow

Ed Ackerman

Ed has played trombone, bass trombone and, yes, even occasional euphonium when called for by some strange and/or British composer in many of Boston's amateur orchestras, including the Brahms Society Orchestra, Brookline Symphony Orchestra, Longwood Symphony Orchestra, MIT Symphony Orchestra, MIT Summer Philharmonic Orchestra (in which he still participates every summer), New England Philharmonic, New Philharmonia Orchestra, Newton Symphony Orchestra, and Wellesley Symphony Orchestra. Ages ago he also played trombone for two years each in the MIT Brass Ensemble and the reggae band Pressure Cooker, both of which are somehow still thriving.

Ian Kahn

Ian began playing the euphonium in 4th grade because it was the only instrument that he was unfamiliar with. Little did he know he would still be playing more than 10 years later. At the University of Maryland he studied under Steve Kellner and performed in the Wind Orchestra led by Doctor Michael Votta. One of his most memorable experiences was as the euphonium soloist in the school's performance of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Ian moved to the Greater Boston area in the summer of 2015. Since then he has performed with the Charles River Wind Ensemble and the Boston College Symphonic Band. He currently works as a software developer, and is excited to continue performing as a member of Bay Colony Brass.

Isaac Julien

Isaac picked up horn in 5th grade after watching Jurassic Park. He played throughout school in Maine and Massachusetts, college at Princeton University, and graduate school at the University of Maryland, studying with John Boden, Laura Klock, Chris Komer, and Greg Miller. Isaac joined the Bay Colony Brass in 2017, and has also performed in Boston with the Mercury Orchestra, Longwood Symphony, Dudley House Orchestra, Apollo Ensemble, and the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra. Outside of music, Isaac works as a software developer for Bose, and enjoys sailing, basketball, and Ultimate Frisbee.

Paula Limberg 

Paula is a horn player from the northern Chicago suburbs whose musical performances span three continents, including venues at the the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, Chicago Symphony Center, the Ravinia Festival, the Sydney Opera House, the castle Château de Vincennes near Paris, and the Museo del Prado in Madrid. Paula has performed with ensembles including Canadian Brass and Axiom Brass, and under the direction of James Curnow, Joseph Manfredo, and Mallory Thompson. Teachers include Bruce Daugherty, Beth Mazur-Johnson, and Valerie Whitney. 

Paula grew up playing in bands, orchestras, and chamber ensembles in school, festivals, camps, and with the Midwest Young Artists. Throughout college at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, auditions every semester merited membership in the music school's large and small ensembles. Paula also joined the orchestra at Rice University for a year while studying engineering. Chamber music of all kinds has always been fruitful and enjoyable, whether through school, youth programs, camps, church, or with local musicians. 

Since moving to the Boston area in 2019, Paula now plays with Bay Colony Brass and substitutes as a French hornist in various area orchestras. Paula works as a medical device engineer and lives in Northborough. 

Teresa Penezic-Herfindahl 

Ms. Penezic-Herfindahl is a professional musician and educator, holding a M.M from University of the Pacific in performance where she had a fellowship in Music Theory and Conducting and a B.A. with honors in music from the University of California, Berkeley.  She has many years of experience as a school music teacher, band director, orchestra director, choir director, and church choir director.  As an orchestral musician she was an active freelancer in the San Francisco Bay and the Seattle areas, holding positions in the horn sections of numerous orchestras and ensembles including the Napa Valley Symphony, the Stockton Symphony, Sacramento Philharmonic, Sacramento Opera, Tacoma Symphony, Federal Way Philharmonic, and the Tacoma Opera. Ms. Penezic-Herfindahl is a licensed public school teacher in California, Washington State and Massachusetts.  She currently teaches instrumental, choral and general music at the elementary and middle school levels in the Boston public schools.  Teresa has had an active private studio teaching piano, woodwind, and brass instruments.  She has also taught a home school student at the middle and high school level.  With a life long passion for health and fitness, she also currently maintains a private studio, coaching clients to live healthfully.

Hadley Reynolds

Hadley Reynolds started playing horn in the Chicago area in the late 1950's. Fortunately, he had many opportunities to attend Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts under Fritz Reiner, and to develop a lifelong appreciation for the exceptional sound being created by the CSO brass of the time, particularly Philip Farkas (horn), Adolph Herseth (trumpet), and Arnold Jacobs (tuba). In these years he played in the Evanston Symphony Orchestra under the CSO's Frank Miller, the North Side Symphony under the CSO's Milton Preves, the Youth Orchestra of Greater Chicago under Dr. Frank Powers, the North Shore Band of Wilmette under nationally renowned Northwestern University Band Director John Paynter, as well as winning state-wide awards for horn solo work with stage band, orchestra, as well as ensemble conducting. Hadley studied with Christopher Leuba, Principal Horn of the CSO, and K. Ethel Merker, the first nationally recognized woman symphony player and recording artist on the horn, and now designer of the Merker Model French Horns for Holton/LeBlanc. In the Philadelphia area, He studied with Ward Fern of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and performed solo concertos and conducted the joint orchestras of Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges. In the Boston area, Hadley has kept up his playing over the years with a number of groups, including the Newton Symphony, The Civic Symphony Orchestra of Boston, the Boston Summer Opera Theatre, Dover Foundation Community Theater, and a variety of classical and popular performing ensembles in the area. He currently plays in the horn cadre of Bay Colony Brass, Boston's leading independent large brass performing ensemble. Hadley also serves as a Trustee of the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston.

Alec Zimmer

Alec Zimmer, horn, joined the Bay Colony Brass in 2005. Originally from Danville, PA, he began his private horn studies with C. Scott Smith at Susquehanna University and later studied with the late Rick Martin. While earning is BS in Engineering at Swarthmore College, he studied with Michael Johns, a member of the Pennsylvania Ballet and Opera Company of Philadelphia horn sections. After a brief stint at Stanford University for graduate school, Alec moved to the Boston area. In addition to the Bay Colony Brass, Alec has performed with Mercury Orchestra, the Newton Symphony Orchestra, the New Philharmonia Orchestra, Lowell House Opera, Civic Symphony of Boston, the Longwood Symphony Orchestra, the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra, the UMass Boston Chamber Orchestra, and the Charles River Wind Ensemble.  For many years, Alec participated in the Kendall Betts Horn Camp in New Hampshire.  Alec is a registered professional engineer and works as a structural engineer with Simpson Gumpertz & Heger in Waltham. He lives with his family in Newton.

Karen Martin

After having sung in all of the school choirs since 5th grade, Karen started playing trumpet in high school, soon adding marching band, concert band, orchestra, and in the pit orchestras for shows to her activities. Show orchestras were particularly suited to her fondness for hamming it up, and she has played in over 50 different musicals to date. 

Karen graduated from Boston University with a degree in trumpet performance, where she studied with Peter Chapman, Tim Morrison and Roger Voisin. After graduating, she was one of four trumpet players selected nationwide by Aldolph Herseth to play in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the training orchestra of the Chicago Symphony.  After that year, performing under world renowned guest conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, and being coached by Mr. Herseth, she returned to Boston and has been a freelance musician ever since.

Most recently, she has been the principal trumpet player in the New Philharmonia Orchestra in Newton, the Mercury Orchestra in Cambridge, and the Mood Swings Orchestra (a big band) also in Newton.

Photo: Alan Masow

Paul Meneghini

Paul Meneghini began his auspicious career as a trumpet player with his debut performance in the St. Camillas Marching Band before an audience of more than 18,000 including President Gerald Ford for America’s bi-centennial celebration on Lexington Green and he has been trying in vain to top this lofty accomplishment ever since.  Things were looking good for him as he was accepted to into the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Repertory Orchestra in 1978 at the tender age of 13 and then proceeded to find much success with many district and all state placements through high school, but as he entered college at UMASS Amherst, he was lead astray by the pursuit of the evil dollar and choose to study Mechanical Engineering.  Hope was not all lost though because while at UMASS he received a Downbeat Award as well as the Fletcher Henderson Memorial Scholarship in Jazz Studies, but most importantly Paul discovered that he could actually get paid while going to bars and cocktail parties by playing the secular music of the night time.  He would routinely serve his penance for these nocturnal activities by playing music in the European tradition at church for The Lord, again while being paid.

Paul relished being paid for going to parties so much that he actually abandoned his early engineering career after one year in the office so that he could recklessly pursue his lust for travel and adventure.  After an extensive cruise through the Caribbean, he spend years exploring the watering holes and music halls of every big city and small town in America.  Throughout this period Paul experienced many adventures with well-known musicians in many idioms.  Paul is the founder and first director of the Worcester Jazz Orchestra. He has also played with the The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, the Artie Shaw Orchestra, Ringling Brothers Circus, Boston Jazz Composers Alliance, and in Disneyland. In addition, he has worked with Max Roach, Yusef Lateef, Slide Hampton, Michael Brecker, Little Anthony, Tina Pointer, Martha Reeves, and the Elwood Blues/Dan Aykroyd character. In the classical realm, he has performed with the Orchestra on the Hill, Indian Hill Orchestra, and the New England Philharmonic,

Eventually, the lust for adventure waned and the lure of small dependents with running noses and crying voices overcame him, so Paul went to Worcester Polytechnic Institute for his Masters Degree and rebooted his long lost engineering career. Today he works as an engineer for Axcelis Technologies in Beverly, and all the crying and sniffling dependents have grown up and left him. He is very excited about playing with the Bay Colony Brass where he is confident he will finally outdo his auspicious beginnings on the trumpet.

Kira Shmeleva

Hailing from Moscow, Russia, Kira Shmeleva studied trumpet at the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music where she earned a Master of Music in Brass Performance.  While in her native country, Kira was a member of orchestras such as Moscow Symphony Orchestra of Russia, Russian National Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Russia, and Central Symphony Orchestra of the Department of Defense of the Russian Federation.  She emigrated with her husband to the United States in 2013. Kira is also a member of the New England Philharmonic. She joined Bay Colony Brass in 2014

Photo: Alan Masow

Peter Belknap

Peter started playing the baritone horn in elementary school, where his grandfather was the public school band director. He switched to French horn in seventh grade and studied with John Carabella of the New York Philharmonic until he moved to the Boston area for high school and college, where he studied with Harry Shapiro of the Boston Symphony and played with several groups at Harvard. After college he spent a summer at the Aspen Music School and freelanced in New York City until financial reality took over and the horn went into the closet.  In 1988 Peter and his family settled in Bedford, MA. All three of his children played in the Greater Boston Youth Orchestra and Peter sang in several area choruses, including the Masterworks Chorale, Back Bay Chorale, Chorus Pro Musica and the Orpheus Singers, and played 4th horn in the New England Philharmonic. Now recently retired, Peter has returned to his early love of low brass by taking up the tuba. He studies with Takatsugu (Taka) Hagiwara who is principal tuba in the Vermont Symphony and a frequent performer with the Boston Pops. Peter is thrilled to be playing with Bay Colony Brass and is also a member of the Mystic Brass Ensemble, Calliope Music, and the Brookline Community Band.

Chris Hazel

A resident of Lowell, Massachusetts, Christopher has studied and played percussion since his Jr. High days in the early 80's.  He's studied percussion with Jim Lattini, Jeff Fischer, and Nancy Smith.  With an early background in marching percussion and drum set work, he earned his BA in Music Theory at UNH in the mid 90's and has since focused heavily on orchestral performance.  He has performed with many groups including the Bay Colony Brass, the Metro West Symphony Orchestra, the Seacoast Community Chamber Orchestra, the Dudley House Orchestra, the Brookline Symphony, the Lowell House Opera, and the Mercury Symphony, as well as numerous other engagements in musical theater and choral groups.  Aside from freelancing as widely as his schedule allows, he currently earns his living at a large engineering firm in Boston.

Evan Louden

Evan grew up in New Hartford, CT where he began studying percussion in the fifth grade. After high school he moved to the Pacific Northwest where he graduated with a degree in percussion performance from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR. He served as first percussionist for the Vancouver Symphony, under the baton of Maestro Salvator Brotons, from 1997 to 2008 when he relocated to Belmont, MA. In addition to many classical performances, Evan played drumset in numerous jazz/funk/rock bands in the Portland music scene. Mainly, Rosewater, a jamband whose gigs included SXSW, High Sierra Music Fest, MusicFest NW, and clubs throughout the west. Evan is currently the Registrar for Powers Music School in Belmont where he lives with his wife, Camillia, and their daughter, Sylvia.