Our Musicians
Accomplished Professionals
All of our musicians are accomplished professionals. Many of them are graduates of conservatories and colleges such as Juilliard, Eastman, Curtis, and the Boston Conservatory. World-renowned musicians such as Julius Baker, former flutist with the New York Philharmonic, have performed with the Ensemble.
Doansburg Musicians Perform Around the Globe
Doansburg musicians perform throughout the year in venues all around the world, in addition to their annual series scheduled by the Doansburg Chamber Ensemble. Many have performed at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. It is not uncommon to find a number of the musicians on tour throughout the year. Doansburg Chamber Ensemble performances serve Putnam County, Orange County, Dutchess County, Westchester County, Fairfield County, the Hudson Valley, and the New York metropolitan area. Our performances are attended by residents of Carmel, Mahopac, Brewster, Ridgefield, Poughkeepsie, Cold Spring, Danbury and a number of other communities.
Intelligent, upbeat performances
Critics have described the Ensemble as deserving credit for providing intelligent, upbeat performances of high quality. The collaboration of well-matched musicians and imaginative programming was noted to have brought vitality, energy and artistry to the music. (Francis Brancaleone, Gannett Suburban Newspapers)
Additional Featured Performers
Janey Choi
Canadian violinist/teaching artist/concert host, Janey Choi has performed, taught, and collaborated with artists across the globe, engaging audiences of all ages and genres. Recipient of numerous awards including National First Prize in the Canadian Music Competition, an Artists International debut recital at Carnegie Hall, she has participated in such festivals as Mostly Mozart, Norfolk, Taos, Bar Harbor Music Festival, the Spoleto Festivals in the U.S. and Italy, Festival Musical de Santo Domingo, the Santa Fe, Sarasota & Berkshires Opera companies. Highlights of recent years include performances with such groups as the Atrikk Ensemble, Ardelia Trio, Orchestra of St Luke’s, as substitute Concertmaster of Broadway’s &Juliet and Aladdin, on tour with Adele, Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen, and Stevie Wonder, curating an interactive chamber series at the cell theatre in NYC, and her debut as a host of the New York Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts. She has held education posts for the New York Philharmonic, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Binghamton University, and has presented educational programs for Carnegie Hall Family Day, the College Music Society National Conference, Concert Artists Guild, Lincoln Center Institute, and Tokyo College of Music. Dr. Choi holds advanced degrees from the Juilliard School and Rutgers University where her major teachers were Joseph Fuchs, Joel Smirnoff, Harvey Shapiro and Arnold Steinhardt. She enjoys organizing chamber music readings, hiking, playing hockey and doing jigsaw puzzles with her husband and two daughters. For more information, please visit www.JaneyChoi.com
Shotaro Mori
SHOTARO, MORI, BASSOON, is an active freelancer in New York City, a member of Springfield Symphony, and on the faculty of Summertrios Chamber Music Festival in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He has performed with many ensembles, including New York Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble, Jupiter Symphony, New York Philomusica, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, South Florida Symphony Orchestra, and Eroica Ensemble in Memphis, TN. As a soloist, he has appeared with numerous orchestras in USA and Japan. Shotaro completed his studies at Mannes College of Music, where he received full scholarship and won the first prize in the Concerto Competition for woodwinds, brass and percussion. He studied with Bernard Garfield, Leonard Hindell and Ryohei Nakagawa.
John Frisch
JOHN FRISCH, Oboist; appears frequently as soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player. Based in New York, he has played for many area orchestras, including the Albany Symphony Orchestra, Alvin Ailey Dance Company, EOS, Harmonie Ensemble, Jupiter Symphony, Long Island Philharmonic, New York City Opera, New York Pops, Stamford Symphony, Queens Symphony and for the Mostly Mozart Festival, and the Lincoln Center Festival. He has played for such Broadway productions as Les Misérables, Man of La Mancha, and Fiddler on the Roof. As a member of the New York Kammermusiker, a double-reed consort, he has toured internationally and recorded for Dorian Records. Mr. Frischholds a D.M.A. from the CUNY Graduate Center. He received his BA in Philosophy from Columbia University and his M.M. from the Yale School of Music, where he studied with Ronald Roseman.
Susan LaFever
SUSAN LaFEVER, French Hornist; has performed as a soloist in concerts throughout the United States, Western Europe, Mexico and Japan. Called “bold and striking” with “a confident lyric quality” by the New York Times, she has partnered with some of the world’s finest musicians. Ms. LaFever has appeared at the American Landmark Festivals at Federal Hall, St. Bartholomew’s Tuesday Chapel Concerts, and the Noonday Concert Series at St. Paul’s Chapel, all in Manhattan. Ms. LaFever has soloed with such groups as the Lincoln Civic Orchestra, Rutgers University Orchestra, South Orange Symphony Orchestra and with the Bergen Youth Orchestra. She is a graduate of the University of Nebraska and Manhattan School of Music. Ms. LaFever maintains a private studio and has given master classes at the University of Iowa, Western Illinois University, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has presented clinics and performed at several Northeast Horn Workshops, the International Women’s Brass Conference and the International Horn Symposium. She has also recorded for Phoenix USA Records. Ms. LaFever is the Director of The Ridgewood Singers.
Cary Brown
CARY BROWN, Pianist: has always had a passion for classical, jazz, rock, and film score music, having grown up hearing his father play classical music on the piano and hearing classical, jazz, and film score records played constantly in the house. In addition to that, he was fascinated by hearing his grandmother and great-grandmother play ragtime duets on piano and organ.
After studying classical piano with master Jeffrey Marcus, he attended the Eastman School of Music/University of Rochester where he received a double degree in Piano Performance and Film Studies. There, he studied classical piano with Barry Snyder and Elier Suarez, and jazz arranging and film scoring with the legendary Rayburn Wright. After college, he continued his piano studies with jazz pianists Harold Danko and Donald Brown.
His performing career since then has been quite diverse, including performances, recordings, and tours with The Skatalites, New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble (co-founder/composer), Sloan Wainwright, Loudon Wainwright III, Rufus Wainwright, John Scofield, Levon Helm, Yonrico Scott, Clark Gayton, Tony Mason, Carmen Ruby Floyd, Chuck Leavell, and saxophonist Matt Garrison.
Cary has also been quite active as a pianist/composer in the dance world, holding the position of Dance Musicians’ Coordinator/Staff Pianist for the prestigious Purchase College Conservatory of Dance since 2000, and playing master-classes for American Ballet Theatre, Miami City Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Mark Morris Company, José Limón Company among many other noted companies. He has played classes for noted dancers including Suzanne Farrell, George de la Peña, Edward Villella, Susan Jaffe, Kurt Froman, and jazz dancer Chet Walker at the Jacob’s Pillow Summer Intensive. He also has served as the Musical Director for the Steffi Nossen School of Dance since 1995, for whom he has composed and recorded an annual dance suite every year since his start there. He continues to have a thriving private piano and guitar teaching practice in the Westchester, NY area where he has taught piano and/or guitar to the children of many well-known performing artists and composers such Chevy Chase, Alan Menken, John Scofield, Chazz Palminteri, and Paul Shaffer. His students have gone on to be accepted into well-known jazz studies programs in schools including NYU, Berklee College of Music, and Purchase College. He continues to play live with his own acoustic piano trio, The Cary Brown Trio and with his latest project, the electric jazz/jam Band trio Cary Brown and O.M.S.
A New Yorker all his life, Joe Abbatantuono began playing drums at the age of ten. For over 25 years, he has provided the drums and percussion for countless artists of all genres, including but not limited to: Daniel Breaker, Donny McCaslin, John Scofield, David Hillyard, Baba Israel, Morgan James, Pacha Massive, Tommy and CJ Ramone, Jerry Jemmott, Harvey S., Tamuz Nissim, Gene Pritsker & The Composers Concordance, Lew Soloff, Dave Douglas, Jessica Simpson, Adam Rogers, Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra, Costas Baltazanis, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Shayna Steele, and Brian Charette.
His current project, The Funk Unit, perfectly blends funk, soul, jazz, and hip hop; Joe Abba's band performs originals he has written, as well as classic funk, soul, and hip hop standards. His debut album “Check Hook” dropped on Composers Concordance Record in 2025, to much praise and fanfare. It is available on all digital platforms, as well as 7’ vinyl singles through his website. A new album is in the works for early 2026, focusing on his more acoustic jazz writing.
Joe Abbatantuono
JOE ABBATANTUONO, Drummer; A New Yorker all his life, Joe began playing drums at the age of ten. For over 25 years, he has provided the drums and percussion for countless artists of all genres, including but not limited to: Daniel Breaker, Donny McCaslin, John Scofield, David Hillyard, Baba Israel, Morgan James, Pacha Massive, Tommy and CJ Ramone, Jerry Jemmott, Harvey S., Tamuz Nissim, Gene Pritsker & The Composers Concordance, Lew Soloff, Dave Douglas, Jessica Simpson, Adam Rogers, Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra, Costas Baltazanis, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Shayna Steele, and Brian Charette.
His current project, The Funk Unit, perfectly blends funk, soul, jazz, and hip hop; Joe Abba's band performs originals he has written, as well as classic funk, soul, and hip hop standards. His debut album “Check Hook” dropped on Composers Concordance Record in 2025, to much praise and fanfare. It is available on all digital platforms, as well as 7’ vinyl singles through his website. A new album is in the works for early 2026, focusing on his more acoustic jazz writing.
Joe also leads an international jazz group called The Gen X Quartet, with Nick Mancini-vibraphone, Trifon Dimitrov-bass, and Paul Tynan-Trumpet. This group performs and educates across the country, teaching students from grade school through college, about jazz music and making a living as an artist in the 21st century. Their debut album will be out this year.He is also a member of the Afro Funk Project, Molly Tigre, who blends African Rhythms and melodies, with Jazz and Funk melodies. Members are from Guinea, Burkina Faso, and the US. Their debut album came out in 2019 and sophomore release is slated for late 2025.TV/Movie/Concert Credits:
Either Side of Midnight, The Tonight Show, MTV Spring Break, Good Day New York, Nightline, CBS’ Sunday Morning, The Montreal Jazz Festival, JVC Jazz Festival, The Blue Note, Birdland, The Jazz Standard, Bowery Ballroom, Irving Plaza, the 55 Bar, Teatro Manzoni, CBGB's (R.I.P.)Joe Abba is a composer, drummer, producer, author, percussionist, actor, and educator. He can be reached through www.joeabba.com and everywhere on social media!
Bob Gingery
BOB GINGERY, Bassist; Originally from the San Francisco bay area, Bob Gingery began playing the saxophone at age 10 but the sounds of James Jamerson, Rocco Prestia, and Jaco Pastorius inspired him to pick up the bass guitar. He was soon gigging with local rock bands and playing in his high school's jazz band. At age 18, he began studying the upright bass. Since his arrival to New York in 1999, he has been performing with some of the city's top musicians including Eliot Zigmund, Joe Beck, Buddy Williams, Allan Harris, Ron Affif, Brad Shepik and Lou Volpe. He has played the Blue Note, Birdland, the Hartford International Jazz Festival, Joe's Pub and the Knitting Factory. Maintaining a busy schedule as both a sideman and band leader, he is at home with many styles of music and has performed and recorded with jazz, rock, pop, R&B and Latin artists, musicals and symphony orchestras.
Gingery is also active as an educator. He is a faculty member at Concordia Conservatory in Bronxville, NY and the Brearley School in New York, NY. He holds undergraduate degrees in music from Berklee College of Music and California State University, Chico and a masters degree in music from the City College of New York where he studied with Ron Carter, John Patitucci, and Geri Allen.