About Us
Founders Harry Hassell and Anne-Marie Tranchida met while working on the Sun Princess Cruise Liner in Alaska, and have been making beautiful music together ever since. Together they bring over a dozen years of college and post-graduate training to Champlain Music Ensemble. In addition, they have performed professionally in 49 of the 50 states (we'll get to Hawaii someday!) and around the globe in almost every conceivable kind of ensemble: from Rock n' Roll bands to Symphony Orchestras, from intimate chamber Groups to Broadway Musicals.
Harry Hassell
A native of Greensboro, NC, Harry received his BA in Applied Music from Emory University in Atlanta, and his Masters Degree in Saxophone Performance from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Don Sinta. For four years he was saxophonist for the San Antonio Symphony and Pops Orchestra, and has backed up numerous artists including Bernadette Peters, Marilyn Horne, Rosemary Clooney, Rita Moreno, Ben Vereen, the Four Tops, Johnny Mathis, and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. He has held teaching positions at San Antonio College, University of the Incarnate Word and Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. An accomplished performer on multiple woodwinds, he has toured extensively and worked regularly as a Broadway pit musician in New York City for 20 years. Recent engagements include concerts with the Greensboro and Winston-Salem Symphonies as well as performances with North Carolina Theater and Theater Raleigh.
Harry teaches private lessons on all woodwinds in his studio at Leechford Music in Cary, NC.
Anne-Marie Tranchida
Anne-Marie received Degrees in Music and Cello Performance at the University of Montréal where she where she studied with Thérèse Motard and Yuli Turovski and performed with the University of Montréal Symphony Orchestra and the University Baroque Orchestra under Jean-François Rivest. She toured the United States with productions of The King And I, 1776, and Godspell and was the cellist for the Off-Broadway productions of The Prince And The Pauper and Lingoland. In the New York/Tri-State area, she performed with the Symphony of Westchester, Astoria Symphony, The Orchestra of the Bronx, and the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra. In addition to being the cello teacher at The Dwight School and The Dalton School in Manhattan, she served for years as a Presenting Artist for Music Outreach, Learning Trough Music Inc, providing Workshops in NYC public schools and was a longtime cello section coach for Independent School Orchestras of New York.
Anne-Marie now maintains an active private studio in Greensboro, NC and plays frequently with the Greensboro Symphony, Western Piedmont Symphony, Salisbury Symphony and other orchestras.
