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
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, 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 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.
Anne-Marie Tranchida
Anne-Marie trained at the University of Montréal, where she received Degrees in Music and Cello Performance. While there, 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 has toured the United States with productions of The King And I, 1776, and Godspell. She was the cellist for the Off-Broadway productions of The Prince And The Pauper and Lingoland, and plays on both Original Cast Recordings. In the New York/Tri-State area, she has performed with the Symphony of Westchester, Astoria Symphony, The Orchestra of the Bronx, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, and the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra. As an educator, she served as a Presenting Artist for Music Outreach, Learning Trough Music Inc, providing Workshops in NYC public schools and a longtime cello section coach for Independent School Orchestras of New York. For many years she was also the cello teacher at The Dwight School and The Dalton School in Manhattan and now maintains an active private studio in Greensboro, NC.
