Joseph Messina – President
Joseph Messina has been a member of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra bass section since 1975. He has served as the President of Local 400 since 1997. Joe has had a long career of advocacy outside of his work with Local 400 both as Vice President of the Greater Hartford Labor Council and as a member of the West Hartford Democratic Town Committee. As an educator, Joe has had many students over the years and currently is Adjunct Instructor of Double Bass at Choate Rosemary Hall.
Christine Melson – Vice President
Christine Melson has been teaching and performing in CT for over twenty years. She holds a B.S. degree from Lebanon Valley College and M.M. degree from the Hartt School. Her performance credentials include many years playing at the Bushnell, Oakdale, and Schubert Theaters for touring Broadway musicals. Since 1999 she has been active in the music department at Trinity College; accompanying and teaching. She has served as music director for several area theaters, including the Ivoryton Playhouse. Christine also has functioned as choir director/organist for several area churches. Christine Melson has served as the Vice President of Local 400 since 1993.
Candace Lammers – Secretary–Treasurer
Candace Lammers, violinist, has been a member of the Hartford Symphony since 1976 and has served as the secretary-treasurer of Local 400 since 1995.
Members of the Executive Board
Tom Hudson
Katie Kennedy
Doug Perry
Matthew Russo
Trombonist Matthew Russo enjoys a varied career throughout Connecticut as an educator and performer. Dr. Russo has served on the faculty at The University of Connecticut since 2015 where he teaches applied trombone lessons, teaches brass techniques, and leads the UConn Trombone Choir. He is also on faculty at Wesleyan University and The Hartt School Community School. His students have had success in regional, state, and national competitions and festivals. Dr. Russo holds degrees from The Hartt School and Yale School of Music. His main area of research is in the collegiate trombone ensemble. His doctoral essay, Transcribing the Fourth Movement of Brahms’s Symphony No. 4, discusses the compositional techniques used by transcribers and arrangers when writing for the trombone ensemble. He is an S.E. Shires artist and plays Hartman mouthpieces.
Roy Wiseman
Roy Wiseman is Instructor of Bass in the CCSU Music Department, a position he has held since 2004. An active conductor and double bassist in the “classical” world, he has also toured North America with the quintet “Elite Syncopation”, a quintet that specializes in the performance of ragtime and early jazz in original period arrangements. He is also the founder of New World Consort, a chamber ensemble specializing in early-20th-century American Music which has given the premieres of music by Charles Griffes and others. He has also been Instructor of Double Bass at Wesleyan University since 1979. He studied bass with Julius Levine, Homer Mensch, and Jimmy Garrison.