A Merry Music Hall Christmas

Ray Cornils, known for his highly diverse programming, has concertized throughout the United States, Germany, France, Spain, Russia, New Zealand and Ecuador. He has been a featured recitalist for conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Organ Historical Society. In addition to his solo work, he performs regularly with the Portland Symphony Orchestra.  From 1990 to 2017 he was the Municipal Organist for the City of Portland and for thirty years he served First Parish Church, UCC, Brunswick, Maine as Minister of Music where he led an extensive music program of five vocal and two handbell choirs. He currently divides his time between the Maine coast and Ecuador’s Andes mountains.

Greg Gettel is a versatile trumpet player and teacher who has spent over 20 years in the local music scene. After attending Oberlin Conservatory and New England Conservatory, he toured in South Africa, Zimbabwe, England, and Scotland. and has coached trumpet in Japan multiple times. Locally, he has appeared with many ensembles throughout New England including Boston Ballet, Emmanuel Music, Portland Symphony, Opera Boston, Odyssey Opera, the American Repertory Theater, Harvard Baroque, and Grand Harmonie. Greg has been coached and taught by members of the Empire Brass, Tim Morrison, Louis Ranger, and Byron Pearson.  His musical interests are broad and include chamber music, theater, and historical performance. Currently, he teaches for Lexington Community Education and The Waldorf School of Lexington. Raised by musicians in rural Vermont, Greg can often be found outdoors with his wife and two kids.

Robinson Pyle performs extensively on both modern and historic instruments. He is currently principal trumpet with the Plymouth Philharmonic while formerly he had been a principal with Boston Baroque, Apollo’s Fire, and The Lyra Concert. He has appeared with Grand Harmonie, the Purcell Society of Boston, Portland Symphony Orchestra, Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, Albany Symphony, Boston Cecelia, Handel and Haydn Society, Ensemble Caprice, Washington Bach Consort, and has performed as a guest artist with Les Bostonades, Aston Magna, and at the Blue Hill Bach Festival.  As a jazz performer, Robinson has played in bands with such legends as saxophonist Joe Henderson, trombonist J. J. Johnson, and trumpeter Donald Byrd, and has appeared at the House of Blues. He has recorded for the Linn, Telarc, Eclectra, Interscope, OJE, and A2Z labels, and has been featured in radio broadcasts on WGBH, WCRB, WCLV, WKSU, National Public Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and European Community Radio.  He has been a guest lecturer in Historical Performance at Harvard University and the University of Massachusetts, and in Musical Acoustics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University, and Dartmouth College. Currently teaching in the Historic Performance Department at Boston University and a faculty member in the Wellesley Public Schools, he lives with his wife, Julie, and their two cats, Rose and Lily. In his spare time, he enjoys kayaking and photographing nature, often at the same time.