Conductors
Ulysses S. James | Dr. Henry J. Sgrecci | Ruth Erbe
Ulysses S. James
Music Director and Conductor, Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic
Music Director/Conductor Ulysses S. James is a former trombonist who studied in Boston and at Tanglewood with William Gibson, principal trombonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He graduated in 1958 with honors in music from Brown University. After a 20 year career as a surface warfare Naval Officer, followed by a second career as an organization and management development consultant, he became the music director and conductor in what is now Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic Association in 1985.
In 1985, Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic was a small, mostly amateur group of about 20 neighborhood string players. It now has over 60 members, 60% or more of whom are either professional or semi-professional musicians. It performs each of its five season concerts in the City of Alexandria and the District of Columbia. In 1984, Washington Metropolitan Youth Orchestra was a small non-auditioned group of string players from the Mount Vernon area. It now has 60 auditioned members who come from the entire metropolitan area. It is the Orchestra in Residence at Episcopal High School in the City of Alexandria.
Mr. James initiated a summer chamber music series at The Lyceum in Old Town, Alexandria. The series will celebrate its twentieth consecutive year next summer. Through his efforts and those of the Board, the Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic Association (WMPA) sponsors two annual events:
- A regional composition competition, which selects three semifinalists whose works are performed and judged by orchestra members, audience, Board and the Music Director. Ultimately, they select a grand prize winner whose reward is the performance of two of their major works by the Philharmonic.
- An annual master class for young musicians, 18 and younger with some of the metropolitan area’s finest professional musicians.
Mr. James is known for his innovative programming and performance of new, accessible works. He made his Kennedy Center Concert Hall and Carnegie Hall conducting debut in 1990. In 1998 he made his Lincoln Center, Avery Fisher Hall debut, and in 2008, his Strathmore Concert Hall, MD debut. He has appeared frequently at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater and Concert Hall.
He was awarded "2002 Mount Vernon District Citizen of the Year" by the Mount Vernon Council of Citizens' Associations. In May, 2002, he was selected as Virginia's Region 4 (Alexandria) Honored Mentor for May the Month of Children (7th-12th Grade).
Dr. Henry J. Sgrecci
Youth Orchestra Associate Conductor
Associate Conductor Henry J. Sgrecci is now in his eighth season with the WMYO, having arrived as a wind coach in 2002. Dr. Sgrecci has led the WMYO in performances of Scheherazade, Capriccio Espagnol, Capriccio Italien, Dvorak’s Symphony of the New World, and in its 2007 Veterans Day tribute with the Northern Virginia Community College Choruses at Rachel Schlesinger Concert Hall. As Orchestra Director at T.C Williams High School, Dr. Sgrecci was honored as Outstanding Educator at the 2007 Virginia Governor’s School. His interest in educational endeavors led him to create a young audience concert based upon the Dr. Seuss tale, Gerald McBoing Boing.
Dr. Sgrecci has performed on his trumpet throughout the world. As Principal Bugler of The United States Army Band, “Pershing’s Own,” he performed Taps in the presence of Margaret Thatcher, Boris Yeltsin and President George Bush at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery, performed before Princess Diana at Wembley Arena in London, and was profiled on ABC’s World News Tonight. In 1988 he toured behind the Iron Curtain with the Washington Bach Consort, performing in the Neue Gewandhaus Concert Hall in Leipzig, East Germany in honor of J.S. Bach’s tercentennial celebration. He toured throughout the U.S. with The Army Brass Band, conducting the unique British-style band in the Gala performance of the 2001 North American Brass Band Championships.
A native of Watkins Glen, NY, Dr. Sgrecci graduated from Ithaca College and was awarded the Doctorate of Musical Arts in conducting from the Catholic University of America. He has attended the Aspen Music Festival, and has studied with Herbert Mueller, Adel Sanchez, Gerard Schwarz and William Vacchiano. Also included as his mentors are Robert Garofalo, Gustav Meier, and Anthony Maiello. Dr. Sgrecci has led performances by members of The United States Army Band and Orchestra, The McLean Orchestra, The Catholic University Wind Ensemble, the Bells of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church and the Blessed Sacrament Festival Orchestra and Choir. He is presently Director of Music at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda, MD.
Ruth Erbe
Concert Orchestra Conductor
Violinist Ruth Erbe graduated from Carnegie Mellon University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in music performance. A native of Northern Virginia, she participated in the Mount Vernon Junior Youth Orchestra, the precursor of the Washington Metropolitan Concert Orchestra, when she was a youth. She studied violin with Vernon Summers and Luis Haza (National Symphony) and Herbert Greenberg (Baltimore and Pittsburgh Symphonies). She has pursued an active freelance career in the Washington D.C. area and is a 25-year member of the Maryland Symphony Orchestra in Hagerstown, Md.
She maintains a home music studio where she teaches private lessons to upwards of 30 violin and viola students per week. She organizes and coaches chamber ensembles from inside and outside her studio and leads string sectionals for adult amateur orchestras. Her innovative work with youth includes directing the Junior Musical Ensemble at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church where she combines student instrumentalists with vocalists in unique arrangements created especially for her group. She has brought similar creativity to music director positions at Immanuel Christian School and St. Christopher’s pre-school.
