Julia Tranner (Concertmaster) has been playing in orchestras for over 50 years. In the San Francisco Bay area she played with the California Youth Symphony and the Peninsula Symphony. In Los Angeles she played with the Santa Monica Symphony and Orchestra Santa Monica. In 2021 she retired from managing the board of the Getty Trust, moved to Spruce Head Island, and in 2022 joined the PBO.  She is currently studying piano at Bay Chamber Music School in Camden. When not playing music, she enjoys gardening and exploring Maine's countryside on her bike.

Edwin Hantz plays viola, organ, and piano and adapts works for our concerts.  When he and his wife Joan are not welcoming guests to the Old Granite Inn in Rockland, Ed is likely playing with music scores on his computer.  He holds a BA (mathematics) from Reed College and BMus (organ), MMus and PhD (music theory) from the University of Michigan.  Ed was a professor of music theory at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY from 1978 to 1996, before moving to Rockland.  He studies viola with Kirsten Monke of the DaPonte Quartet and enjoys playing chamber music and playing with his grandchildren.

Ellie Hess started band lessons back in the 5th grade in Annapolis, Maryland. She was the kid in the Annapolis Junior High Band who had the “honor” of the conductor’s wrath as the recipient of a thrown baton questioning her in stern words on just who had the melody. When off to Colby College, Waterville, Maine, the flute came along and she continued to play in the Colby Band.  Children and middle school science teaching took over her life. The flute took a hiatus for about 20 years and finally came out again. Ellie cherishes that the PBO is so very welcoming and encouraging to all ages and stages of musicianship. It is a joy to make music together!

Joyce Hillman is the principal second violin and a founding member and treasurer of PBO. She also plays viola in chamber music, and sang with Trinity Lutheran Church and with the Bach Society of Worcester, MA under the direction of Stephen Long. She played in the Odeon orchestra from 2008 to 2019, plays piano and organ for the Monroe Church, and serves on the Monroe Library board. With her husband Rick, she has homestead farmed in Monroe for over 25 years, and recently retired from her ten-year goat dairy business. She currently studies violin and viola with Sophie Davis and participates in Scott Woolweaver's summer Adult Chamber Music Institute.

Betsy Levine is a first violinist in Penobscot Bay Orchestra, having begun playing at age seven. She played on and off through her various careers spanning 50 + years, but began again in earnest after her move to Maine in 2005. Betsy has been a painter, an illustrator, a magazine art director, editor and associate publisher, a partner on software development and promotion, a homeopath, a potter and a jeweler. She has been a member of the PBO board since the Orchestra’s conception in its current form. She lives in an old farmhouse in Liberty with her dog, a Briard named Colt.

Fred summers in Midcoast Maine and joins the Penobscot Bay Orchestra for the summer season. His main musical interest is jazz improvisation, but he is comfortable in many genres, including classical and blues. He leads the Down East Street Band in a New Orleans-style second-line march in the Damariscotta Pumpkinfest Parade in October. During winter, he performs in the jazz group Blue Sphere and the fusion group Down to the Quick in the New York City area.

Dave grew up on a small mountain in western Maine, spending his early years exploring the woods, ice fishing, making maple syrup, and performing with various youth and university orchestras in Portland. He also studied with the renowned Portland String Quartet through their longstanding summer workshops.

After earning a degree in music and business, he served as Executive Director of the Butler County Symphony Orchestra in western Pennsylvania before returning to Maine in 2021 to lead development and marketing at the Portland Conservatory of Music.

Dave joined the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in 2023 as Development Manager and currently serves as Board President of the Portland String Quartet. He also sits on the Artistic Advisory Committee for the Penobscot Bay Orchestra and recently formed a quartet with fellow ensemble members. Dave lives in Windsor with his spouse and two rowdy dogs.

About Kay