Meet the Artists

José Alejandro Guzmán Music Director

Maestro José Alejandro Guzmán has been Music Director of the Bronx Symphony Orchestra since 1998. He was already a part of the Orchestra's 60-year history in his 10-year association with it from 1976 to 1986, learning and growing with the orchestra. Eventually, in 1994, he returned to Bronx Symphony for a year as its Associate Conductor and then for a season as its Principal Conductor. He gained wide experience and acclaim in the intervening time in the choral, symphonic, and operatic fields.

Alex has been the Artistic and Music Director and Principal Conductor of several groups, including the Regina Opera Company, the Staten Island Philharmonic, the Rockaway-Five Towns Symphony Orchestra, the New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble, and the Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra. He is also in demand as a guest conductor, having performed with the Centre Symphony, the South Shore Symphony Orchestra, the Bronx Arts Ensemble, the Riverside Symphony Orchestra, the Bel Canto Opera Company, the Bronx Chamber Orchestra, the New Rochelle Opera Company, and the Brooklyn Heights Orchestra, among many others.

Photo by Judy Linn

James Pedersen

Cellist James Mark Pedersen has been active performing in orchestral, opera, and chamber music since moving to New York in 1988.  He studied composition at DePaul University in Chicago; his principal cello teachers were Gilda Barston (De Paul University), Leonore Glazer (Chicago Symphony Orchestra), and Diane Chaplin (Colorado String Quartet).  While in Chicago, he was the executive director of the Loop Group (a 20^th century music ensemble founded by Raymond Wilding-White).  Chamber music coaching and master classes have been with Frank Miller and  Milton Preeves (Chicago Symphony Orchestra), Eugene Drucker (Emerson Quartet), Ruth Laredo, Marc Johnson (Vermeer Quartet), Evzen Rattay (Talich Quartet), and the Colorado and Manhattan Quartets.

Mr. Pedersen has performed with many orchestras in the New York region, including the Greater Bridgeport Symphony, the Pennsylvania Sinfonia, the Staten Island Symphony, the Orchestra of the Bronx, the Bronx Opera, Musica Bella Orchestra, New Jersey Verismo Opera, and One World Symphony. He has played principal for the Bloomingdale Chamber Orchestra (for which he was also general manager), Regina Opera, Musica Bella, the Bronx Symphony Orchestra, Adelphi Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Verismo Opera, and One World Symphony.  He has appeared as soloist with One World Symphony, Musica Bella, Adelphi Chamber, and Soundfest Chamber Orchestras.  His extensive experience in music theater covers a repertoire of over fifty operas and operettas.

Mr. Pedersen is a member of the Cerulean String Quartet, Cello 1-2-3-4 (a quartet of cellists), and Cerberus, a trio specializing in 20^th century avant-garde music and consisting of faculty members at the Soundfest Chamber Music Festival and Quartet Institute in Falmouth MA.  He has also appeared as guest artist with the Colorado and Marion Anderson String Quartets.  He recently completed a series of concerts in New Jersey with the Adelphi Chamber Players and the pianist Allison Brewster Franzetti, a multiple Grammy nominee.  In 2007 he made his international debut playing music of Mozart and Brahms with the celebrated French violinist Jean Mouillere (Quatour Via Nova and the Paris Conservatory) at a command performance for Prince Fabrizio Ruspoli at his estate in Marrakech, Morocco. His recital debut (also in Marrakech) occurred in autumn 2008 where he played the Rachmaninoff Sonata with the French pianist Jacqueline Bourges-Maunoury.  Future projects include a concerto with the North Georgia Chamber Symphony, another recital in Marrakech and in the Dades Valley in the High Atlas Mountains, and a joint recital with the violinist Sarah Badavas at the Roerich Museum in Manhattan on April 25, 2010.

As Assistant Apprentice Program Director, Mr. Pedersen teaches theory, conducts master classes, coaches chamber music, and lectures on contemporary music at Soundfest.  In addition to performing there with Cerberus, he is a member of the Soundfest Chamber Orchestra.  He was also on the faculty at the Bard College Quartet Institute at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.  He plays a 1694 cello by the Italian master Giovanni Battista Rogeri.