Artistic Directors

Principal Flute Christine Bailey has been with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra since 1995. A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, she has also performed as guest flutist with the St. Louis Symphony and Erie Philharmonic. Ms. Bailey has been performing around the Buffalo area as both soloist and ensemble player since she was 11 years old. After soloing with the BPO on two daytime youth concerts in 1990, she made her professional debut in 1992 at age 18 as soloist with New York City chamber orchestra Philharmonic Virtuosi at Artpark in Lewiston, NY. She has also performed as soloist with Ars Nova Musicians Chamber Orchestra, and the Amherst, Cheektowaga, and Genessee Symphony Orchestras. After two performances of Carl Nielsen's Concerto for Flute and Orchestra with the BPO in 1997, the Buffalo News called her playing "immaculately accurate, but with a winning, casual, often jaunty approach to phrasing, while extremely complex runs and ornamentations seemed artlessly simple, beguiling sculptures of sound." Ms. Bailey has performed on more than fifty studio and live recordings with the BPO. After the BPO's release of Rhapsodie, a disc of French music, the American Record Guide said that her solo in Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe Suite 2: "… is one of the sweetest and most touching ever captured on records". Christine commissioned Tracing Mississippi, a concerto for flute and orchestra, from American Indian composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha Tate, and performed the world premiere with the BPO in 2002. The performance was named in the Buffalo News' top ten concerts of 2002. She recorded the concerto in June, 2007 with the San Francisco Symphony. The disc was released on Thunderbird Records, a new label dedicated entirely to American Indian music. In 2017, she released her first book, The No-Nonsense Guide to Becoming a Professional Flutist. Christine’s students are thriving in orchestras, bands, cha bar groups, and universities around the country.

In the worlds of classical music and jazz, crossover versatility is rarely found in a single individual. Over the past decade, however, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra has witnessed the keen achievements of one of Buffalo's native sons in the person of Salvatore Andolina, who is now the BPO's hottest switch-hitter in his permanent position of clarinetist, bass clarinetist and saxophonist.

While Andolina has been a full-time member of the BPO for the past 21 seasons, his association with the Orchestra began in the late '70s when he was a standout performance major at the University at Buffalo as a full-scholarship student on the clarinet. Upon completion of his degree at UB under former BPO clarinetist James Pyne, Andolina pursued advanced clarinet studies with Stanley Hasty at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester and coaching with the legendary Benny Goodman in New York City.

In addition to appearing as a soloist with the BPO, Andolina has been featured with the Rochester Philharmonic, the Grand Rapids Symphony, the Fresno Philharmonic, the Arts Nova Chamber Orchestra and the North American New Music Festival. More significantly, Andolina has been featured on at least 15 studio recordings, including his prized CD: "Like Benny to Me," a tribute to Goodman.