Biography

​

Stephen Hart has been a member of the clarinet section of Westchester Philharmonic since its inception. Upon graduating from Ithaca College, Mr. Hart served in heavy combat with the 101st Airborne Division in South Vietnam.
 
Since returning from the war, Mr. Hart taught instrumental music in south Jersey for two years and then entered the masters program at Juilliard where he was a student of Leon Russianoff and later became Mr. Russianoff's teaching assistant.
 
Mr. Hart had performed with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for many years and can be heard on the Met's recordings of Wagner's Gotterdammerung and Schoenberg's Erwartung. He has also played with most of the leading freelance orchestras including the American Composers Orchestra, American Symphony, Orpheus, Little Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke's and Parnassus as well as performing in many Broadway productions such as Sweeney Todd, Evita, Man of La Mancha, Zorba, La Cage aux Folles, Music Man and Les Miserables.
 
Mr. Hart was a winner of the 1977 Artists International Competition and was presented in recital by this management in Carnegie Recital Hall to critical acclaim. He can also be heard as soloist in the Israeli film, Madman and on an educational video with Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close in Carnival of the Animals with Paul Lustig Dunkel conducting.
 
Stephen Hart is married to his wife, Nashta, also a Juilliard graduate, former member of the trumpet section of the Westchester Philharmonic. They have two children: Carlo, a screenwriter in Los Angeles and associate producer for a soon to be released movie, “The Banker” starring Samuel L. Jackson, and Jason, a lawyer and managing director for Holt Construction.
 

​