Cello
Cellist Monte Hoffman joined the BPO in 1964, having graduated the Eastman School of Music. The Curtis String Quartet inspired his initial love for the cello, nurtured by subsequent study with many late greats including Orlando Cole, Leo Sachs, Leonard Rose, Ronald Leonard, Michael Grebanier, and Mischa Schneider. He attended Meadowmount's noted summer string camp 1965-60, studying chamber music with Joseph Gingold, Oscar Schumsky and William Kroll.
A native of the Atlantic City, NJ area, Monte's early employment opportunities included playing in pit orchestras for Miss America pageants and for 500 Club headliners such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. With a string quartet, he played the Traymore Hotel on the Boardwalk regularly, also performing nightly on the Ocean City Pier with a youth orchestra. His Eastman years fortuitously coincided with its Philharmonia's 1960-61 fourteen week world tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department—Monte and colleagues traveled throughout Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Switzerland, Lebanon, Cypress, Poland, Sweden, Egypt, Turkey Belgium, Russia, and the Netherlands playing over fifty concerts.
During his BPO tenure, Monte has served the BPO as a Board Director and member of the Finance and Endowment Committees as well as the musicians' negotiating team.
Monte is an avid collector of arts, antiques, and real estate, and is an active member of the Buffalo Tennis and Squash Club.