Our Members

Music Director/Conductor

Christina Desmond

APCO Board Members

Kathryn Pagano, PresidentJeffrey Deal, TreasurerChristina DesmondJane MinottiDavid MitchellWilliam MorganDonna SobelPhil Wenstrand

Communications Team

Amy Cruz, Kim Deal, Andrea Linton, Cassandra Pratt, Erin Wajda

Music Director and Conductor

Janine Budesheim APCO Founder
and Christina Desmond APCO Conductor

Dr. Christina Desmond

Christina grew up in West Sand Lake, NY and attended Averill Park schools, where she was exposed to early music training as an elementary music student of Janine Budesheim, and was also inspired by her grandmother, Jane Barden, an organ instructor at Hilton. Christina began her formal flute training in high school with Albany Symphony Orchestra flutist, Eleanor Barnes, and went on to earn her BM in Music Education at Mercyhurst University and MM in Woodwinds Performance from the University of Akron. Christina has performed on flute and piccolo in the Erie Philharmonic Orchestra, Erie Chamber Orchestra, Delaware Valley Opera, Delaware Valley Chamber Orchestra, and has also donated her time and skills to community ensembles, such as Callicoon Center Band and on percussion with Averill Park Community Orchestra (APCO). While living in the Catskills, she served on the Board of Directors for the Delaware Valley Chamber Orchestra, whose purpose was to provide the local community with music by living, local composers, and occasionally conducted, as well. She has also collaborated with various other musicians in chamber ensembles to perform for weddings, social occasions, and church events.In addition to performing, Christina has taught private flute/piccolo, voice, percussion, composition, and music theory lessons since 1990, and has taught and conducted instrumental and vocal music in various schools in Erie, PA and Livingston Manor, NY. When APCO founder, Janine Budesheim, opted to step aside in 2016, Christina took on the role of Music Director.In 2018, Christina earned her DPT and is currently a physical therapist and t’ai chi instructor in Troy, NY, and continues to conduct APCO and teach private flute lessons. She resides in West Sand Lake with her two children and numerous pets, enjoying the wooded environment surrounding her home as a source of respite and inspiration to nurture her diverse skills and interests.Email: musicdirector@apcorchestra.org

Member Profile

Edward Martin (10/3/31 - 10/1/24)

Written in September 2019My name is Ed Martin, soon to be celebrating my 88th birthday.I have been attempting to play the violin for 80 years and have been playing with what is now called the Averill Park Community Orchestra since its extremely humble beginnings back in Feb. 1995. At that time Janine Budesheim advertised in an Averill Park School District continuing education flyer with the prospect of community string players getting to play together. Only two of us showed up to play with Janine, the other being largely interested in fiddling, and since we weren’t intent upon fiddling around, he departed within the first month.It was a time when negotiations were going on for the merger of the George Washington School in Brunswick to merge with Averill Park. I was on the George Washington School Board at the time and was concerned that there was no vibrant public high school orchestra in all of Rensselaer County. It seemed that for various historical reasons, all the public schools had to offer beyond individual playing was band programs. In the merger negotiations, therefore, since the merger would bring a temporary increase in State Aid to Averill Park, I obtained a gentlemen’s agreement that A.P. would use some of that money to open up a string program, with the eventual aim of a high school orchestra as well as a band.In the background was the question of what to do for any children who already had some training/ability in string music. It would be of benefit for them to have the experience of playing together as a group while waiting for the school program to get on its feet. Janine, being a string teacher, soon enlisted some grammar school-age children to join us, and that group, with one other playing parent and myself, were initially called the Averill Park Strings. In a few years it became the Averill Park Strings and Winds when flutes were added, and eventually morphed into the Averill Park Community Orchestra.Over the years more and more adults have come and gone within the group, but we have always maintained an invitation for school-aged musicians to add to their musical experience and enthusiasm by joining us. This is because the Averill Park School System program was historically slow to develop, and private and neighboring school districts were not able to offer the opportunity.I have had more than one career in my lifetime and music making has bridged them all, including when I did graduate studies in France, Germany and Italy as well as subsequently teaching in the U.S.A., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The violin often broke the ice in making and solidifying contacts, as well as giving me untold personal pleasure. I also like to sing. I doubt I could produce a better gift to others than to give them a similar experience.

2024 - 2025 Orchestra

December 2024 Winter Concert Players