Dr. Paul Cienniwa, Executive Director

Paul Cienniwa has been Executive Director of the Binghamton Philharmonic since April 2020. As an arts administrator and performer, he founded Newport Baroque Orchestra, led Music at St. Paul's (Delray Beach, FL) into its 32nd year of chamber music, and was Chorus Master of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra. As a church musician, he has served several historically important churches, including First Church in Boston and Trinity Church (Newport, RI), and he is currently organist at Christ Episcopal Church, Binghamton. He was awarded the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale University in 2003.

Lesley McClelland, Operations Manager

Brian Nayor, Director of Sales and Development

Brian Nayor has been a proud Binghamton Philharmonic team member since November of 2016. He moved to the Southern Tier in 1999 as a student at Binghamton University, where he earned his B.A. in English in 2003. As an actor, small business owner and long-time advocate for both the arts and Downtown Binghamton’s revitalization, Brian feels blessed to lend his talents, passions, and life experience to one of the region’s most prominent institutions. In his various roles with the Philharmonic, Brian has met, befriended, and served countless music lovers at over 100 concerts and shared the organization’s ever-evolving story in their ask campaigns, brochures, program books, and over dozens of grants.

Dr. Julia Grella O'Connell, Director of Education and Community Engagement 

Julia Grella O'Connell is a music historian and longtime educator who has taught at Hunter College, The City College of New York, and SUNY Broome, where she created the college's first course on Black music history, From Spirituals to Hip Hop: American Music of the African Diaspora. Her innovative project-based work in music education has received grants from the SUNY Broome Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Broome County Arts Council. She has published numerous articles on nineteenth- and twentieth-century music, and her book, Sound, Sin, and Conversion in Victorian England, won the 2019 Diana McVeagh Award for Best Book on British Music. She received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 2009.