More Striking Things from Cleveland.

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Mell Csicsila is one of Ohio's most active percussion performers. He is a featured soloist and principal percussionist of Carl Topilow's Cleveland Pops Orchestra and is frequently seen on stage or in the pit with a number of professional groups across a five state region (from NYC to Ft. Wayne, Indiana.) He is frequently heard with Playhouse Square's Broadway Series performing for touring shows including Wicked, Parade, The Producers, The Light in the Piazza, and Ragtime.

As a contemporary music performer, Mell was the percussionist with the now defunct Lyric Opera Cleveland where he participated in a number of productions, including works by John Adams, Philip Glass, Mark Adamo, Randall Eng and the pantheon of standard opera composers. He was soloist for the U.S. premiere of Bertold Hummel's "Aphorisms on BACH, Op. 105" with the Trinity Chamber Orchestra, and he often performs as a soloist of both serious concert music and ragtime and novelty music with professional, school, and community ensembles. Other contemporary ensembles include: The Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Edwin London's "New Music Associates," Red {an orchestra}, and as a freelancer for composers in the Cleveland area. Mell has been a percussion consultant to the composer Paul Schoenfield and is an advocate for the music of German composer Bertold Hummel (1925-2002). He can be heard on recordings with the Cleveland Chamber Symphony on the New World and TNC labels, including the 2007 Grammy Winning performance of Messaien's "Oiseaux Exotiques" conducted by John McLaughlin Williams.

With respect to choosing repertoire, he is not as interested in the world premiere as much as second and subsequent performances of works which might not get as much attention.