(BERKELEY HEIGHTS, NJ) -- Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts (WIPA) will offer a month-long Jazz Listening Hour every Monday at 7:00pm beginning June 29. Hosted by saxophonist Dave Schumacher, this informal survey of the history of Jazz will explore classic as well as rare, live unissued recordings generally unavailable to the public. This series of five online listening/discussion sessions covers eras in the development of Jazz from its early roots through swing, bebop, and beyond. Featured Jazz legends include Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and more. The participation fee for the Jazz Listening Hour is $50. For more information and registration, visit www.WhartonArtsOnline.org. 

Said Host Dave Schumacher, “Music lovers of all ages will enjoy exploring the history of America's great art form through guided listening sessions. Whether you are a Jazz newbie or seasoned fan, these sets will expand your horizons right from your living room.”

Chicago native Dave Schumacher has been a key player in the New York jazz scene for more than three decades, touring throughout the United States and internationally with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, Art Blakely Big Band, T.S. Monk on Monk Ensemble, Nicholas Payton’s Louis Armstrong Tribute Big Band, and as an original member of the Harry Connick, Jr. Orchestra. Highlights of his international career include an appearance at Mount Fuji Jazz Festival in Japan with the Art Blakely Big Band.

Schumacher can be heard on nearly a dozen Columbia Records recordings with the Harry Connick, Jr. Orchestra and with such jazz greats as Lionel Hampton and Mel Tormé. Schumacher received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Jazz Performance from Rutgers University/Livingston College and a Master of Music degree in Jazz Performance from New Jersey City University.

The Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts’ mission is to provide the highest quality performing arts education to a wide range of students in a supportive and inclusive environment, where striving for personal excellence inspires and connects those we teach to the communities we serve.

Wharton is New Jersey’s largest independent non-profit community performing arts education center serving over 1,500 students through a range of classes and ensembles including the 15 ensembles of the New Jersey Youth Symphony, which serve 500 students in grades 3 – 12 by audition. Beginning with Out of the Box Music and Pathways classes for young children, Wharton offers private lessons, group classes, and ensembles for all ages and all abilities at the Performing Arts School. With the belief in the positive and unifying influence of music and the performing arts and that arts education should be accessible to all people regardless of their ability to pay, Wharton teaches all instruments and voice and has a robust musical theater program. Based in Paterson, New Jersey, the Paterson Music Project is an El Sistema-inspired program of the Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts that uses music as a vehicle for social change by empowering and inspiring children through the community experience of ensemble learning and playing.

Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts is located in Berkeley Heights, New Providence and Paterson, NJ and reaches students from 10 counties. All of Wharton’s extraordinary faculty members and conductors hold degrees in their teaching specialty and have been vetted and trained to enable our students to achieve their personal best.