(PATERSON, NJ) -- Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts’ Paterson Music Project (PMP) will host four musicians from the prestigious West Point Band on Wednesday, March 6 at 4:15pm at the Norman S. Weir School located at 152 College Boulevard in Paterson. The clarinet quartet will perform an hour-long interactive concert for 100 students in grades 2-8 including Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee, Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 10 "Harp", Op. 74, and Mozart’s Serenade No. 11 for Winds, K. 275, among other works.
Says PMP Band Site Director Kyle Henning, “Part of our responsibility as educators is to illustrate to our students all the different avenues that a career in music can take. Paterson Music Project has had guest performers from the classically-trained musicians of the Sphinx Organization to hip-hop duo Black Violin. We are excited to bring musicians from the West Point Band to show yet another professional opportunity available to aspiring musicians.”
Staff Sergeant Erin Beaver joined the West Point Band in October 2004. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, she attended the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she studied with professor Ron de Kant. In addition to her performing duties, Staff Sgt. Beaver serves as the managing editor for the band’s publicity department.
Staff Sergeant Julian Jenkins joined the West Point Band in September 2016. He previously served as clarinetist with the Eighth Army Band in Yongsan, South Korea, and the Army Ground Forces Band at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Staff Sgt. Jenkins is originally from Lancaster, California, where he studied music privately for ten years with Lee Matalon—saxophonist, clarinetist, flutist, and student of Phil Sobel. In 2011, he received a Bachelor of Music in clarinet performance from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University, Long Beach, where he studied with Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and Los Angeles Opera clarinetist, Dr. Michael Grego. In 2013, he received a Master of Music in clarinet performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Jonathan Gunn, acting principal of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Staff Sgt. Jenkins joined the Army Band Program in September of 2013. During his time in the Army Bands, he has performed with The Army Field Band for their 2015 Fall tour and at the 2015 Midwest Clinic in Chicago. He has also performed and taught in master classes with the FORSCOM Four Clarinet Quartet at universities in the Midwest and Eastern United States. Staff Sgt. Jenkins has performed with artists like Igudesman & Joo while second clarinet for the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra from 2012-2013, and Ben Folds while substituting as second clarinet for the Augusta Symphony Orchestra in 2015. He has participated in master classes by former principal clarinet of New York Philharmonic, Stanley Drucker; Cleveland Orchestra clarinetist Daniel Gilbert; and professor of clarinet at Université de Montréal, André Moisan.
Master Sergeant Sam Kaestner has been a member of the West Point Band since 2002. Since joining the band, he has performed with the New York Philharmonic in Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, at the Dallas Symphony’s Meyerson Symphony Hall, and at other venues throughout the country. He has participated in recitals at the Juilliard School, the Rockport Music Festival, the University of Southern California, the Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium, the Potsdam Clarinet Summit, and at West Point. In 2009, he performed a recital with Toronto Symphony bassoonist Sam Banks at Butler University that commemorated the 200th anniversary of Felix Mendelssohn’s birth. Within the band, he is a member of the West Point Woodwind Quintet. Prior to joining the band, he attended the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University where he was a student of Edward Palanker and Anthony Gigliotti, and Northwestern University where he was a student of J. Lawrie Bloom.
Staff Sergeant Manuel Ramos joined the West Point Band in February of 2018. As an orchestral musician, Staff Sgt. Ramos has performed with the Hilton Head Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Columbus Ballet Orchestra, Battle Creek Symphony and Northbrook Symphony. As a soloist, Staff Sgt. Ramos has performed with the Columbus State University Philharmonic Orchestra, LaGrange Symphony Orchestra, and the South Loop Symphony in Chicago. Staff Sgt. Ramos has participated in programs at the Brevard Music Center, Sewanee Summer Music Festival, Decoda/Skidmore Chamber Music Institute, and was an associate member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago during their 2016/2017 season. Additionally, he performs chamber music regularly with the 10th and Broadway Clarinet Quartet and flute/clarinet duo, Sol-Klang with Chicago flutist, Jennifer Shanahan. An advocate for music education, Staff Sgt. Ramos previously worked at the Merit School of Music in downtown Chicago as an administrator and substitute instructor. Staff Sgt. Ramos holds his Masters of Music in Clarinet Performance and Literature degree from Northwestern University and a Bachelors of Music Performance in Clarinet from Columbus State University. His teachers have included Steve Cohen, J. Lawrie Bloom, Leslie Grimm, and Lisa Oberlander.
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.
Based in Paterson, New Jersey, the Paterson Music Project (PMP) 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. PMP provides intensive, free musical training to students throughout Paterson after school. PMP launched its first site at the Community Charter School (CCSP) of Paterson in January 2013 with 32 second graders and has since added a new class of students each year. Since its inception, PMP has partnered with the Paterson Public Schools to open the Paterson Public School 1 and 26 site as well as the CCSP 21st Century Community Learning Center Program to start a winds and brass middle school program. Last year, PMP partnered with William Paterson University’s Music After School Program to create a central band site at the Norman S. Weir School to serve over 60 students. This year, Paterson Music Project is partnering with the Rosa Parks Performing Arts High School in Paterson to host the PMP Saturday Program which includes large ensemble rehearsal, Community Choir, Afro-Fusion Percussion Ensemble, and private lessons. There are now 200 students in the program across the city of Paterson grades 1-8.
Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts is located in Berkeley Heights, New Providence and Paterson, NJ and reaches students from 13 counties. All of WIPA’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.
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