WesFest 4 Wrap-Up
Thursday, August 6th, 2009
WESFEST 4 BENEFIT CONCERT RAISES $21,000 FOR WES WEHMILLER SCHOLARSHIP FUND AT BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSIC
Annual event and related fundraising drive activities generate best result in history of effort to date
BOSTON (July 3, 2009) — WesFest 4, the fourth annual WesFest benefit concert, was held at The Knitting Factory in Los Angeles on February 26, 2009. The concert’s highest-to-date attendance, along with new fundraising efforts such as online auctions and merchandise sales, resulted in a groundbreaking donation of $21,000 to the Wes Wehmiller Endowed Scholarship Fund at Berklee College of Music. The total amount raised by the WesFest concert series and related fundraising drives since its inception in 2006 has now exceeded $50,000.
In addition to concert ticket sales, private donations, international charity auction efforts (U.S, Belgium, Netherlands), and merchandise revenues, WesFest 4 was also officially supported by corporate sponsors Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, Mike Lull Custom Basses, and D’Addario & Co. The monies and awareness raised by the WesFest concert series have established the Wes Wehmiller Scholarship as one of the most noted awards given by Berklee College Of Music.
The WesFest 4 concert was headlined by The Allan Holdsworth/Alan Pasqua Group featuring Chad Wackerman and Jimmy Haslip, a supergroup of four legends from the jazz/fusion music scene who not only performed at their typically world-class level, but also brought a healthy number of their own fans and supporters into the WesFest circle of awareness and generosity. As in every WesFest concert, the current year’s scholarship winner performed a set at the show, and 2008’s recipient Steffie Willis upheld the tradition by laying down a deep, reggae-influenced groove in a set with Danny Mo & The Exciters, a band led by Wehmiller’s Berklee Bass Professor and close friend Danny Morris. Morris is instrumental in selecting the scholarship winner, and leads a separate annual concert event in Boston to further awareness of the scholarship among the Berklee student body.
“Wes Wehmiller once described a real bass player as someone who actually concentrates on foundation,” Morris recalled. “Wes further depicts that bassist as someone who concentrates on one note and has that one note mean everything. Performing live with Steffie at Wesfest 4 and looking out to the audience movin’ to the heavy pulse, I felt something warm and gratifying. That was Wes smiling and saying, ‘Yeah Steffie, that’s the way to play the bass!’”
Three other acts, all a part of Wes Wehmiller’s broad and diverse musical world, performed at WesFest 4: original WesFest headliner guitarist/virtuoso Mike Keneally in his Keneally-Minnemann-Beller powertrio; L.A. singer/songwriter Tamara Silvera, whose new CD Departures features Wehmiller’s last known full-album recorded work; and The WesFest All-Stars, a collection of Wehmiller’s friends and musical compatriots, featuring performances by Ali Handal, Kira Small, Mother Eff, and Wes’ original rock band I, Claudius (whose CD Bleed: The Wes Demos contains reworked demo tracks with Wehmiller’s original bass parts, and contributed to the overall merchandising effort).
“We’re extremely grateful for the contribution of so many individuals involved in the show, as well their efforts to spread the news on the internet and make the Wes Wehmiller Scholarship known world-wide,” says WesFest 4 Producer Stacey Ferguson. “The fact that the WesFest fundraising drive continues to raise more money every year – even in these tough economic times – speaks volumes about how the amazing energy and depth of Wes’ life continues to touch people, and inspires them to carry it on.”
Established by Wes’ family and friends in 2005, the Wes Wehmiller Scholarship is awarded annually to a continuing student at Berklee who best exemplifies the excellence and grace Wes showed as a bassist and as a human being. The WesFest concert series serves as the centerpiece for a continuing fundraising drive for the scholarship fund, which honors the legacy of Wehmiller, a Berklee graduate (‘92) and highly accomplished bassist, athlete, and photographer who died of thyroid cancer in January, 2005. The first two WesFest concert DVD’s, as well as the I, Claudius CD Bleed: The Wes Demos, are available for purchase at http://weswehmiller.net/wesfest, with net proceeds also going to benefit the fund. For additional biographical information on Wes Wehmiller, WesFest, and all related merchandise, please visit the official Tribute To Wes Wehmiller Website at www.weswehmiller.net. Pictures of WesFest 4 are available by visiting the site’s front page, clicking “WesFest” and then clicking “Gallery.”
For more information on the scholarship, or to find out how to contribute to the fund, please contact Peter Gordon, Director of the Berklee Center in Los Angeles, at (818) 380-3041, or by e-mail at pgordon@berklee.edu.
Berklee College of Music was founded on the revolutionary principle that the best way to prepare students for careers in music was through the study and practice of contemporary music. For over 60 years, the college has evolved constantly to reflect the state of the art of music and the music business. With over a dozen performance and nonperformance majors, a diverse and talented student body representing over 70 countries, and a music industry “who’s who” of alumni, Berklee is the world’s premier learning lab for the music of today - and tomorrow.
