A Tribute to Wes Wehmiller

Head over to Jonathan’s page to read all about our latest scholarship recipient!

WesFest 12, the annual concert celebrating the life of Wes Wehmiller—and the fundraiser for the Wes Wehmiller Scholarship at Berklee College of Music–returns to The Baked Potato on Sunday, March 12th. This year’s headliner is jazz pianist and R&B vocalist Patrice Rushen.  Bassist and 2016 scholarship winner, Jonathan Elyashiv, will be featured playing with Danny Mo & the Exciters, JR Robinson, Marty Walsh, and Kira Small. Special guests Hayley Jane Batt and Will Snyder, both previous scholarship winners now based in L.A., will open the show.

Doors open at 7:00 p.m. The Show begins at 7:30 p.m.

Even if you can’t go the concert, you can still donate to the scholarship fund. Go here for more information about purchasing tickets and/or donating to the scholarship.

http://weswehmiller.net/wesfest/wesfest-12/

THIS APPEARED ON BERKLEE .EDU

https://www.berklee.edu/berklee-today/summer-2016/wesfest

WesFest Tribute 11.0

By

Peter Gordon

Bass summit (left to right): Abraham Laboriel, Steve Bailey, and Maddie Jay Lough

The power of music to honor the memory of composer, bassist, and photographer Wes Wehmiller ’92 was on full display March 6 at the Baked Potato in Studio City, California. The annual WesFest tribute reached new heights as music and Wehmiller’s spirit filled the club during this memorable celebration.

Over the past 11 years, WesFest has grown into an extended annual fundraising campaign in support of the Wes Wehmiller Endowed Scholarship Fund at Berklee that has raised more than $250,000. The Wehmiller Scholarship is awarded annually to a bass student at Berklee who best exemplifies the values that Wes represented. As an endowed scholarship, it will honor Wehmiller’s legacy for decades.

At this year’s celebration, Derek Frank, Shania Twain’s touring bassist, opened with a powerful set that quickly took the energy level into high gear. His quartet, featuring keyboardist Ty Bailie, drummer Mike Bennett, and guitarist Andrew Synowiec, set the tone with remarkable musicianship and groove.

Danny Mo’ and the Exciters always deliver a set full of heart and soul, and this year was no exception. Members of this all-star band included Danny Morris ’78, John “JR” Robinson ’75, Scott Gilman ’80, Kira Small ’93, Fred Kron, assistant professor Marty Walsh, and inaugural Wehmiller Scholarship recipient Will Snyder ’07.

The most recent recipient of the Wes Wehmiller Scholarship, Maddie Jay Lough, was featured on bass as she led the band in her original composition “Throw Away Your Hate.”

Left to right: Peter Gordon, Abraham Laboriel, John “JR” Robinson, and Danny Morris

The Exciters closed their set with an Aretha Franklin-styled version of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” that almost took the roof off, courtesy of Kira Small and the trio of background singers Samantha Schultz ’13, Jeniffer Criss-Williams ’07, and Latoria Boyd ’10. In a special moment preceding the headline set, Maddie Jay Lough, Abraham Laboriel ’72, and Steve Bailey, chair of Berklee’s Bass Department, performed a bass trio version of the Horace Silver tune “Peace,” with musicality and artistry that typified the evening.

Open Hands, a quartet featuring Laboriel (bass), Justo Almario ’71 (tenor sax and flute), Bill Maxwell (drums), and Tim Carmon (keyboards), delivered a headline set that was inspiring, spiritual, and musically dazzling. Paula Wehmiller, Wes’s mother, observed that “in a moment that seems somehow out of human time, [Laboriel] beckoned the crowd to join him in gentle rounds of hallelujah as he spoke to us of [gratitude], of generosity, of love, of peace, of Wes. Now the crowd was on its feet.” It was a powerful performance.

Following the most successful WesFest in terms of funds raised, Stacey Ferguson, the event producer, stated, “This kind of sustaining passion for a scholarship fundraising event is rare. But you know what? So was Wes and everything he did.”

MARCH 6 – THE BAKED POTATO

WITH

ABRAHAM LABORIEL and OPEN HANDS

STEVE BAILEY

DANNY MO & THE EXCITERS

KIRA SMALL

JR ROBINSON

MADDIE JAY (The 2015 Wes Wehmiller Bass Scholarship Recipient)

Click here for all the info you need!

Scholarship recipient Maddie J, D Mo, Berklee trustee and Wes’ Aunt Sara Lawrence Lightfoot and her son Martin

On November 16, 2015 Maddie Jay performed with professor Danny “Mo” Morris and many others at Berklee’s David Friend Recital hall on the the Boston campus.

Maddie Jay is the latest in a long list of recipients of the Wes Wehmiller Endowed Scholarship at Berklee College of Music and will be performing at WesFest 11 in Los Angeles on March 6, 2016.

WesFest 9 will be on Sunday, March 16 at the legendary The Baked Potato!

Tickets go on sale to the public on February 17.

Because we have a much smaller capacity, we are releasing a limited number of pre-sale tickets to those subscribed to the WesList until February 16.  If you would like to be added, please use the Contact form found HERE (not the WesList signup right now; ReverbNation difficulties at the mo).

Here’s all the info you need!  Hope to see you at the show!

In the spring of 2012, the WesFest family welcomed a new member as Jed Lingat of Washington, D.C. was awarded the Wes Wehmiller Scholarship. Click here to find out more about Jed, who will be performing at the WesFest 8 benefit concert in Los Angeles…with details on that show to be announced very soon!

Bryan here. I wanted to give you an update as to where we stand in reaching our WesFest 7 Fundraising Drive goal to raise $20,000 for the Wes Wehmiller Scholarship at Berklee College Of Music.

Right now we’ve raised about $17,000 through general donations, corporate sponsorships, and advance ticket sales. That’s good. But the larger donations are mostly all in, so the last $3,000 is going to be all about ticket sales to the WesFest 7 benefit concert.

We need to sell 95 more tickets to hit the goal. This is totally doable. I’ve heard from more people than ever that they’re “coming to the show.” But our advance ticket sales are actually a little behind last year at this point.

So here’s my plea: If you know you’re going, or you’re 95% sure you’re going, please buy tickets in advance! Not only It will help us know where we stand and how best to make the final push, it will save you money. Show day tickets are $30 each, while single tickets in advance are only $20, and pairs of tickets in advance are $35. So it’s obvious what to do, right?

**CLICK HERE FOR TICKET PURCHASE AND DONATION INFORMATION**

And of course, if you can’t make the show but you want to pitch in, that’s easy to do as well – just click here to make a donation to the fundraising drive (just enter the donation amount in the field marked “Additional Non-Ticket Donation”).

But if you’re anywhere close to Los Angeles, or are up for a road trip, you’ll see The Aristocrats, Mike Keneally, The Casualties Of Jazz, Danny Mo & The Exciters (featuring legendary drummer John “JR” Robinson and 2011 Wehmiller Scholarship Award Winner Hayley Jane Batt), Jackie Daum, Kira Small, Colin Keenan, and more! (Phew – there’s even more details below.)

Thanks so much for being on this list, for all you do to make WesFest a success, and to keep the spirit of Wes alive and thriving on into the future.

We are super excited to announce that the WesFest 7 benefit concert will take place on Sunday, 3/4/12, at The Roxy in Los Angeles…and our headliner is the instrumental rock/fusion power trio The Aristocrats, featuring guitarist Guthrie Govan, bassist Bryan Beller, and drummer Marco Minnemann! The lineup also features Mike Keneally, The Casualties Of Jazz, Jackie Daum, Joe Brooks, and Colin Keenan.

As always, WesFest 7 also features Danny Mo & The Exciters, featuring the 2011 Wehmiller Scholarship Winner Hayley Jane Batt! Click here to read Danny Mo’s take on Hayley. She’s a lucky gal, because she’ll be grooving with none other than the legendary John “JR” Robinson on drums!

This is all made possible by your generous donations, and this announcement also marks the official beginning of the WesFest 7 fundraising launch. Our goal is to raise another $20,000 for the fund this year, and you don’t have to wait until March to donate – you can do so right now by clicking here and selecting “additional non-ticket donation.” There’s plenty of time left in 2011 to get a tax-deductible contribution in before the end of the year.

We’re also proud to have the support of the following sponsors for WesFest 7: Gallien-Krueger Amplification, Mike Lull Custom Basses, D’Addario Strings, and DW Drums.

For complete info on WesFest 7, just click here. Hope to see you at the show!