Wharton School of Music to Celebrate 25 Year Anniversary Saturday

Wharton Music Center will celebrate its first 25 years at its 25th Anniversary Benefit Gala on Saturday, March 26.

At the Gala -- an annual marquee event to raise funds to support excellent music programming for its students, the community, and its charitable outreach programs -- Wharton Music Center will honor Dr. Lennard Wharton of Short Hills and New Jersey State Senator Thomas H. Kean Jr.

Additionally, tribute will be paid to board members who have served WMC during the past 25 years. The Gala will conclude with a concert featuring classical pianist Anne-Marie McDermott (http://www.opus3artists.com/artists/anne-marie-mcdermott/) and postclassical string quartet ETHEL (www.ethelcentral.com), who appeared at WMC’s Spring Benefit a year ago. The Gala will be held at Temple Sinai in Summit.

Wharton Music Center began as a vision of founder Judith G. Wharton to establish a community music center that would provide music education to all including those who are socially and economically disadvantaged, have special needs, or have limited access to quality teaching by highly educated music professionals. Her vision took root at the Madison Area YMCA and grew from a handful of classes in a limited space to its present location in Berkeley Heights.

Wharton Music Center, New Jersey’s largest independent community music center, offers private lessons in all instruments, voice, and composition and classes in musical theater, dance, drama, voice, music theory, audio recording, early childhood music, and music for children with special needs.

Offering a range of musical genres including classical, rock, jazz, and blues, WMC embraces the individuality of every aspiring musician. Further, WMC encourages everyone, regardless of ability, to experience the profound impact that music has on their lives. Currently, WMC has nearly 600 students from surrounding communities including Berkeley Heights, Summit, New Providence, Chatham, Madison, Warren, Basking Ridge, Millington, Westfield, Scotch Plains, Short Hills, Livingston, and Millburn.

As a non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization, WMC’s mission is to provide music education and programming to economically and socially underserved communities.

In addition to preschool music programs in Morristown and Elizabeth, WMC provides after-school enrichment programs in Irvington and Summit and music programming at Children’s Specialized Hospital. As a community music center, WMC arranges concerts for local senior centers, assisted living residences, and libraries and hosts concerts and open mic performances. Through these programs, WMC touches annually 600 to 700 people in the community.

Gala honoree Lennard Wharton, who is married to Judith G. Wharton, has been an ardent and committed supporter of Wharton Music Center since its inception. Dr. Wharton, whose career spanned both the academic world, where he was a professor at The University of Chicago and the business world, where he served as a senior executive of various corporations, has had a lifetime love of music and was a percussion musician as a student.

Senator Kean is a Senate appointee to the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the New Jersey Israel Commission, the Legislative Services Commission, the New Jersey Amistad Commission and the New Jersey Casino Revenue Fund Advisory Commission. The senator serves on the Senate Education Committee, the Senate Commerce Committee and the Legislative Oversight Committee.

Senator Kean has been an advocate for the arts by serving on several boards. He is a member of The Newark Museum Board of Trustees; New Jersey Network (NJN) Community Advisory Board; a member of the Rutgers Business School Board of Advisors; a member of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities; an Honorary Member of the Board of Trustees of the Paper Mill Playhouse and an Honorary Board Member of the Westfield Symphony Orchestra.

Wharton Music Center’s 25^th Anniversary Gala is presented by Silver Anniversary Sponsors McCarter & English, LLP and Hayward Pool Products and produced by Sponsors Eagle Risk Management Services, Inc., Honey Kurtz, and Judith and Lennard Wharton. Gala Benefit Committee Chairs Kerry Brennan and George Vitureira of Millington are delighted to be hosting WMC’s Benefit Gala on this momentous occasion.

“We are thrilled by the enthusiastic support of our sponsors, donors, WMC student families, faculty, and friends in our community for helping us celebrate our 25th anniversary,” declares George Vitureira.

For more information, visit www.WhartonMusicCenter.org.