Jersey Surf Announces 2019 Program Design Team

The Jersey Surf is very pleased to announce the organization’s program design team for the 2019 Drum Corps International season and summer tour.

Alan Spaeth, Creative Director
ALAN SPAETH has been designing for the Marching Arts since 1988. He is known for creative, one-of-a-kind shows. Working with several groups at various competitive levels his work has been highly successful in the Local, State, National and International competitive arena. Alan has designed for such groups as Plymouth-Canton Marching Band (MI) 1994, 1996-2003, 2007-2010 (MCBA State Champions 1994, 1996-2003, 2007-2009, BOA Class AAA Champion and Grand National Champions 1999), Alan was a Visual Consultant for The Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps 2013 and the Visual Coordinator for The Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps 2014. Alan is currently the Visual Designer and Coordinator for the Flower Mound High School (TX) Marching Band. Flower Mound was the BOA San Antonio Super Regional Champion in 2015, 2016 and 2018. They were Bands of America Grand National Finalist both years they attended in 2014 and 2017. They were the Texas UIL 6A State Champions in 2016 and the UIL Silver Medalists in 2018. Alan is the Founder/Owner of R&S Marching Arts – www.rsmarchingarts.com

Tom Kershaw, Program Coordinator
Returning for his second season as a key member of the Jersey Surf creative team is South Jersey native THOMAS KERSHAW. Mr. Kershaw currently serves as Director of Instrumental Music at West Deptford High School in West Deptford Township, New Jersey where he also serves as the Department Chairman for the Visual and Performing Arts. Mr. Kershaw teaches all aspects of instrumental music including directing the concert, jazz and marching band programs and he also teaches AP Music Theory.

Under Mr. Kershaw’s direction, the West Deptford HS marching band has become a perennial competitive finalist in the Tournament of Bands (TOB) marching band circuit. The West Deptford HS Marching Band has won the Tournament of Bands, Atlantic Coast Championships eight consecutive times (2010-2017) including many awards for best overall music & best overall visual. Mr. Kershaw is a professional trumpet player, playing throughout the area in many venues. In 1995, Mr. Kershaw toured and performed as a member of the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps from Rockford, Illinois playing soprano bugle.

Donald Hill, Brass Arranger
DON HILL has had a long and varied career in drum and bugle corps. He began by marching with the Des Plaines Vanguard, and finished his marching experience with the La Crosse Blue Stars in 1975. Don then taught the Blue Stars hornline for six years, eventually assuming arranging duties as well. Soon afterward, Don began his judging career, a career that included the honor of judging finals three times, and culminated in being named Brass and Music General Effect Caption Head for DCI, a position he held for seven years. Don then returned to drum corps as part of the Cadets design team, serving as the brass arranger for their 2002 and 2003 seasons. In 2005, he served as a consultant to the Bluecoats. Most recently, Don served as the brass arranger for the Glassmen, from 2008 to 2111, and the Phantom Regiment from 2012-2015.

Don has been very active in the band field as well. He has held the position of Director of Bands at Plantation High School, Plantation, Florida; as well as being an Associate Director at Spanish River High School in Boca Raton, Florida. Don has had marching band arrangements published by Hal Leonard, Inc., and has arranged for many top level high school competitive marching bands, including five Bands of America Grand National Champions. Plymouth-Canton 1999, LD Bell 2007, Broken Arrow 2011, The Woodlands 2013, and Broken Arrow 2015. He has also judged extensively in the United States and Japan.

Donald has been a member of The American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) since 1994, and six times has received recognition from the ASCAP Special Awards Panel for his original works. His concert band pieces have been performed throughout the United States as well as in Japan and Australia. He is published by Great Works, Inc. and Ludwig Music Publishing Company. Don and his wife Dianne currently live in Ventura, CA.

Mitch Rogers, Drill Designer
MITCH ROGERS is a well-known drill designer, marching instructor, consultant and clinician who has worked in the U.S, Japan, Thailand and Singapore.

Mitch began his career as a high school marching band trombonist and continued at the University of Illinois, where he performed in concert and marching bands. Mitch performed with The Cavaliers Drum & Bugle Corps in the early 1980s.  After graduating from U of I with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering, he began instructing the Cavaliers and various Illinois and Texas high school bands in his spare time.

In 1991, Mitch became the visual caption head of the Cavaliers and assisted the corps to two consecutive DCI visual caption awards and the 1992 DCI World Championship. In 1994 he wrote the Cavaliers’ drill. In 2002, Mitch continued his drum corps experience as the program coordinator for the Santa Clara Vanguard.  Mitch was the Bluecoats drill designer from 2003-2008 and he wrote the drill for The Troopers Drum and Bugle Corps from 2007-2010.  Mitch returned to as visual designer for the Cavaliers from 2013-1015.

Mitchell returns to Jersey Surf in 2019 for his second year as visual designer.

Mitch  now works full-time as a drill designer, marching instructor and show design clinician.  His current US high school clients include the 2016 Texas State Champion Flower Mound High School Marching Band, the 2017 and 2018 Michigan State Champion Rockford HS (MI), as well as the 2018  Illinois State Champion Lincoln Way HS (IL), and many others.

From 1992 to 2003, Mitch was the drill designer for the trend-setting Plymouth-Canton (MI) Educational Park Marching Band, a perennial BOA Grand National finalist and Michigan state champion. In 1999, Plymouth-Canton was the BOA Grand Champion. He also instructed the 1993 BOA Grand National Champion Spring H.S. Marching Band from Spring, Texas.

Since 1992, Mitch has been drill designer and visual caption head for the colorful and inventive nine time All-Japan Champion Aimachi Marching Band and Color Guard of Nagoya, Japan. He travels to Japan each year to work with Aimachi.

In 2001, Mitch also had the honor of spending five weeks in Thailand teaching one of his designs to the St. Paul Convent School Marching Band of SriRacha, Thailand, winner of the prestigious 2001 Yamaha Marching Band Competition.  Mitch has designed for several other bands in Thailand.

Joe Costable, Digital Sound & Audio Systems Designer
Digital Sound & Audio Systems Designer and Surf alumnus JOE COSTABLE is an in-demand recording and mixing engineer from Milford, PA. His impressive discography and career spans just about every area of the audio production and recording industry, from major label artists to foreign films. He has received multiple gold and platinum album sales awards for his work, and is a voting member of The Recording Academy. 2019 will be his ninth season bringing his talents to the Jersey Surf design team.

Matt Blood, Front Ensemble Arranger
MATT BLOOD is a percussion arranger, educator, and performer and southern NJ native. He has arranged for the percussion sections of the Haddonfield Memorial HS Marching Band, InMotion Wind Performance Company, the Eastern Regional HS Indoor Drumline, the West Deptford High School Marching Band, the Hawthorne Caballeros Drum and Bugle Corps, and has recently started writing for the Rutgers Marching Scarlet Knights Front Ensemble. Currently, Matt is the Percussion Supervisor/Arranger for the West Deptford Band, Front Ensemble Caption Head/Arranger for the Hawthorne Caballeros, and Front Ensemble Caption Head/Arranger for the Rutgers MSK. He is also a front ensemble technician for the WGI Percussion World Class Finalist, United Percussion.

Matt received his Bachelor’s degree in classical percussion performance from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ, where he also has performed in some of their top ensembles. Using the knowledge he gained from educators such as Joe Tompkins, Kyle Zerna, Mike Truesdell, Javier Diaz, Steve Ballard and Ian Hale, Matt performs in local bands and orchestras in the New Jersey Tri-state area. In addition, Matt has performed as a member of the United Percussion Front Ensemble during their 2012-2014 seasons.

Paul Nalesnik, Percussion Arranger
PAUL NALESNIK is a freelance percussionist, arranger, and educator from central New Jersey. He is currently the Battery Arranger and Caption Head for WGI World Class ensemble United Percussion, Battery Arranger for the DCA powerhouse Hawthorne Caballeros Drum & Bugle Corps, and Quad tech at the Cadets Drum & Bugle Corps. Paul also served as Battery Coordinator for the Crossmen Drum and Bugle Corps in 2014. In addition to teaching drum corps, he also was the Caption Head and Arranger for the Rutgers University Drumline from 2012 until 2016. Paul taught percussion classes as an Adjunct Percussion Teacher at Immaculata (NJ) High School, and was a Percussion Consultant for the Arlington (NY) High School Marching Band. Presently, Paul is looking forward to serving as the Percussion Director for Marple-Newtown (PA) High School in addition to his duties as percussion arranger for the Jersey Surf program.

His marching career began at United Percussion in 2009 and 2010 marching quads. He then went on to march the Santa Clara Vanguard for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. With SCV, he was a featured performer at PASIC in 2013. In addition to his marching performance background, Paul received second place at the 2013 Atlanta Modern Snare Drum Competition, and received first place at the 2014 PAS Kosa NY Chapter Snare Drum Competition. Paul is also credited with playing snare drum on the Wu Tang Clan album “40th Street Black”, and with helping design and perform the opening to the 2013 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Along with his performance and education experience, Paul has published a snare drum solo book through Bachovich publications, entitled “The Rutgers Solos”. As a dedicated educator, Paul has been inspired by many notable teachers; including Joseph Tompkins, Paul Rennick, Tom Aungst, Javier Diaz, Ken Riehman, and Kyle Zerna.