The 369th Experience
Student Band & Conductors
WHO
Beginning in November 2016, 75 freshmen and sophomore music students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other colleges and universities across America were selected to join the band. Today our 65 students and 10 alternates represent 21 HBCUs.
WHAT
Participants will take part in a series of commemorative events culminating with performances at historic sites across the United States and Europe. This is your opportunity to pay special tribute to the men who sacrificed so much and inspired so many.
Hello, I’m Stephany B. Neal, founder of The 369th Experience. What is The 369th Experience? We are a nonprofit organization dedicated to acknowledging, educating and preserving the legacy of Lieutenant James Reese Europe, Second Lieutenant Noble Sissle, and The 369th Infantry Regiment.
This regiment, made up of African American and Puerto Rican soldiers, was one of the longest-serving and most decorated units of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I. They served on the battlefield, without backup, longer than any other American regiment. And more than 100 years later were officially named The Harlem Hellfighters and awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by President Joseph R. Biden.
Our goal is to never let this history be forgotten, which is why we have selected 65 incredible young musicians from HBCUs and other schools to continue that legacy. Please join us as we celebrate Juneteenth, now an official holiday; Black Music Month, and the band that changed the world of music forever, more than 100 years ago, The Harlem Hellfighters.
As community partners and artists in residence at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, our band will join a host of celebrity musicians, historians, and scholars in master classes, panel discussions, and live performances at the Kennedy Center, the World War I Memorial Site, and Freedom Plaza. We’ll finish the week with a parade featuring The 369th Experience band, local high school bands and area military bands.
All in an effort to pay tribute to James Reese Europe, Noble Sissle and the 369th Regimental Infantry Band. These events are sponsored in part by The World War One Centennial Commission, The Dough Boy Foundation, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
We’ll be in Washington, DC this summer. Look for us June 13th thru the 20th. I’m so happy to be here at a time when we can now celebrate these brilliant men of color.
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welcome
The 369th Experience Band
Anthony S. Jones, Sr. M.M. Ed.
Band Director
Mr. Jones earned the Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, a Master of Music Education from Winthrop University and is currently pursuing the Doctor of Philosophy in Music Education from Gardner-Webb University. Mr. Jones has been an adjudicator, clinician and musical arranger for the state of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, and Texas. Mr. Jones served as a music educator in the Charlotte/Mecklenburg school district for 27 years. He has served as an Assistant Band Director at Johnson C. Smith University . Mr. Jones also serves as the Assistant Orchestra Director for the National Baptist Congress. Mr. Jones has performed and worked with jazz notables Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker, Christian McBride, Marcus Roberts, Will Downing, Thelonious Monk Jr., Wynton Marsalis, Jon Baptiste and Oscar Winner Steve McQueen. Mr. Jones is now currently the Livingstone College Director of Bands and Assistant Professor of Music located in Salisbury, North Carolina.
Edward Greene
Guest Band Conductor
Edward A. Greene, a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, and a retired United States Chief Warrant Officer, achieved an extensive performance career in the U.S. Army Band Program as a Saxophonist. After his commission as a Warrant Officer Bandmaster in 1975, Chief Green assumed command of the 399th Army Band at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Subsequent assignments include the 8th Army Band in Seoul, Korea; the 1st Cavalry Division Band at Fort Hood, Texas, and the 1st Army Band at Fort Meade, Maryland. For his final assignment, Mr. Greene served as Adjutant and Associate Bandmaster of the Unites States Army Field Band, Fort Meade, Maryland. The Field Band is the official touring ensemble for the US Army. Mr. Greene is presently the Associate Director of the Washington Redskins Marching Band and the Executive Director of the Opportunities Industrialization Center (OIC) of Anne Arundel County, MD.
Kelvin Washington
Guest Band Conductor
Kelvin W. Washington is a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Instrumental Music Education from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He is currently a Doctoral candidate at the American Conservatory of Music in Hammond, Indiana. Mr. Washington’s teaching career includes locations at Livonia High School in Louisiana; Detroit, Michigan as Director of Bands at Nolan Middle School and McKenzie High School; position of Chief Arranger and Assistant Director of Bands at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, and later appointed Director of Bands. Now in his twentieth year as the Conductor for the Howard University Concert Band and Associate Director of Bands, he has served as clinician and adjudicator for a number of school music programs and festivals. As a professional instrumentalist, Mr. Washington has toured within the United States, Canada, Poland, England and Scotland. In addition to his university responsibilities, Mr. Washington is a highly regarded Orchestra Director and Arranger for church ministries throughout the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
H.B. Barnum
Composer and Arranger
Legendary music composer and arranger, H. B. Barnum has worked with an extraordinary cross-spectrum of performers in his long career. At age four, Hidle Brown Barnum, Jr. won a nationwide talent contest for his singing and piano playing that launched a film and radio career that included appearances on The Jack Benny Program. He recorded his first solo album at the age of fourteen as Pee Wee Barnum. In 1955, he co-founded the doo-wop group, The Dootones, joined and produced for The Robins, and had his first major hit as a producer in 1959 for a U.S. Top 5 hit “Tan Shoes and Pink Shoelaces”. His reputation flourished after he joined Capitol Records, often working in collaboration with producer and longtime friend David Axelrod. He has arranged for Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin, Count Basie, The Jackson 5, Frank Sinatra, Puff Daddy and many other notable musicians. By the mid-1970s, he switched from pop music to television, scoring countless series, specials, composing advertising jingles and winning international awards for his musical compositions for commercials.
participants ARE REQUIRED TO adhere to the following academic and performance progress guidelines:
01
Maintain good standing with the student's respective university
02
Maintain full time enrollment (minimum 12 hours) status each semester with no incomplete's (I),
withdrawals or
failing grades
03
Maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 2.5
04
Students must agree to a background check from law enforcement agencies from their hometown and/or the city where their educational institution is located.