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Celebrate America’s 250th with Caramoor’s most festive tradition! Join us for a historic Independence Day spectacular featuring the Westchester Symphonic Winds. Honor 250 years of American spirit with a program of patriotic favorites. The evening concludes with a dazzling fireworks display that lights up the sky. It’s a perfect 4th of July party for the whole family!
Westchester Symphonic Winds
Curt Ebersole, conductor
Jessica Stein-Natale, assistant conductor
MaryKay Messenger, vocalist
JOHN STAFFORD SMITH: The Star-Spangled Banner (arr. J Williams)
BARTON GREEN: WSW American Overture
JOHN PHILIP SOUSA: The White Rose (arr K. Brion)
FRANK TICHELI: An American Elegy
EARL ROBINSON: The House I Live In (arr. M. Podd)
HAROLD ARLEN: Over the Rainbow (arr. SGM D. Richard)
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY: 1812 Overture (arr. M. Lake)
JOHN PHILIP SOUSA: The Stars and Stripes Forever (arr. K. & L. Schissel)

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About the Artists
In 1988, two New Rochelle High School graduates, Robert LaPorta and Rachel Eckhaus, realized how much they missed the musical and social experience of playing in their high school concert band. They also discovered that there were virtually no local community bands, so they persuaded their former band director, James D. Wayne, to work with them to form a new organization in Westchester, which they named the Hudson Valley Wind Symphony.
From its humble beginning of 30 members, the group has grown to 60 wind and percussion players, has found a permanent home at the Tarrytown Music Hall, and has changed its name to the Westchester Symphonic Winds, to better reflect that its members are drawn from Westchester County and the surrounding tri-state metropolitan area. The Westchester Symphonic Winds is an adult community-based wind and percussion ensemble, proud to celebrate its 38th season. We exist to promote music in our area, instill pride in our nation and heritage, provide opportunities for personal expression and growth within our membership, and nurture the love of music by offering an exceptional musical experience for people of all ages.
The ensemble has benefitted from the leadership of its conductors. James D. Wayne conducted the band from 1988-2005. Dr. Luis Fernando Jimenez served as conductor from 2005-2008. Curt Ebersole was invited to conduct the 20th Anniversary Gala Concert in 2008, and was subsequently invited to stay on permanently as Conductor/Music Director. During Maestro Ebersole’s tenure, the ensemble has been honored with several high-profile performances, including our Carnegie Hall debut in 2023, Lincoln Center/Avery Fisher Hall debut in 2010, performances at the Association of Concert Bands National Conventions in 2012 and 2019, the New York State Band Directors Winter Symposium in 2017, eleven performances at the Caramoor Music Festival in Katonah, New York, and RevFest 2025 at Croton Point Park. Our commitment to commissions, both as the sole sponsor and as part of consortia, help to spearhead new works by eminent composers. The ensemble commissioned Michael Markowski to write an original suite, Desert Sage (premiered in 2022), and then commissioned Viet Cuong to compose The Man and the Echo, in honor of conductor Curt Ebersole (premiered in 2025). In addition, guest conductors and clinicians have included the finest wind band conductors from across the nation, and superb soloists, both guests and players from within the ensemble, have headlined our programs.
Over the years, we have given concerts on behalf of many service and benefit organizations. Our educational outreach program has included Side-by-Side Concerts with the Mahopac Central School District and White Plains High School Bands. Our Exchange Program with the Northshore Concert Band of Evanston, Illinois, provided opportunities to perform at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall at Northwestern University and the Palace Theatre in Stamford, Connecticut. Our recent collaboration with the West Point Band took us to Eisenhower Hall and White Plains High School. Our Apprentice Conductor program gives music educators from within the group an opportunity to conduct the ensemble, and we collaborated with the Music Educators of Bergen County, Inc. with our Wind Conducting Symposium in June 2024. The ensemble has been the subject of articles in The New York Times and Teaching Music, the magazine of the National Association for Music Education.
Like many avocational groups, WSW members represent many backgrounds and vocations, but the common thread is the love of the concert band experience. Since a broad cross-section of the public has never heard a serious concert band, one of the aims of the group is to expose music lovers to its wonderful, vast repertoire. The organization is an Ensemble-in-Residence at the historic Tarrytown Music Hall in Tarrytown, New York, and rehearses there on Monday evenings from September through June.
Curt Ebersole has served as the Conductor and Music Director (John P. Paynter Memorial Chair) of the Westchester Symphonic Winds since 2008, fostering its exponential growth and success over the past eighteen years. He led the Westchester Symphonic Winds in their Carnegie Hall debut in 2023, their Lincoln Center debut in 2010 at Avery Fisher Hall, and in their convention and exchange performances in Chicago, Poughkeepsie, Stamford, and Syracuse, as well as annual sold-out summer festival performances at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts (Katonah, NY) since 2014. He retired from Northern Valley Regional High School (Old Tappan, NJ) in 2013 after serving as Director of Instrumental Music for 31 years, where his ensembles were honored with consistent critical accolades and his instrumental Prism Concerts became a local rite of spring. He now serves on the faculty at The Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, New York, where he teaches String Ensemble, Chamber Music, and Public Speaking. He earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree and a Master of Music in Conducting degree from Northwestern University, where he studied conducting with John P. Paynter and clarinet with Larry Combs, and a Master of Fine Arts in Clarinet Performance from SUNY-Purchase, where he studied with Ben Armato.
Ebersole has served as a guest conductor and clinician for scores of county, regional, all-state, university, and adult community ensembles around the world, including multiple performances at Carnegie Hall, as well as Avery Fisher Hall, Symphony Space, University of Georgia, Syracuse University, Hartwick College, Georgia State University, with the US Army Field Band and West Point Band, in addition to performances in Las Vegas (NV), Tacoma (WA), South Korea, and Sydney, Australia. He is the founding coordinator of the Music Educators of Bergen County Wind Conducting Symposium. He has served as a clinician at the Midwest Clinic, Temple University Wind Conducting and Teaching Workshops, Florida Music Educators Association Convention, New York State Band Directors Association, and presented his TED Talk, Framing Failure, at TEDxOneonta in 2017. He is a practitioner of Positive Psychology and the Harkness Method. His performance credits encompass solo and ensemble performances as both a clarinetist, and include an appearance as basset hornist with the West Point Band on their recording of the Roy Harris Symphony (2022).
Ebersole has earned multiple awards, including the New Jersey Music Educators Association Master Music Teacher Award (2003), New Jersey Governor’s Award in Arts (2003), New Jersey Governor’s Teacher Recognition Award (2009), the Yale University Distinguished Music Educator Award (2011), and the Jane Rechtman Faculty Chair at The Masters School (2019-2023). Ebersole led the Westchester Symphonic Winds to earn a triple play in The American Prize competition, including first place for community wind ensemble, second place as conductor, and third place for American music performance in 2019. He serves as a volunteer tour guide and docent at the Percy Grainger Home & Studio in White Plains, New York. His professional memberships include NAfME, CBDNA, and Pi Kappa Lambda.
Ebersole is a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and a current resident of White Plains, New York. In addition to his busy musical life, he enjoys riding America’s fastest and tallest roller coasters.
Jessica Stein-Natale is a trumpet player and music educator from the Hudson Valley. She serves as the 4th–12th grade band director at Haldane Central School District, where she directs five student bands. In 2025 Jessica also became the instrumental music director for the Haldane Drama pit orchestra, leading professional and student musicians. Jessica is the Vice President of the Putnam County Music Educators Association and has held leadership positions as Band Chairperson for the Junior High All-County Festival and the Zone 10 NYSSMA Area All-State Festival.
As a performer, Jessica is a member of Westchester Symphonic Winds (Tarrytown, NY) and has played in numerous musical theater productions with organizations such as Brewster Theater Company, Marist College, and Yorktown Stage. She has performed at prestigious music festivals, including the Aspen Music Festival, and has performed internationally with the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.
Jessica served as the apprentice conductor for Westchester Symphonic Winds during the 2022–2023 season and in 2024 she began her role as Assistant Conductor for WSW. Jessica has received additional conducting training through the Westchester Symphonic Winds-Music Educators of Bergen County Conducting Symposium, The Hartt School of Music Conducting Clinic (Glen Adsit), and Sleepy Hollow Conducting Clinic (Aaron Burgess - Ithaca College) . She holds a Master of Music from SUNY Purchase and a double Bachelor of Music in trumpet performance and music education from The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.
MaryKay Messenger is a native of Newburgh, New York, and a renowned soloist throughout the Hudson Valley region, known for her performances across classical, Broadway, jazz, and popular music genres. She was the premier vocalist for the West Point Band, having first sung with them at their season finale 1812 concert in 1980 at the age of 12. Over the years, she continued to perform as a guest vocalist for a variety of concerts until joining the Army in 1996, where she recently retired in 2025 with over 29 years of service.
MaryKay’s career includes performances as a soloist on a European Summer Broadway Tour and appearances in several local musicals such as Godspell, Shenandoah, and Grease. She has also performed operatic roles at the Amato Opera Theatre in New York City, Montclair, New Jersey, and the Bardavon Opera House in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Throughout her military service, MaryKay had the honor of performing with world-renowned artists such as the Irish Tenors, Frank Patterson, John McDermott, Nexus percussion ensemble, soprano Sylvia McNair, and Broadway star Caissie Levy. Notably, she was a featured soloist for the West Point Band’s Bicentennial Concert at Carnegie Hall, performed with the Royal Norwegian Military Band in Oslo, Norway, and became the first American military vocalist to perform with the People’s Liberation Army Military Band in Beijing, China.
MaryKay has also showcased her talents with the New York Philharmonic Brass 2010 Holiday Concerts in Avery Fisher Hall, the Boston Pops, performing as a soloist for their 2013 Holiday Concert at Eisenhower Hall Theatre and their 2015 Summer Concerts in Nantucket/Hyannis. She has sung the National Anthem at numerous high-profile events, including the 2012 Bruce Springsteen “Stand Up for Heroes” concert in New York City, at Madison Square Garden for the New York Knicks, at the opening/closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange, and at Radio City Music Hall for World Championship Boxing. She was a regular performer at Yankee Stadium, including a live, televised rendition of “God Bless America” for Game 1 of the 2009 World Series and for Game 3 of the 2015 New York Mets World Series. Additionally, MaryKay has sung at New York Jets and Giants football games, Army football halftime shows, and numerous official functions at West Point and in New York City for distinguished guests, politicians, and international dignitaries, to include a performance at the United Nations General Assembly.
In recognition of her exceptional service and contributions to her community, MaryKay has received numerous accolades, including the 2024 Women of Service for America Award, 2024 Orange County July Citizen of the Month, 2024 American Red Cross Appreciation Award, the 2020 Mount Saint Mary College 42nd Annual Community Service Award, the 2017 Orange County Women of Achievement Award, the Presidential Volunteer Awards, and the Mount Saint Mary College Distinguished Alumni Award.
Her most rewarding and continuing service is honoring the Veterans through various events, especially the Hudson Valley Honor Flight missions. MaryKay is a graduate of Mount Saint Mary College and serves on the Board of the Purple Heart Honor Mission and American Red Cross Hudson Valley New York.

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