About the Band

Mr. Pappalardo was a music educator for forty-one years. His teaching experiences include three years in the New Brunswick school district and thirty-eight years in the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District. He served as District Music Coordinator and High School Head Music Teacher for 35 years in West Windsor-Plainsboro and studied trumpet with Mr. Edward Treutel at the Juilliard School of Music. Mr. Pappalardo’s greatest memories and experiences in music come from his work with his students. Mr. Pappalardo is in the Trumpet section.

Mr. Gwin has over 40 years of experience playing in NJ community bands. He has been with the Blawenburg Band for over 20 years and serves as Trombone Section Leader. He has held officer positions in several nonprofit organizations, totaling over 80 years of experience. Mr. Gwin holds a BA in Music and directed a summer community band program for 2 years and was a part-time assistant high school band director for 10 years.

Mr. Levinson is a partner at Perelson Weiner LLP, a CPA with 40 years of experience advising businesses, including not-for-profits. Have prepared and reviewed budgets and financial plans; he graduated from Lubin Graduate School of Business at Pace University. Mr. Levinson is the first chair Bassoonist in the band.

Ms. Danser holds a BS degree in Deaf Studies and an M. Ed. in Education of the Deaf from Boston University, Boston, MA. Additional graduate studies were obtained at The College of New Jersey to obtain ESL certification. Ms. Danser has taught English and Deaf Education Programs for a large part of her career. Today she works at the YMCA, Princeton, NJ, as an IET/English Instructor and an array of other tutors and testing programs. She has been a member of the Blawenburg Band since she was in high school and is in the flute section of the band.

Mr. Anastasio received his MA in Educational Administration from Rider University and BA in Music Education from Trenton State College. Since 2016, he has been the President of the Glendale Civic Association. From 2016-2024, he served as a member of the Board of Directors for the College of New Jersey Alumni Association. He spent many years of his career in radio production and operations, and spent 25 years as a Communications Technology teacher at Hunterdon Central Regional High School. Mr. Anastasio is the primary first clarinetist in the band.

Ms. Danser has a background as an Information Professional; she collects, records, organizes, stores, preserves, retrieves, and disseminates printed or digital information. Ms. Danser has a strong academic background, holding the following credentials: a Bachelor of Arts, a Master of Library of Science, and a Certificate in Digital Curation. Her background is diverse, but today she works as a Serials and Cataloging Librarian at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ. Ms. Danser is in the Trombone section.

Mr. Tatsch held several team lead, supervisor, and management positions at Mobil Oil Corporation from 1966 to 1998, culminating as Manager of Mobil’s Environmental Services Laboratory, a certified environmental testing laboratory performing $4 million of testing annually. Upon retirement from Mobil, he started an environmental, health, and safety consulting firm. Mr. Tatsch was elected to the East Amwell Township Committee, where he served as Mayor and Deputy Mayor for six years. He streamlined office procedures, obtained numerous grants, and resolved numerous staff issues. He continues to serve as vice chair of the East Amwell Board of Health, a position he has held for over 30 years. Mr. Tatsch is in the Clarinet section.

Ms. Valeo has over 20 years of experience in management, design, engineering, construction, resilience, security, and infrastructure protection of bridges, tunnels, transportation structures, and conventional facilities; she is a Registered Professional Engineer in New Jersey. Ms. Valeo is a United States Army veteran (captain). She led a Military Police platoon consisting of 31 personnel and managed over $2.5 million worth of equipment. She personally conducted over 350 combat missions in a dangerous and volatile part of Baghdad for an entire year of operations. Ms. Valeo is in the Percussion section.

Dr. Rife has been the musical director for the Blawenburg Band since 1985. Under his guidance, the band has grown from a small-town band to a 70-member musical organization that performs 15–30 concerts each year. Dr. Rife is Professor Emeritus of Music at Rider University, where he taught music history courses and was the Director of Bands from 1984-2018, the Chairman of the Fine Arts Department, and taught graduate-level musicology courses at Westminster Choir College. Dr. Rife holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Michigan State University, a Master of Music in Clarinet Performance, and an undergraduate degree in Music Education from Kansas State University. He has guest conducted and adjudicated at band festivals, published numerous articles on band music, is a respected community lecturer, and has served as the state chairman of the College Band Directors National Conference. He has served as the concertmaster of the nationally famous professional Virginia Grand Military Band.