Dorian Parreott, II:
CLASS OF 1983
Neptune High SchoolClass of 1983
Neptune, NJ
Dorian's Story
Life
My Bio:
A graduate of Neptune High School in 1983. My name is Dorian Parreott, II and I just obtained my Masters of Arts in Educational Administration so that I may become a supervisor or principal in a school system. In 1988, I graduated from Trenton State College (The College of New Jersey) with a BA in performance and music education. For twenty-three years, I have taught in New Jersey starting in my hometown of Neptune, a great shore town. I spent many years as a jazz and classical clinician all around the tri-state area. I spent many years traveling to Europe as a jazz musician also. I taught at Neptune middle school from 1988-1998. For the last thirteen years, I am employed by North Plainfield High School where the job of HS band director consumes my life - but as of 2010 I will be teaching 4th, 5th, & 6th graders. There are many activities I use to instruct such as concert band, wind ensemble, two jazz bands, marching band, indoor guard unit, several small ensembles, and I was activities director for a year for the senior class. All ensembles are award winning groups. I am solely in charge of the school theatre events including lighting and sound troubleshooting; running equipment for local groups such as churches and dance schools, and pit orchestras for musicals. So every weekend from May and June, I spend between 20 and 35 hours in the sound booth due to dance ensembles and concerts. I also mentor new teachers in the fine arts department.
My life as a musician has kept me from going back to college, but I finally did it. I finished a Masters of Educational Administration. I have had the unique opportunity to perform on many CD's, one of which was Grammy Nominated for Best Jazz album - Russell Gunn's "Ethnomusicology 3". I have recorded on a CD, "Too Much Sugar for a Dime" with eight-time winner of the Avant-Garde Jazz Composer of the Year Award, Henry Threadgill and toured Europe and the Middle East for four months with his group Very Very Circus. I also performed on an award winning children's CD. I am on a few cut of the Jersey band's, The Beacon's, album. I can be heard on PBS and other professional concert band CD's. The last two seasons of the Broadway Show RAGTIME: THE MUSICAL, I was a permanent substitute and playing four to five shows a week while teaching at school. At that time, there were many other musicals that I continued to substitute. Lately, I had performed with Glen Burtnik from STY...Expand for more
X in the horn section for a few of their shows. We performed a Live version of the Beatles White Album at the State Theatre in New Brunswick. I am also on many other projects with the original Beatlemania members and Glen's personal projects. One of my favorite gigs is a New Orleans style band (JAMBALAYA BRASS BAND) based out of NYC. I have enjoyed playing for crazy parties where the guest list includes Jerry Seinfeld, Brooke Shields, and Russell Simons to name a few. Nice!!
The weirdest thing I did was being an Ambassador of the United States to Morocco, not only as a performing group but as a guest of King Hussein V for four days (1994), and performing with a troupe of 20 entertainers. This seems to outshine the many other accomplishments like performing in Dallas Symphony Hall with an orchestra comprised of the top black musician from all the major symphonies like the Met and Chicago Symphony, as soloist for many orchestra concerts, guest artist and clinician for state conventions and many high schools, conductor of state honors jazz ensembles, and performing numerous club and concert halls with names such as Irish guitarist, David O'Rourke, pianist - Hilton Ruiz, and legendary saxophonist - Jimmy Heath. I cannot believe I had the opportunity to share a stage with other named musicians like Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, legendary drummer - Max Roach, members of Blood, Sweat and Tears, and many, many others. Obviously sleep was not an option in my teens and throughout my early thirties. I sure miss traveling to Paris on the weekend only to be back to teach on Monday morning.
**** I live near Rutgers University, in New Jersey with my wife of eleven years, Carla, who is a school social worker, and my beautiful foster child, as well as my two dogs.
I miss guys like Jimmy Kruger, Steve Kramer, Art Martin, Cliff & Vicky Meyers, international percussion artist - Scott Robinson (check him out on myspace), Toni, Kevin, Joel, Ken and the rest of the crazies from the Neptune band room. There are more stories -- I had a lot of strange things happen to me after college. Stalkers, confrontations with gun slinging drug dealing boyfriends of former girlfriends, girlfriend in Europe, older women, dating women with kids, overly wild times in NYC - no kids of my own yet at 45 yrs old but I have fostered two 15 yr olds that tried to kill us and we currently have a 2 year old - Contact me to hear more of the wacky times and a good laugh.
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