Vince Lardear, Lead Alto
Vince Lardear is a native of Wilmington, Delaware. Vince was selected to the McDonald's All-American Concert/Jazz Band and the All-East Jazz Ensemble as a high school senior. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree and Performer's Certificate from Indiana University along with a Master of Music degree from Virginia Commonwealth University. He has studied with David Baker, Jimmy Heath, Barry Harris, Lee Konitz, and Phil Woods. Vince placed third in the 1999 East Coast Jazz Festival's emerging artist competition. He is a former member of the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra under the direction of Buddy Morrow and played lead alto with the Illinois Jacquet Big Band for six years until the legendary saxophonists death in July 2004. This year's highlights include the release of a new CD featuring many of Vince's compositions performed along with the Marty Nau Quartet and perennial jazz poll winner Phil Woods.

Tim Vattima, Lead Tenor, Flute
In second grade, when his best friend Michael Dempsey took up the flute, Tim ran home and said "Mommy, I wanna play the flute" ...the rest is history. Although he still plays flute in church, weddings, and the occasional Jazz double, Tim's musical passion is the saxophone. Anthony Ceferatti, his cousin and only music teacher he's has ever had, handed Tim an alto saxophone in 4th grade and said, "Here, try this...". From that time, Tim aspired to be a jazz performer and had planned to major in music in college. That was not to be, but Tim enjoys a career as a Software Architect at Chase Bank. Throughout his under-graduate work at West Chester University, Tim earned first tenor all four years and was the only non-music major in the West Chester University Criterions Jazz Band, much to the chagrin of the aspiring sax-majors. Now as a member of the Jump City Jazz Orchestra, Tim is now fulfilling his musical ambition of playing in a top-notch jazz band. Outside of music, Tim's time is consumed with his passion for computers, Legos, and his sons' Ice Hockey. Tim loves his music but not as much as his wife Jen and his two sons Christopher and Brandon.

David Meyerson, Alto Sax, Clarinet, Soprano Sax
David grew up across the Hudson from NYC. His mother taught piano and his father played sax, so being involved in music was a given. David wanted to play sax but was "directed" to the clarinet at age 8, which he played until he "remembered" the sax two years later. David chose psychology over music in college, but nevertheless played in the Rutgers' Wind and Clarinet Ensembles as the rare non-major. He put aside his horns during seven years of grad school at the University of Iowa. Soon after earning his Ph.D. in psychology, David joined the 20-piece big band "CR Jazz." He returned to Pennsylvania in 1995 to begin a private practice in psychology and joined Jump City, formerly the Audubon Jazz Explosion, soon after. Classically trained but a lover of the blues, David says, "jazz is my happy medium, and playing music is my own best therapy."

Scott Porreca, Operations Director/Tenor Sax, Clarinet, Flute
Scott is an original member of the band and holds the distinction of having played every chair in the sax section. He started on alto sax in 1994 then switched to tenor in 1997 and to bari in 1999. In addition to being an officer of the band, he is the operations director with responsibility for equipment, sound reinforcement, and the music library.

Scott started on clarinet at age ten. He added saxophone and flute in the excellent music program at LaSalle College High School. A program that also enabled him to participate in the PMEA district and regional bands on clarinet.Ê He has studied clarinet with Arne Running, Joe Ciccimaro, and Charlie Salinger; saxophone with Ron Kerber and Joe Vitori; and flute with Gene Ciccimaro and Pat Ahmad.

He has played in jazz, concert, pep bands, and smaller ensembles for LaSalle High School, LaSalle University, the University of Delaware, and the Settlement and Wilmington Music Schools. In addition to subbing for big bands in the Philadelphia area, he has been a permanent member of at least one big band continuously since 1982 except for 1993. Scott also has over twenty years experience playing in musical theater orchestras for high schools, universities, community theaters, church groups, and summer stocks.

Scott thanks his wife and two young sons for their support and for sharing him with his music.

Audrey Welber, Baritone Sax, Clarinet, Flute
Audrey's lifelong affinity for cats is the reason she plays woodwinds today--she spent her early childhood playing with, drawing, and reading about cats, and in fact secretly wished she could turn into one!! When she was in fourth grade, and her dad pointed out that the cat in Tchaikovsky's "Peter and the Wolf" was depicted by a clarinet, her choice of the licorice stick was obvious!

Though her academic interests were in biology and literature, she was a serious student of classical clarinet throughout high school and college. She also began dabbling in saxophone and flute in her junior year of high school, since her dad played all the woodwinds in semi-professional theatre productions and convinced Audrey to join him. At this point she secretly desired a broadway pit career, but her parents begged her to choose a more "marketable" college major--english literature!

Somewhere along the line, though, Audrey fell in love with big band music, bebop, and John Coltrane, and about ten years ago began to focus her energy on learning jazz saxophone. Now Audrey splits her time between teaching research methods, freshman writing and playing music--jazz, klezmer, gospel, R & B--in a variety of ensembles in the tri-state area. You can check out her busy performing schedule at http://www.audreybetsy.com