Percussion

Scott Kittrell is returning for his second season as Percussion Caption Head for Fusion. He is really excited to continue on what the Core and specifically FCP did last season and to lead this program into our inaugural season in DCI all age.

Scott has marched numerous organizations in DCI including Dutch Boy and Bluecoats. He has also marched in DCA with the Westshoremen. During his time at Westshoremen he was a marching staff member, where the percussion section went undefeated for 2 years. His last season at the Westshoremen, the Corps was undefeated in percussion and won the DCA Title. 

Scott is from Virginia and has taught numerous high school groups throughout his 30+ years in the activity. His groups have won numerous titles and are highly competitive. He is also a Percussion Judge for Tournament of Bands.

Scott is looking forward to making FCP one of the best in the new DCI All Age Division. 

Max is returning for his second year as Battery manager at Fusion. After marching several years with the Hawthorne Caballeros (2013-16) and one year with Penn State indoor (2015) , Max went on to teach numerous schools in the North-Central and South-East regions of Pennsylvania. He is very determined to build on the successes of the percussion program that he’s been a part of for the last three years.

Nick Mullen is an experienced percussionist, educator, and composer from the Mid-Atlantic area, well-versed in rudimental, jazz, and contemporary classical performance practices. Dedicating himself to the marching arts for over 10 years, he has performed with a diverse host of ensembles within the DCA, DCI, and WGI circuits. Ensembles which include such prestigious names as: the Penn State University Indoor Drumline, Reading Buccaneers Drum and Bugle Corps, Spirit of Atlanta Drum and Bugle Corps, George Mason University Indoor Drumline, and the Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps. During his time as a performer, he has won a gold medal in WGI’s Independent Open Class, as well as a gold medal in DCA open class.

As an educator, Nick has worked with multiple high level programs throughout the Mid-Atlantic region and abroad, both as a clinician and full time educator. Notable programs include: Jersey Surf Drum and Bugle Corps, George Mason University Indoor Percussion, The Towson University Marching Band, Imperial Dynasty Indoor Percussion, Unionville High School, and Lake Howell High School.

Nick carries a B.A in Jazz Studies from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and is a proud member of the Vic Firth, Zildjian, and Mike Balter education team. He looks forward to working with the wonderful team at Fusion to provide a highly compassionate and forward thinking approach to the front ensemble program!

(Bio coming soon!)

Aditya started his marching career as a member of the Freedom High School Marching Band and Indoor Drumline from 2014-2018. While in high school, he performed with the Open Class Finalist Raiders Drum and Bugle Corps in 2017. After graduating, Aditya went back to the Raiders in 2019 where he served as the section leader for the drumline, helping lead the corps back into Open Class Finals. Since then, Aditya performed with United Percussion during their 2021 virtual season, Imperial Dynasty in their 2022 World Class debut, the Bushwackers Drum and Bugle Corps (2022) and the George Mason University Indoor Drumline (2023). He's thankful to have learned from educators such as Travis Peterman, Dan Schack, Patrick McHale, Sean McElroy, Mike Windish, Alex Musliner, Mike Keller, and Dan Richardson.

Outside of the marching arts, Aditya is a graduate from George Mason University where he majored in Mathematics. Since graduating, he has secured a job as a Financial Analyst. In his free time, Aditya enjoys cooking, going out with friends, watching movies, and exercising.

Daquan Sessoms is excited to be a part of the Fusion Core family for the 2024 season! Taking the mantle as our Quad Technician, Daquan is an educator based in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He has been involved in teaching the marching arts since his graduation in 2013.

He returned to assist his high school marching band as a full battery technician (2013-15). He then stepped up to become the percussion caption head for The Elizabeth Highschool Marching band(2016- present). He currently arranges the music and instructs full time for EHSMB who have garnered 3 back-to-back national and state championships along with an undefeated season in 2019. Daquan has also been a part of the Highland Regiment DCA corps as a full Battery Tech in 2018 and returned in 2019 as their Battery Caption head and percussion arranger. He went on to join the Imperial Dynasty team as a quad technician (2020) and the next year as caption head (2022)! Furthermore, Daquan is now the director of Elizbeth High school indoor percussion program, where they have had their inaugural season upstart winning their first bout undefeated in standstill competition (2023-current)

As a performer, Daquan has marched with his high school marching band since the 7th grade for a full 6 years at Elizabeth (2007-2013). He has also marched Quads for Bushwhackers of Princeton NJ (2013) as well as playing quads for the Hawthorne Caballeros (2017)!

The leadership and staff of Fusion Core aim to create an environment that fosters personal and professional growth where each member is set to achieve their best and beyond!

Sam is pleased to be returning to Fusion Core for his second year as  bass technician. Along with marching four years of his high school marching band and indoor programs, Sam has taught at several schools in Chester and Montgomery County, PA. 

His drum corps and indoor experience includes Aftermath Indoor, Bushwackers, Fusion Core, White Sabers, United Percussion 2 and United Percussion World.

Sam has a passion for drumming that shines through even when he’s not in front of the line teaching. You’ll often see Sam and Max engaging the drummers in lessons while having a few laughs when the day is done!

Brock Hayman has been involved with marching percussion since middle school, since graduating high school he has become a member of the JMU Marching Royal Dukes Cymbal line, and marched WGI with Empyrean Percussions “Sway Cyms”. Brock has been teaching percussion since 2021. Teaching numerous scholastic programs. He currently is the Battery coordinator at Sherando HS in Stephens City Virginia, and Loudoun Valley HS in Purcellville Virginia.

Brock is very honored to be working with this program and can’t wait to share what he has learned so far within his marching education with this group.

Peter is a pianist, percussionist, and educator from the Philadelphia area. He graduated from West Chester University in 2018 with a degree in Music Education. While at WCU, Peter performed with various ensembles and had the opportunity to play piano and percussion with the Wind Ensemble in Carnegie Hall and joined them for their concert series in China. He began his marching career back in 2010 and has performed with various groups including the WCU Marching Band, Field of View Percussion, and the Reading Buccaneers. He was a member of the front ensemble staff at Imperial Dynasty in the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

Currently Peter is the percussion caption head at Great Valley High School, and arranges front ensemble music for various groups in the region. In his spare time he likes to go hiking, spend time with friends and family, and is working towards a Masters in Music Education.

Peter is very excited to be a part of the Fusion Coe family, and is looking forward to a great season!

Kate Hartney is proud to be joining the Fusion Core Staff for the 2024 season!

Kate works as the One-Stop Operator for the Workforce Board Lehigh Valley and as a coordinator at the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, the 6th largest Chamber of

Commerce in the United States.

In this role, Kate facilitates communication and helps to set and achieve goals across a variety of business, nonprofit, and governmental organizations. As One Stop Operator, Kate advocates for equitable inclusion for historically underserved populations.

While her work focuses on building bridges and supporting the Chamber’s mission to make the Lehigh Valley a more equitable place to live, work, and play, her advocacy certainly doesn’t stop

during weekend hours! Kate has made it a personal focus to lift up voices in her teaching and continually works to make the marching arts more accessible to diverse student and teacher

populations. Kate has experience teaching at the Novice, A, Open, and World Class levels, and in both scholastic and independent environments.

In her teaching, Kate centers active critical thinking and athletic performance efficiency through guiding students through basics of anatomy and connecting those ideas to expressive

movement. Her visual programs have consistently seen double digit placement improvements every time she has held the title of Visual Captionhead.

At Fusion Core, Kate will  focus on taking a pageantry approach to front ensemble teaching. “Helping students to understand the performance connection between body and mind leads to

more efficient, and therefore successful technical teaching,” she says. “I let the technically trained instructors give technical comments, and I focus on bridging the gap between a technical comment and a student’s mental interpretation and application. As students reflect on their reps and apply their new understanding, the musicality, cohesion, and general ensemble understanding grows as a unit.

Kate has marched at Garnet Valley High School, Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s “The Legend,” Penn State Indoor, and United Percussion. Kate has taught for over eight years at numerous High Schools’ indoor and outdoor programs, including Cab Calloway School of the Arts, Plymouth Whitemarsh, Ridley, and Homer Center High Schools. She has taught WGI ensembles including Aftermath Percussion, East Coast Percussion, Imperial Dynasty and Bushwackers Drum and Bugle Corps.

Jill is a music educator and arranger located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and is excited to join a fantastic team of educators for her inaugural season as a member of the Fusion Core instructional team.

Jill brings a wide range of musical experiences to the organization, with previous teaching experience consisting of Aftermath Percussion (2017), East Coast Percussion (2018), the Bushwackers Drum & Bugle Corps (2018, 2019) and most recently Imperial Dynasty (2019-2021). Jill has also worked with several scholastic percussion programs in the Eastern Pennsylvania area (2014-2018) and performed with the Temple University Drumline (2012-2014) and United Percussion (2013-2016).

Jill believes strongly in the influence of the marching arts to grow and shape an individual. She brings this approach to her instruction at Fusion Core by helping members identify and work towards achieving their personal goals, whether those goals include music and performance skills, leadership growth, time management, or self confidence.

Jill received her Bachelor of Science degree in Community Development from Temple University and currently works as a community and regional planner in the Lehigh Valley, where she specializes on building community equity and inclusivity.

Bruna Esteves started her marching arts career in 2012 with the Elizabeth High School marching band. Following her introduction to the world of percussion, she first joined the Bushwackers Drum and Bugle Corps front ensemble in 2013 at only 14 years old. After four seasons of marching, she returned in 2019 as a front ensemble technician.

Since her start, she has been involved in the pageantry arts for 11 years where she has also performed with Field of View Indoor Percussion in 2015 and United Percussion in 2016.

Currently, Bruna is the front ensemble coordinator at Elizabeth High School where she has been teaching since graduating in 2016 and is also the Co-Director of the Elizabeth High School indoor percussion. She was also a front ensemble technician for Imperial Dynasty indoor percussion in their 2020 and 2022 season where they made their WGI World Class debut.

Through the years, Bruna has also taught at Passaic HS, Woodbridge HS, Fort Lee HS, along with being the front ensemble technician at Encorps Drum and Bugle Corps for their inaugural 2018 DCI season.

Bruna is very excited to join the Fusion Core team for their 2024 season!