Staff Members

LENNY WESTMORELAND

Lenny Westmoreland began his color guard career with his high school marching band, Northwest Guilford High School, in 1980 and has never looked back. He performed with the Pride of Cincinnati in 1986 and since then he has instructed numerous color guard programs throughout the Southeast. He is a graduate of Western Carolina University with a degree in Interior Design.

A student and teacher from the Carolinas, Mr. Westmoreland took his first winter guard, East Lincoln Cheval, to a WGI regional in 1987 and then to the WGI World Championships in 1990. In 1991, he formed and instructed the Aubreata Winter Guard. Aubreata was the first winter guard from North or South Carolina to make finals at the WGI World Championships, placing 4th in Independent A in 1993. Since then, Mr. Westmoreland has been the driving impetus behind numerous successful winter programs including Carolina Visual Productions in 2003, Etude Winter Guard and Scotland High School, both in 2006. Scotland High School was the 2006 Scholastic A Class Silver Medalist and Etude was the 2006 Independent A Champion.

Mr. Westmoreland began teaching at Croatan High School in 2002. In 2003 Croatan High School was a WGI World Championships Scholastic A finalist and promoted to Open class where they were a WGI World Championships Semi-Finalist in 2004. In 2005, Croatan High School was the WGI World Championships Scholastic Open Silver Medalist. In 2006 Croatan High School began competing in Independent Open where they were the WGI World Championships Independent Open Champions and were subsequently promoted to Independent World for the 2007 season. In 2005 Mr. Westmoreland also began writing marching band drill. His clients include Croatan, East Lincoln, Scotland, and Wakefield, Clayton, West Carteret, East Carteret, and Northwest Cabarrus High Schools. Most recently, Mr. Westmoreland designs for the Northwest Cabarrus Winter Guards who have been named a 2016 and 2018 WGI World Championship Scholastic A Finalist and named the 2019 WGI World Championship Scholastic A Bronze Medalist.

EMILY DELLA

TY HARPER

JAMIE HARDESTY

Jamie Hardesty grew up on the North Carolina coast, spending most of her grade school years involved in music and band activities; as a trumpet player, she participated in many ensembles and honor bands, as well as marching with the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps in 2007. Jamie attended East Carolina University while working as a visual/music technician with the Croatan HS Marching Band. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Music Education in 2011 before moving to the Charlotte area with her fiancé Chris.

Jamie continued working for local high school marching bands while also taking a job as a teacher assistant at Westerly Hills Academy in Charlotte. After a year, she chose to pursue a new career as a Dental Hygienist and was accepted into the Dental Hygiene program at Central Piedmont Community College. While working through the program, Jamie continued to teach as a visual/music technician for local marching bands during the fall season, as well as teaching several private lessons and band class sectionals for nearby band programs throughout the school year.

After earning her Associate of Science in Dental Hygiene degree and licensure in 2016, Jamie began working as a Dental Hygienist, which she enjoys greatly and does to this day. Her love of music and band is expressed as she spends much of her free time helping her husband with his band program in any way that she can.

Jamie currently lives with her husband Chris and brother-in-law Jonathan in their home in Kannapolis, NC. She enjoys reading, listening to and arranging music, and taking care of her cat Precious.

JONATHAN HARDESTY

Jonathan Hardesty is originally from Emerald Isle, NC where he participated in numerous musical ensembles throughout grade school. After graduating from Croatan High School in 2013, he attended Western Carolina University until graduation in 2017. Though he received a Bachelor’s of Business Administration in Computer Information Systems, Jonathan remained active in music in and out of academic settings. At WCU, he participated in various student ensembles including brass, chamber and jazz ensembles, vocal choirs, and was a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, a fraternity for men with a special interest in music.

Outside of school, he served on staff for high school band programs such as Croatan High School (Newport, NC) and Marvin Ridge High School (Waxhaw, NC). Upon graduating college, Jonathan relocated to the Concord area and has been a visual/music technician with Northwest Cabarrus High School since 2017.

Jonathan currently works as a Client Implementation Specialist for Paymentus, a financial-tech company based in Charlotte, NC.

AARON SPEIGEL

Aaron Speigel is from St. Louis, Missouri and graduated Wentzville Holt High School in 2017. After attending the University of Missouri for two years, Aaron relocated to Charlotte in the fall of 2019 to finish his education.

Since graduating from high school, Aaron has spent 4 consecutive summers with the Blue Stars Drum and Bugle Corps (La Crosse, Wisconsin) touring the nation and performing at the highest levels of the marching arts. This will be Aaron's second year with the Northwest Cabarrus High School Marching Band and couldn't be more proud to be part of the family.