District Visual and Performing Arts Supervisor Robert Frampton retires after 23 years, U.S. Marine Band to perform Oct. 28
After approximately 39 years in the educational field, instilling the passion for music and the arts in the students and teachers he encountered, Robert Frampton will retire to the tune of “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band on Oct. 28 in the Washington Township High School Investors Bank Performing Arts Center.
Frampton dedicated his life to maintaining support for the arts, he said. As president for both the New Jersey Music Educators and the Eastern Division of the National Association for Music Education, encompassing all of the states from Washington, D.C., to Maine, Frampton advocated for music education in schools across the nation.
“I feel it’s important when we’ve got this emphasis on testing and so many initiatives that go on in education, the arts could be something that is set aside,” Frampton said. “In Washington Township, we’ve been able to keep it a priority and the people in the town appreciate it. It’s always in the public eye, and I’m really proud of that.”
Frampton has spent five to six summers in Washington, D.C., meeting with senators and congressmen to discuss the importance of music education, and why it needs to be supported and funded within the schools.
“The arts help kids express themselves,” Frampton said. “Kids are so absorbed with their devices and they don’t communicate directly anymore; these are social things that bring the community together.”
Frampton said music and the arts provide students with lifelong skills, such as observation in an art classroom, fine work with tools, becoming more attuned to their whole environment, work ethic, goal-setting and working as a team with others.
“Schools like this where it is so large, the arts kids develop their own little community and it gives them a sense of belonging,” Frampton said. “It’s a positive in their lives; it was certainly a positive in mine.”
Having started in the Cherry Hill High School East band program, Frampton continued his musical career at the University of Florida as a music education major. Upon graduation, he returned to Cherry Hill as the band director for a year, and moved on to Triton High School in Runnemede for 15 more. From there, Frampton was hired as a music supervisor, as well as an elementary band and music teacher within the Washington Township Public School District, a position that has grown and transformed throughout the past 23 years he has held it. In 2001, Frampton’s role was expanded to visual and performing arts supervisor for the district, a position he will soon retire from in November.
“A joke I’ve been telling people is I’m having the Marine Band come to celebrate my retirement,” Frampton said. “A band like the Marine Band, they are the best.”
According to Frampton, this will be the Marine Band’s third performance in Washington Township, with Hurricane Sandy causing the previous visit to be cancelled five years ago.
“These are the top band musicians in the world, and to have them perform here is a great experience for the community and for the students,” Frampton said. “The military is precision in all aspects, but it is very artistic as well.”
The Marine Band will only come to the area every five years, as it tours another part of the country annually, therefore it’s going to be 2022 before it returns to Washington Township.
“This is a part of our heritage,” Frampton said. “This is the band that John Philip Sousa was a part of long ago; it’s history, it’s culture, it’s the patriotic background all wrapped up.”
Doors will open at 6:45 p.m. for ticket holders. At 7:15 p.m., those without tickets will be allowed in, provided there are still seats available. Free tickets, limited to four per request, are available online at www.marineband.ticketleap.com.
