Paul Nalesnik is a freelance percussionist, arranger, and educator based out of central New Jersey. He is currently the Battery Arranger and Caption Head for United Percussion, Battery Arranger for the Caballeros Drum & Bugle Corps, and Quad tech at the Cadets Drum & Bugle Corps. Paul also served as Battery Coordinator for the Crossmen Drum and Bugle Corps in 2014. In addition to teaching drum corps, he also was the Caption Head and Arranger for the Rutgers University Drumline from 2012 until 2016. Paul taught percussion classes as an Adjunct Percussion Teacher at Immaculata High School, and was a Percussion Consultant for the Arlington (NY) High School Marching Band. Presently, Paul is looking forward to serving as the Percussion Director for Marple-Newtown High School.
His marching career began at United Percussion in 2009 and 2010 marching quads. He then went on to march the Santa Clara Vanguard for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. With SCV, he was a featured performer at PASIC in 2013. In addition to his marching performance background, Paul received second place at the 2013 Atlanta Modern Snare Drum Competition, and received first place at the 2014 PAS Kosa NY Chapter Snare Drum Competition. Paul is also credited with playing snare drum on the Wu Tang Clan album “40th Street Black”, and with helping design and perform the opening to the 2013 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Along with his performance and education experience, Paul has published a snare drum solo book through Bachovich publications, entitled “The Rutgers Solos”. As a dedicated educator, Paul has been inspired by many notable teachers; including Joseph Tompkins, Paul Rennick, Tom Aungst, Javier Diaz, Ken Riehman, and Kyle Zerna.
