Rene-Ormae Jarmer – Director

René Ormae-Jarmer

René Ormae-Jarmer is an experienced drum teacher  and percussion specialist with more than 30+ years of  teaching, recording and live performance.  She has a BA in music from Lewis & Clark College and is a member of

HERE COMES EVERYBODY, an established piano-rock band.  She teaches Rock, Jazz, and Latin at all levels and conducts clinics in many schools in the Portland and Clackamas areas.  René is also a member of The Veronica Lodge (a chapter of the Immersion Composition Society) a songwriting super-group that writes, records, and presents 6 songs within a 24-hour period every month (since 2004).  René performs in musical theatre, several PDX bands, and toured the West Coast, been on TV and Radio with her band HCE.  She is a Vic Firth Educator and PAS Member.

Call 503-704-1934 for more information.

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Byron Hall – Assistant Caption Head

Byron began his musical journey in the 4th grade when his first choice for Trumpet was denied and replaced by Drums & Percussion.  Little did he know that that decision would set up a long trajectory of performance and teaching for the following 30+ years.  He first noted success as an Oregon State Solo finalist as a junior and senior at Cleveland HS, as well as awards from the Alan Keown Marching Percussion Camp multiple years running.  The summer camps were held at the University of Oregon which was a natural choice to pursue his love of percussion and performance.  It was there that he studied directly under the late Charles Dowd as a music Performance Major and was activity involved in rudimental percussion via the Oregon Marching Band Drumline and various experiences within the realm of Drum Corps.
While at University, he met now well-known percussion teachers Dave Lauder, Devin Bretz, and Micah Brusse, all of whom now team together to teach the U of O Drumline each fall.  Since his time at the U of O as a Performance Major, he has taught marching percussion at dozens of High School’s and College’s all around the Pacific NW.
Byron was on the original staff  of the now highly successful Oregon Crusaders Drum Corps as their Snare Drum Technician for two years, and has taught, composed music for, and performed in the Trail Blazers Groove Machine, a group of highly seasoned veterans of the marching percussion genre in the Northwest for the home basketball games for the Portland Trailblazers.  He currently owns his own company within the Fitness Industry (his other lifelong passion) and teaches students privately.

Eric Yahrmarkt – Music Caption

Eric Yahrmarkt is an accomplished percussion instructor and arranger with experience teaching, performing and writing for ensembles of all ages. Eric has worked for middle school concert and parade programs, competitive high school marching bands and indoor drumlines, conference university drumlines, Open and World Class DCI ensembles, and independent and scholastic WGI ensembles. His experience in the Pacific Northwest spans 20 years of competitive percussion excellence, private instruction, and performance. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Percussion Performance under professor David Jarvis at Washington State University (2000-2004). From 2000 to 2002 Eric performed in the tenor line with the Seattle Cascades Drum Corps.

Eric’s teaching experience in the Portland metro area from 2007-2018 includes Seattle Cascades, Oregon Crusaders, OC Indoor, Sunset High School, Liberty High School, Beaverton SD middle schools, Rex Putnam High School, Evergreen high School, Southridge High School, Canby High School and an active private lesson studio. Currently he serves as the Percussion Director for Kamiak High School in Mukilteo, WA. He currently resides in Edmonds WA with his wife Andrea.

Ashley Hilfer – Visual Tech, Cymbal Tech

Ashley started her marching career in 8th grade at Glencoe High School as a clarinet player. In her sophomore year, she started marching cymbals with Glencoe’s Indoor Drumline program, and marched them through her senior year. In her junior and senior year, Ashley was the head drum major of Glencoe High School’s marching band, and as she got older, she became interested in local DCI/WGI groups. She was a member of the 2016 Oregon Crusaders Drum & Bugle Corps as a field conductor, and then marched cymbals in the 2017 Oregon Crusaders Indoor program while marching with her high school group.
Since graduating in 2017, Ashley has worked with several high schools in Washington and the Portland metro area. Currently for fall season, she works as a cymbal technician for the Wenatchee Golden Apple Marching Band, a visual instructor for Aloha High School, and is visual caption head at Tigard High School. Along with working as the cymbal technician and visual caption head at Rex Putnam, Ashley also works as a cymbal technician at Glencoe High School in the winter season. Aside from high schools, Ashley also is the cymbal technician at the Columbians Drum & Bugle Corps, an open class DCI group located in Tri Cities, Washington.

Maximilian Logan – Visual Designer

A Portland native, Maximilian Logan has been a passionate pageantry educator for a little over a decade. Maximilian has instructed and designed for several high school marching bands and indoor percussion and winds programs within the NWAPA circuit. He has previously served on the instructional teams for the Oregon Crusaders and Seattle Cascades drum corps. Currently, he operates as part of the visual team at IMPACT Percussion. He also served on the NWAPA Board as VP-Winds for two terms.

William Jensen – Bss Drum Tech

William has been a member of multiple PNW marching groups, Such as the Columbians and IMPACT Percussion. Having marched Bass drum for several years, he is excited to be helping Rex Putnam.

Jeffrey Brice – Front Ensemble Tech, Audio Engineer, Technical Engineer

Jeffrey Brice

Jeffrey makes sound effects for Rex Putnam and also works in Video Games! He is pretty neat. He has worked with Rex Putnam since 2019.