Magazine Features Haddonfield Native | Patch Haddonfield, NJ

Magazine Features Haddonfield Native |  Patch Haddonfield, NJ

PHILADELPHIA — Trumpeter, Temple University student and Haddonfield native Banks Sapnar never saw himself playing the trumpet.

Or even the piano, which was the instrument he said his parents really wanted him to play.

“My parents started me on the piano when I was five. I hated every minute. But they kept pushing me to practice,” he told Patch in an interview.

His choice of instrument changed in the fourth grade when he joined the school band and received a certain CD as a gift, according to Sapnar.

“It was a collection of Duke Ellington recordings,” he explained. “I loved it. That’s when I got hooked on jazz.”

More recently, he and his Temple University bandmates were featured in an article that appeared in the June 2022 edition of “Jersey Jazz,” a magazine best described by name.

The Temple University group recently competed in the Rudin Championship, according to the magazine. The Rudin Championship is a two-day battle between “groups of ten of the nation’s most highly regarded college jazz programs,” according to the championship’s website.

The group was recognized as one of four outstanding trumpet sections in the championship, and Sapnar was recognized as an outstanding trumpeter, the magazine said.

“It was really cool,” Sapnar said of the exposure the honors provided. “It was [also] great pleasure to be introduced with some of my best friends who are in the Temple [University] bandaged.”

He also has fond memories of growing up in Haddonfield.

“I’m still very close to four or five of my high school friends, who are my biggest supporters,” he said. “I had great teachers, Steve Uibel was my middle school teacher. He was an excellent trumpeter in the area. [and] he really helped me become a musician.”


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Amanda P. Whitten