Teacher Profile: Arthur Baisch

About Arthur Baisch

Arthur Riley Baisch is a professional music educator who specializes in Trumpet, Piano, beginner Voice, and Music Theory. In addition to his instrumental offerings, he is also a young beginner specialist with Lessons In Your Home and works with Little Music Makers students. He is based in Northern Virginia. Riley actively performs on Trumpet and currently plays with the Annandale Brass Ensemble, the Brass Band of Northern Virginia and the 8th GM Regiment Band. These ensembles, in addition to his freelance work, allow him to perform regularly in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington D.C.

Riley’s formative years as a musician were influenced greatly by his participation in high school marching band. After rising through the ranks of his high school program, Riley pursued a career in the Drum Corps International World-Class circuit, eventually earning a three-year tenure at the Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps (2014-2016). As a member of the Blue Knights, Riley performed over ninety shows in nearly all of the contiguous United States. In 2015, Blue Knights earned a 6th place finish at the DCI World Championship Finals; the highest in Blue Knights history.

Inspired to pursue a music degree, Riley enrolled in the music program at Northern Virginia Community College. During his time at NVCC, Riley was assistant-principal trumpet of both the NOVA-Annandale Symphony and the NOVA-Alexandria Concert Band. He graduated summa cum laude, and was awarded the NVCC “Betty” award (twice) and the NVCC “SEAL” award (twice).

Following his graduation from NVCC, Riley transferred to George Mason University. During his time at Mason, Riley performed with a variety of ensembles, including the George Mason Wind Symphony, the 8th Green Machine Regiment Band, the Mason Music Productions brass quintet, the Mason brass ensemble, the Mason trumpet ensemble, the Mason Jazz Workshop band and the Mason Players. He graduated summa cum laude with a degree in trumpet performance.

In addition to trumpet and brass, Riley also studied Piano, Voice / Ear-training, and Music Theory throughout his time at NVCC and GMU. As part of his course-work, he developed his proficiency and fuses skills learned in each area in his private lessons. Riley feels piano is an important instrument for music students to study -- no matter their primary area -- as it leads to a more holistic understanding of music and theory concepts. Voice and ear-training is essential in the skill-set of a musician, as it leads to greater musicality, memory-work, and theory. He enjoys using the Faber series as his main curriculum for Piano students and the Full Voice series for beginner Voice students.

Riley has been teaching continuously in several different areas since he was in high school. He's worked in the Academic Success Center at NOVA-Alexandria as both a music tutor and a writing tutor, and he specializes in working with private Trumpet, Piano, and Music Theory students currently. Riley was also a camp counselor for multiple years at the Music at NOVA summer music camp and he currently serves as both the Brass and Visual caption head of the marching band staff for Patriot High School in Nokesville, Virginia -- a position he has held since 2017.