(BERKELEY HEIGHTS, NJ) -- The Wharton Performing Arts School (PAS) celebrated its second annual Fall Festival & Suzuki Halloween Playdown on October 25, 2024 with a record crowd of 250 families and friends of the community performing arts education center in attendance. Attendees, many in costume, enjoyed outdoor entertainment stations with live performances and children's games, as well as treats from the SCREAM ice cream truck, a bake sale, and prizes for best costumes.

"It was wonderful to see a lot of new faces and to meet so many members of the Berkeley Heights community at this year's Fall Festival,” said PAS Director Deb Joyal. “As a community performing arts school, nothing makes us happier than opening our doors to our friends and neighbors and inviting them to join in our offerings."

Said Wharton Arts Executive Director Gina Caruso, “The PAS Fall Festival unites our community by showcasing the power of the arts to bring us all together in a joyful, festive celebration.”

The mission of Wharton Arts is to offer accessible, high quality performing arts education that sparks personal growth and builds inclusive communities. Wharton Arts’ vision is for a transformative performing arts education in an inclusive community to be accessible for everyone.

Wharton Arts is New Jersey’s largest independent non-profit community performing arts education center serving nearly 2,000 students through a range of classes and ensembles. The 5 ensembles of the New Jersey Youth Chorus, an auditioned choral ensemble program for students in grades 3–12, encourage a love and appreciation of choral music while nurturing personal growth and creative development. The 15 ensembles of the New Jersey Youth Symphony, which serve over 500 students in grades 3–12 by audition, inspire young people to achieve musical excellence through high-level ensemble training and performance opportunities. Based in Paterson, the Paterson Music Project is an El Sistema-inspired program of Wharton Arts that uses music education as a vehicle for social action by empowering and inspiring young people to achieve their full potential through the community experience of ensemble learning and playing.

From Pathways classes for young children to Lifelong Learning programs for adults, the Wharton Performing Arts School has a robust musical theater and drama program and offers both private and group classes for instruments and voice for all ages and all abilities. With the belief in the positive and unifying influence of music and that performing arts education should be accessible to all people regardless of their ability to pay, Wharton Arts offers need-based scholarships.

Wharton Arts is located in Berkeley Heights, New Providence, and Paterson, NJ and reaches students from 12 counties. All of Wharton Arts’ extraordinary teaching artists, faculty members, and conductors hold degrees in their teaching specialty and have been vetted and trained to enable our students to achieve their personal best.