WesFest 2025

The Wes Wehmiller Memorial Endowed Scholarship honoring the life and legacy of Wes Wehmiller ’92, accomplished bassist, athlete, and photographer, was established in 2005 by the Wehmiller family and Wes’s extended family of friends from all over the world. Each year, the Berklee Bass Department awards this prestigious scholarship to a continuing student of the electric bass whose musicianship and spirit demonstrate their potential to carry on the same talent and generosity of spirit that Wes had.

The central fundraising event for the Wehmiller Scholarship has been an annual tribute concert called WesFest. The event was held annually in Los Angeles between 2006 and 2018, before moving to the Boston campus in 2019. The gathering celebrates Wes’s musical legacy and serves as an opportunity for the scholarship recipient to perform alongside and be mentored by concert headliners, who have included world-renowned bassists Pino Palladino, John Patitucci, Victor Wooten, Abraham Laboriel, Doug Wimbish, and Jimmy Haslip, all of whom were important influences on Wes.

This year, WesFest will feature Progressive Rock master and Berklee alum Bryan Beller ’92, fresh off tours with Joe Satriani and The Aristocrats. He will be joined by Berklee College of Music Visiting Scholar Victor Wooten and Bass Chair Steve Bailey to celebrate the life and legacy of Duran Duran bassist Wes Wehmiller ’92 and help raise funds to support the scholarship in his name. Come learn more about Wes and the Wehmiller Scholarship, hear world-class jazz/rock, and cheer on Stella Chapple, this year’s scholarship winner.

We invite you to help us honor Wes’s life and legacy by contributing to WesFest/the Wes Wehmiller Scholarship fund.