Ms. Arwen Hernandez, Band Director
Meet Our Director
Arwen Hernandez has been a band director in southern California since 2006. She received her B.A. in Music Education from California State University, Los Angeles, where she studied conducting with Dr. Thomas Miyake, Dr. Abel Ramirez and Donald Brinegar. She has been the band director at Riverside Polytechnic High School since 2018. Prior to that, she held positions at Edison High School in Huntington Beach, and Palisades Charter High School in Pacific Palisades. Ms. Hernandez was a member of the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps and an original London cast member of the hit stage show, BLAST! Ms. Hernandez has been on staff for Santa Clara Vanguard Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps and Spirit of Atlanta Drum and Bugle Corps. She was in the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 2005 to 2010. Ms. Hernandez is an active adjudicator for Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association and American Drum Line Association. Her professional affiliations include SCSBOA, NAfME and CBDA. Ms. Hernandez lives in Riverside with her son, Teddy Thomas, and her husband, Matt Matthews, the band director at Colony High School in Ontario. Their home is full of toys and band talk.
Color Guard Director
Meet Mrs. Hartmann
Shawn Hartmann started her color guard career as a member of Fantasia and marched with them for 3 years. She has been teaching color guard for almost 30 years throughout Southern California. Shawn has experience teaching middle school to high school color guard for winter guard, parade, and field season. She has been teaching the color guard at Poly for six years and is proud to continue the excellence that was started before her. We have a great color guard staff at Poly that strives to make all members improve and reach their full potential. Shawn has also been a teacher in RUSD for over 25 years and has been married for 22 years with 4 amazing boys.
Percussion Director
Meet Tate Kinsella
Tate Kinsella is an active drum set player, and percussionist in the Southern California area. Since discovering his passion for music at an early age, Tate has been pursuing music relentlessly. Since his recent graduation from the University of Redlands School of Music with a B.M. in Drum set Performance, Tate has studied with some of the greatest musicians in SoCal such as: Joel Taylor, Dan Schnell, Nicholas Semrad, Bill Schlitt, David Scott, Yuri Inoo, Scott Worthington, and Jody Fisher. Besides his studies, Tate has also worked as a touring, session, and Live drumset player performing with artists and groups such as : Tru-Lee, CARLY, Sophia Bollman (as seen on NBC’s The Voice), The national tour of “How to succeed in business without really trying”, Joe Bagg, and his new trio project Polyfeels. Tate has also been actively teaching private lessons and high school ensembles for the last 5 years. He currently serves as the Percussion Caption Head and Arranger for San Gorgonio High School, Battery Manager for Riverside Poly High School, Kaiser High School, and Riverside North High School. He just recently took the position of Percussion and drum set head for the Keyboard Arts School of Music in Wrightwood.
Student Leadership
Kayley
Kayley
Kayley
Drum Major
Ella
Kayley
Kayley
Drum Major