From fourth grade all the way through high school, Russ Grazier, co-founder and CEO of the Portsmouth Music & Arts Center, learned under Muchemore as a student at the old Portsmouth Junior High and later Portsmouth High School. For about four decades, Grazier said, Muchemore, who taught at both schools, wrote all the music for the high school marching band himself. Every single piece of music he composed was specifically designed to cater to the strengths of each student in the ensemble at that point in time.
“He was just a very dynamic musician, a wonderful jazz musician,” Grazier said.
For years, Muchemore and Bill Elwell, another music teacher at Portsmouth High School, led the Clipper Marching Band in a regime that left a lasting impression on students like Grazier. When in the marching band, Grazier said he and his peers traveled with Muchemore and Elwell to Virginia and Washington D.C. for national competitions.