Parents, teachers, and friends fill the auditorium. The room is anxious, anxious to be on time, anxious to find a good seat, and anxious for the starting note. Just as every seat is filled the lights dim and the air stops still. Seventy students who have tirelessly worked to perfect several musical numbers are presented. And as he cues the band in, the beginning of an end begins.
Luci Zeoli conducted his third and last concert for Kinnelon High School on Nov. 30. Eleven months ago Zeoli was assigned to KHS by his college, Montclair State University, to get real-world experience as a conductor for a high school. His last day here will be Dec. 22. Though he is only an intern here, he has been here long enough to make an impact on the people surrounding him.
Zeoli has impacted students, but the initial welcome wasn’t warm. “When he first came there was always that defensiveness at first,” said junior Hope Sirinides. As time passed students said they had grown into a “family.” One way that Zeoli has grown into this family is through his dedication outside of school. In his own time, he’s researched and thought of ways to help students with music pieces, for the band or a higher-level band outside of KHS.
Another factor is his teaching allows for different learning styles to understand, like visual and auditory. It’s made easy for anyone to know how music pieces should feel and sound. In the minimal time he has been here, he’s taken Stroud’s teaching style and added his own flair to it. When it’s time for Zeoli to leave, students say they’ll feel a loss, but after a while, the band’s atmosphere will “fall into place” again.
When Zeoli started here Stroud had to step back and let someone else “run the show.” Since then, he has been able to observe how Zeoli has grown. He’s seen that Zeoli has been a factor in “the band returning to its remarkable years again.” More specifically he sees that Zeoli has an energy you don’t find often in teachers; he has an incredible passion for what he’s doing and a “newness” that helps when teaching high schoolers.
Stroud previously knew Zeoli when he was his mentor at MSU. Since then, he stated, “immeasurably, immeasurably he’s grown, it’s like night and day.” He’s noticed in the little time Zeoli has been teaching, that there aren’t many differences between them other than experience. When Zeoli has to leave, Stroud said he wants to pick up some traits he has brought to the classroom. Even though Stroud is excited to be in front of the classroom teaching again he said he will strongly miss having Zeoli there.
Ever since Zeoli was in high school he’s known that he had to teach it. However, when he got his chance to do so, coming in he was afraid of not fitting in and that he wasn’t as prepared as he thought. Nevertheless, since then Stroud and Zeoli have been able to heavily increase the difficulty of the music performed by the band. They’ve given students pieces that require a higher level of understanding, dedication, and technical abilities.
Since coming here in Jan., Zeoli has been given more pieces to conduct. He’s gone from conducting one piece for his first concert, to two, and four for the recent concert. As Zeoli has grown as a conductor he’s also gotten to know the students better and his life outside of school has been affected as a result. Zeoli said he was “in a darker place before getting here, and I have completely 180’ed to coming at 7 a.m. and leaving at 2:30 p.m. smiling ear to ear,” he also said that “this has been a life-changing experience, not only in the classroom but behind the scenes as well.” This all goes to show that not only has he affected KHS but KHS has affected him too.
“I’ve found my place, I’ve found my home.”
— Zeoli
One last clean note as he cuts the band off. An eruption of applause fills the whole room. “Passacaglia on an Old English Carol,” a song that has a “love-hate” relationship with students, was the last song Zeoli conducted during his time here at Kinnelon High School. Students and teachers alike said it was the best the piece has been performed. With that Luci Zeoli ended his performing conductor career at Kinnelon High School with one last good note.
