As new band director, Conti brings lifelong love of music to Keene High

Sep. 17—Perhaps it was something Joe Conti said in passing as a kid growing up in Londonderry that prompted his father to buy him his first trumpet — he doesn't quite know how his dad knew he wanted one.

But whatever it was, the instrument grounded Conti, piqued his interest in music in middle and high school, and set in motion a lifelong passion that this year landed him a gig as Keene High School's director of bands.

"I know my grandfather was a trumpet player, so my dad definitely took interest," the 26-year-old said, surrounded by music stands and instruments during an interview in Keene High's band room. "My grandfather was an excellent player, so it makes him really happy that I took it up."

The trumpet — and soon other instruments — became central to his public-school experience. In Londonderry, Conti, who is a triplet, found a love for playing in jazz ensembles, took up the sousaphone (an instrument in the tuba family) for two years and led the high-school marching band as a drum major.

With that position at the front of the marching band, focusing not only on his own instrument but on unifying the band as a whole, Conti said he developed skills from a young age that became central to his work as a music instructor.

"I ended up learning how to foster leadership through music," he said, "... learning how to read the players and understand what the atmosphere was like and understanding how our pacing was."

Around his junior year of high school — about the same time he became a drum major — Conti realized he wanted to pursue music as a career. His high-school band director, Andy Soucy, was an alum of Keene State College and encouraged him to apply to the music program there.

In his first two weeks at Keene State, Conti found his first professional gig when the college's band director, Jim Chesebrough, reached out to him with an opportunity to play with a 10-piece jazz ensemble out of Vermont.

Throughout college, Conti focused on performing but also took conducting classes. During the spring semester of his junior year he was invited to student conduct the concert band. And later, his professor Matthew Leese, who is now Keene High's director of vocal music, invited him to student conduct the concert choir.

"I found I loved being on the podium," Conti said. "I loved learning everyone's parts in the score. I loved being the one everyone was looking [to] for the answers and also just helping everyone else to learn and to foster the style of the music."

After college, Conti felt he wasn't ready to go to Los Angeles or Boston to try to make a living as a performer, so he looked far and wide for an assistantship in conducting, eventually settling on a program at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C.

There he found a mentor in John Ross, the director of bands, who inspired his love of teaching students.

"From there it was, 'Well, I could become a college band director or I can be a high-school band director,' " Conti said. "And we need good high-school band directors in order for the college band directors to get students."

Upon graduating, he stayed in North Carolina, working as a band instructor at Reid Ross Classical School, a small middle/high school in Fayetteville, for a few years. Then, when the position at Keene High opened up, he saw an opportunity to move back to New Hampshire, so he applied and was offered the job.

Since starting as Keene High's director of bands last month, he said he has already seen incredible passion and quick growth from the students with whom he has worked. There are about 50 students in the band program, which currently consists of the jazz ensemble and marching/concert band.

"Music does a few things for kids. It gives them a sense of belonging. It unifies a group of kids and teaches them how to become leaders and to be self-reliant in their own way that other subjects sometimes have a harder time teaching," Conti said. "It also creates a sense of togetherness for these kids — I mean they have to work together to blend and balance and fit into each others' sounds and to articulate perfectly and to release together and breathe together."

Teaching high-school band, Conti said, is a rewarding experience because rather than just working with one grade at a time, he gets to work with a mix of classes and will be able to watch students grow and mature from year to year. He said he's felt a warm reception from the students, many of whom are very dedicated to their instruments and to getting back to in-person performances after the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Joe has jumped all in and is really bringing himself and his perspectives [to Keene High], having grown up in New Hampshire and having gone away to grad school and having taught in another state with a very different culture," said Leese, Conti's former college professor who now works with him at the high school. "I really can see the growth that happened between when he graduated from Keene State and when he got the job."

Leese said Conti brings a unique blend of humor and professionalism to the role — setting high expectations while also being able to crack a joke to help students find the fun and joy music can offer. Outside of work, Leese said, Conti remains engaged with music on his own terms, playing with ensembles and other groups in the area.

"He just surrounds himself in really high quality music, so I know that's going to rub off on the kids," Leese said. "... His whole life is music."

Conti said as he settles into his new position he hopes to create more opportunities for high-school and middle-school students in N.H. School Administrative Unit 29 to perform and practice together. That way, younger students have role models to look up to, like he had growing up in Londonderry. The Monadnock Region in general, he said, is something of a cradle for the music and arts.

"There's a huge respect for the cultural arts in this area, whether that's the Keene Chamber Orchestra, the Keene Jazz Orchestra, Keene State College right down the road, our group [at Keene High], Monadnock High School, Fall Mountain — music surrounds us," he said. "I mean we have the Keene Music Festival. I don't know very many towns that do a whole music festival."

The first performance of the year is scheduled for Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. at the high school. Conti said he hopes people come out to witness all the hard work and dedication his students in the jazz ensemble have put into their instruments. KHS Voices and the KHS string orchestra will also be performing.

"I know there is a lot of talent at this school, and if I can help these kids to foster it in a way that will grow this program, we can be the powerhouse of this area, of this region," Conti said. "I love the potential that lies with these students. They're hard workers and they're excited."

Ryan Spencer can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1412, or rspencer@keenesentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @rspencerKS