BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
Melanie Riley-Gonzalez describes herself as a builder.
Her newest construction project, so to speak, has brought her to Bradford County, where she will become the new director of the Bradford High School and Bradford Middle School band programs.
“There is an opportunity to really build something that will last,” said Gonzalez, who’s known to students as “Mrs. G.”
Gonzalez, who is entering her 21st year as a music teacher, most recently taught in Alabama. She and her husband, Joseph, were looking to make a move and decided to look into opportunities in Florida. After talking with administrators about the position in Bradford, Gonzaelz and her husband decided to drive there and “check it out before we make any commitments.”
She liked what she saw.
“As we were walking around the campus, it was like, ‘Man, there is so much potential.’ I think that is what we walked away with,” Gonzalez said, adding, “There is an opportunity to really build something that will last.”
Gonzalez enjoys hiking, traveling and exploring new areas. She’s also a fan of Sherlock Holmes, which is evident in the names of her four dogs: Sherlock, Watson, Adler and Mycroft.
Of course, she’s also passionate about music.
No choice but to pursue music career
Gonzalez, who grew up in Putnam, Connecticut, said she’s thought to herself if there was something she could’ve done other that go into a career centered around music. The answer? “Nope.”
Her grandmother, who was an organist in a church, was an early influence on her.
Another influence was the music of Beethoven. Specifically, his “Seventh Symphony (Second Movement).”
“As I was listening to it, I was just like, ‘I just need to do music,’” Gonzalez said. “I couldn’t see myself as an English teacher. I couldn’t see myself doing anything with business or science.”
Every band director she had as a student was an influence on her, especially the one she had in high school.
“Why I wanted to be a music teacher was because I saw how he treated all of us,” Gonzalez said, adding that her high school director’s care for every student was evident to all.
“I was just like, ‘I want to do that,’” she said.
Gonzalez said she played pretty much everything as a band student. She played the flute in high school (going on to earn a master’s degree in flute performance), then moved on to playing the alto saxophone. When her director said the band needed a baritone sax player, she did that as well.
She’s played guitar in worship services as well as teaching a class on how to play it. Gonzalez said she “can get along” on the string instruments, but added that the addition of the bow makes it seem like she’s playing two instruments instead of one.
Though flute is the instrument she has the most experience on, she’ll join her students in whatever they’re playing.
“I just like being able to pull out an instrument and play along with the kids,” Gonzalez said.
After high school, Gonzalez went to Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts. As she neared graduation, her orchestra director asked her if she was considering pursuing a master’s degree. He told her he knew the flute professor at Northern Arizona University, so that’s where she went to earn the first of her two master’s degrees. (Her other master’s degree is in music education.)
Gonzalez taught for 17 years in California. She loved every school she worked at, but she and her husband decided they were ready to live somewhere other than California. She said they basically made the random decision to move to Alabama.
They ended up in Fairhope, Alabama, which Gonzalez described as a “sleeper town.” She said the band program she was a part of could experience only so much growth, making it different from what she’s found in Bradford County.
“Here, I see all the potential,” Gonzalez said. “There are opportunities for growth. There was potential where I was at, but it was just 10 years down the road. I was just kind of like, ‘What am I going to do in the meantime?’ It was going to grow until buildings were built and all kinds of stuff like that.”
Handling 2 programs
Gonzalez is excited about the prospect of being involved with both BHS and BMS programs. She’s had experience working with multiple programs. In Claremont, California, she worked with high school and elementary students. She later worked with the high school and middle school programs.
When she was first approached about directing both the high school and middle school programs in Claremont, Gonzalez said she wasn’t sure she’d want to do that, noting it would involve a lot of time and effort.
“I ended up doing it. I loved it,” she said.
The Bradford opportunity will be more convenient, with the two schools in close proximity. Gonzalez didn’t have that in California, having to rush as she went back and forth between the two schools she taught at throughout the day.
“I was on the far end of the campus (at the middle school),” Gonzalez said. “I had to run to my car from the back of the campus all the way to the teachers’ parking lot and drive the 10 minutes it took to get to the high school. The bell had already rung. I would be running into the class.”
At BMS, Gonzalez will work on “really building a solid foundation, making sure we know how to count and how to play our scales and all those things. That way, we can build skill on skill on skill.”
“I think the other important thing is making it to where they love it,” Gonzalez said. “You can do scales until you’re blue in the face, but if you don’t love it, then why are you here? I want the kids to love band. I want the kids to love music.”
The goal, of course, it to have BMS students stick with band as they move to BHS. The plus is that they’ll already know Gonzalez and what to expect from her, and she’ll already know them.
Gonzalez said she hopes the love of music stays with her students after school.
“Music is one of those things where it’s not only is it a stress reliever and things like that, but it touches on emotions and is something that will carry you through the rest of your life,” she said.
A partnership
If there’s one thing that Gonzalez wants her new students to learn is that by being in band, they are part of a joint effort. She welcomes their input.
“How I’ve run my programs in the past is it’s us together,” Gonzalez said. “It’s not, ‘I’m the domineering one, and you will do what I tell you to do.’ It’s like, ‘Hey, we’re in this together.’”
That’s not to say that Gonzalez won’t be demanding.
“Having fun is what we want to ensure, but we will work hard,” Gonzalez said. “Work hard, play hard.”
Gonzalez said BHS students will run and do other things as part of the upcoming band camp in preparation for the fall season. Students will work out, march and learn their music.
Since it’s a joint effort, Gonzalez isn’t excluded.
“I’ll be out there with them,” she said, explaining that she won’t be observing from afar. “I’m out there on the field. When they’re doing their show, I’m marching it with them.”
Gonzalez is excited about the fall show the students are working on. It will be based on the 2017 movie “The Greatest Showman.” Gonzalez promise props and other visuals.
“We will be moving, and we will be doing some fun stuff,” she said, adding, “It’s going to be super cool.”
Gonzalez reflected upon her time in California, building a program that had less resources in terms of money and staff than other programs. She may have been trying to figure out the best way to make props cheaply, but she eventually built a program that earned a lot of first-place finishes.
“My last year there, we did a show called ‘Crime and Punishment,’” Gonzalez said. “We rolled up into the semifinals. As we’re rolling in, all these (other) band kids are like, ‘Oh, no. Claremont’s here.’ They didn’t want to go against our show.”
That’s one of her favorite memories. It was more than just hearing the respect that others had for her program. It was seeing how it affected her students.
“When we got off the bus, they were like, ‘All right. We’re going to show everybody.’ It was awesome,” Gonzalez said.
It remains to be seen what heights Gonzalez’s programs can reach.
“Right now, I’m in the process of analyzing where we’re really at,” Gonzalez said. “I want us all to plan our goals. What are our goals together? If we want to have an amazing fall show, what do we need to do to reach that?”
Basically, what Gonzalez wants to see is continual growth. She wants the community to see that as well.
“I want people to be like, ‘Wow,’ the whole year,” Gonzalez said.
Other than that, Gonzalez is like any other teacher. She lives for those moments when students catch onto something that’s being taught.
“Seeing the little light bulbs go on — I think that’s why I do it,” Gonzalez said.
