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A lasting legacy
When you're a college band director, the job includes a slate of major tasks such as running rehearsals, selecting and arranging pieces of music for performances, and putting together a concert schedule.
Then there are the little things.
As Seb Bonaiuto walked through the Boston College Bands facility in Conte Forum one recent afternoon, he was hailed by a student requesting his help: A small part in the valve assembly of her mellophone (the marching band version of a French horn) was coming loose and needed refastening. She handed Bonaiuto a small hammer, which he used to very gently tap down the part in question.
Problem solved, at least for now.
“If that part loosens too much, it allows dust and moisture to collect inside, which is not good for the valve,” he explained. “But you have to be careful how you tighten it. That’s why the hammer I use has a head made of rawhide instead of metal, because there’s less chance of causing a dent or other damage.
“Of course, it doesn’t always work,” he added with a smile. “But this time it did, anyway.”
For 36 years, Bonaiuto—whose current title is ensemble director—has managed details large and small in running a comprehensive bands program for BC undergraduate and graduate students (BC faculty and staff take part, too, depending on the specific ensemble). Accomplished and novice musicians alike participate in wind, jazz, and chamber ensembles, as well as bands for athletic or social events. Bonaiuto also conducts the University Wind Ensemble and the award-winning popular jazz group BC bOp! and formerly served as director of the Screaming Eagles Marching Band, which performed in the 1995 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and has appeared in nationally televised football games.
Now, as he prepares to put down his baton (literal and metaphorical) at the end of the academic year, Bonaiuto is readying for one very special evening.
On February 7, the University Wind Ensemble will join with the University Chorale and Boston College Symphony Orchestra for “A New American Day,” a concert in New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the United States’ Declaration of Independence. The event, which is free for students, features works by Kevin Day—who will be in residency at BC that week—and other contemporary American composers, and will end with Bonaiuto conducting the combined ensemble in a performance of an excerpt from Day’s “American Pastorale.”
Winston Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley will serve as emcee for the concert, sponsored by the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office, Institute for the Liberal Arts, the Music Department, Robsham Theater Arts Center, and the BC Arts Council.
Bonaiuto at the University's Sesquicentennial Concert at Symphony Hall in 2013. (Gary Wayne Gilbert)
“This is such a great honor,” said Bonaiuto. “Having conducted performances at Carnegie Hall and Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall makes it the ‘grand trifecta.’ Every time I’m in those venues, I imagine the music the walls have heard and the artists who have graced so many with their gifts. I am thrilled at the opportunity to join with my Boston College friends and colleagues for what will be a memorable evening.”
Those friends and colleagues are full of praise for his work as a director and conductor, and teacher and mentor, for thousands of BC students over more than three decades.
“Few, if any, educators at Boston College have had a more profoundly positive effect on their students than Seb Bonaiuto,” said Marching Band Director David Healey, who met Bonaiuto when the future bands program leader was in BC’s M.B.A. program and working informally with BC Bands prior to being hired as director in 1989; the pair created BC bOp! before Healey graduated in 1990. “Seb’s thoughtful and deliberate mentorship has provided essential opportunities for growth and learning through music, and he has inspired and enabled his students to lead lives of meaning and purpose well beyond their years at BC. He has left a lasting legacy and will be deeply missed.”
A New Britain, Conn., native, Bonaiuto began playing trumpet as a fourth grader, and for a while assumed that everyone else in his school band shared his level of interest in and love for music. It gradually dawned on him that wasn’t the case, but he also realized music could, and should, be a cornerstone of his life: “Playing music was a real place of comfort. When I practiced in ensembles, I felt, ‘This is exactly where I should be, what I should be doing.’” He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in music from Boston University and pursued graduate studies in music theory at New England Conservatory.
That revelation has informed Bonaiuto’s career as a music educator, which began in Westwood (Mass.) Public Schools and resumed at BC after a five-year stint as a computer programmer. The most vital part of his job has been to divine each student’s route on their respective musical journeys.
“Maybe this person has been playing music at a high level since first grade, while the person next to them began much later on, with slower but steady progress,” said Bonaiuto. “You must understand, and appreciate, where both are and what they can do. The great joy for me has been seeing the growth in all my students and in their love of music, and how their individual talents and abilities blend.
“When you’re a teacher, you find that your students teach you more than you teach them. For that, I’m very grateful.”
Bonaiuto said a vibrant bands program dovetails squarely with students’ experience at BC, especially in the context of its Jesuit, Catholic formational mission.
“BC is focused on growing the whole person, intellectually, spiritually, and otherwise. We’re not out to create professional musicians; it’s not just about showing up and playing your instrument. We make a big deal about accountability, responsibility, and service. We build community and we serve each other as friends, collaborators, and colleagues.”
At the same time, he adds, the BC Bands program serves the wider University community.
“The aesthetic character of BC is woven through the arts and their capacity not just to entertain but enrich. When we perform on campus, there are likely people in the audience who are unfamiliar with the music we’re presenting. But they may know some of our band members as friends, acquaintances, or roommates, and to see their peers creating these sounds makes an impact: ‘I didn’t know I liked classical music!’ That’s what you do in college.”
“Seb is an educator who sticks with you,” said BC Arts Council Program Administrator Kara Robbins ’04, former assistant director of bands. “Being a successful musician requires heart, grit, flexibility, listening, and dedication. These qualities guide Seb’s work and are imbued as life lessons in each rehearsal. Working together, I saw different versions of the same ensembles as Seb guided transformations based on student feedback. Once empowered, students took more ownership over their ensembles, flourishing individually and as a group because of it.”
Students also have been the recipient of Bonaiuto’s pre-performance benediction, added Robbins: “My wish for you is that you play with joy, give voice to your hearts and nourishment to your souls.”
Find ticket information for “A New American Day” and other details about the February 7 event at the concert website.