Memoli’s swan song at Weston Public Schools

It took 28 years and thousands of gallons of gas to make the Weston Public Schools’ music program a success.

Chris Memoli, the K-12 director of music, will be stepping down at the end of the school year. When he began teaching in Weston, he commuted from southern Massachusetts to classrooms with about four musicians signed up to learn. Today, at the end of his tenure, the district’s music program is flourishing with 25 students admitted to the Massachusetts All-State Band, Chorus and Orchestra. In Memoli’s time at Weston public schools, he has enjoyed guiding students into becoming strong musicians and confident people.

“I really enjoy taking a group of students who don’t think they’re capable of something and then leading them to success,” Memoli said. “That look in their eyes, the joy that they did that, making great music with these students.”

For the first three years Memoli worked as music director, he was living with his family near Cape Cod and commuted over 60 miles each way. He had seen the job opening in the Boston Globe while visiting his parents with his wife, Susan, and decided to apply.

“The description was uncanny,” he said. “It just really described me … I’m a violinist, they were looking for a string player. It was very, very specific what they were looking for.”

Memoli received a master’s degree in conducting from the University of South Carolina. He went on to study educational administration at University of Virginia, but the job posting sent him down the path of music education instead of becoming a principal.

Although Memoli lived with his family in Wareham in his early days with the district, his family has roots in Weston. His grandmother was a member of the Women’s Community League, and helped make the high school band’s Christmas performance at the Josiah Smith Tavern an annual tradition.

“Who knew that her grandson would be band director all those years later, bringing those kids to where I used to go carol as a kid,” he said.

When he came to the schools, Memoli said there was not much of a program to speak of at all. The high school band had four members and parents referred to Weston as a “jock town.” Memoli started from the bottom, working to develop a program in the elementary school.

When those students graduated to middle school, Memoli moved on to build out the program there, all the way through to high school. He attributes the program’s success to his hiring practices.

“I surrounded myself with really phenomenal teachers,” he said. “Anywhere you teach, you have to understand the community and what drives it … you have to find teachers that understand the kids in that community and the parents in that community.”

The program is also built to help keep students engaged. In lower grades, bands are grouped by class, as opposed to skill level, so students are guaranteed to be working with their friends. This helps keep the students interested in the class, especially early on in their education, according to Memoli.

The music program has given students the opportunity to travel the world with those friends. Maddie Piccione, who graduated from Weston High School in 2016, first met Memoli through the Rivers School Conservatory, where he also works. Piccione played trumpet there before joining one of his bands at the high school. She participated in American Music Abroad, which gave her and her classmates the chance to play in Austria, Germany and Slovenia.

Piccione said the symphony was able to pull together difficult pieces because of Memoli’s dedication and attention to detail.

“You could see how passionate he was about it, and [he] made sure that we performed the music as it was supposed to be,” she said. “He thought about all the little details of what was written in the score.”

Although Piccione no longer plays, she said her time with Memoli has impacted her work ethic into adulthood.

“Playing an instrument takes a certain type of discipline to learn a new piece and new skills, putting the time in to practice and go to lessons. That’s something that will carry through life,” she said.

As director, Memoli worked to give everyone a chance to succeed. While some districts focus on fostering early talent, he said he wanted to make sure everyone got instruction.

“In seventh grade, you don’t know who your first chair trombone player in All-State is. They haven’t emerged yet,” Memoli said.

Elliott Kardon, a trumpet player who graduated in 2011, said learning to play with Memoli was how he gained confidence in middle and high school.

“He was the kind of guy who has a lot of passion for the music and high standards,” Kardon said. “When he saw potential in students, he would not let it go to waste.”

After an abysmal performance with the school’s jazz band, Kardon went to Memoli’s office with the intention of quitting music.

“He said, ‘It’s okay. You’re a good trumpet player and you’ll get them next time,’” Kardon said. “It was very comforting to me that he didn’t try to baby me. He was very supportive and helped me understand that failure is part of the growth process, which is a foundational belief of mine.”

Kardon now plays in the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra.

Although Memoli is stepping down from his role as director, he plans to stay active in Weston’s music community. He will continue to work at the Rivers School Conservatory and as a private teacher.

“People keep asking me if I’m retiring. I laugh, like, are you kidding me? I’ve always worked 70 to 80 hours a week,” he said. I’m looking forward to working 25 to 30 hours … I’ll probably play more.”

As Memoli looks back on almost 30 years in the Weston school district, he is proud that so many students have been able to engage with music under his tutelage.

“What separates us from most districts is the sheer number of kids that have come through our program,” he said. “Our philosophy is a seat for everybody.”