When Matthew Bonsignore arrived as the new band director at the Platte County R3 school district in 1999 he didn’t anticipate the complete transformation the band would experience in the coming years.
When he arrived 24 years ago, the 3A high school of 520 students and 60 to 65 high school band students was on the cusp of immense, positive change.
“As Dr. Jones and I began to grow the program, the school grew in size as well,” Bonsignore said. “We changed to a 4A school, now a MSHSAA Class 5A school with 185 in the band and another 20 in our Color Guard. We grew from one marching band to two: the Traditions Marching Band includes everyone in the band program and performs for all home games, Homecoming Parade and rally and all community events.”
Bonsignore
The Pride of Platte County Marching Band was created in 2011, and is an audition-only competitive field show band, which travels to Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and throughout Missouri, while regularly competing with the top schools in the area and abroad. The ‘Pride’ has received multiple grand championships, first-and second-place finishes, caption awards, and outstanding section and drum major awards in its short history.
“The changes in the band paralleled the changes in my job titles as well, Bonsignore said. “I started teaching as Assistant Director, moved to Associated Director of Bands and Director of Jazz Studies, to now Director of Bands for the Platte County School District. We have grown from one concert band to three: Concert Band, Symphonic Band and the Wind Ensemble. The Jazz program has grown from a non-traditional class into one of the premier organizations in the band and school. Not only that, but our middle school bands continue to grow and thrive as well, setting up a pipeline of talented musicians each year populating the high school band program.”
In 1999, Bonsignore and Jay Jones were the only full-time band directors at the school.
Another director, Susan Shire oversaw the sixth- to eighth-grade band at Barry School. She also taught all the vocal classes at Barry. In 2000, Bonsignore took over teaching seventh- to eighth-grade band at Barry, along with still teaching high school band, jazz band and sixth- to eighth-grade band at Platte County Middle School with Jones.
“Eight years later we added Mr. Jon Bailey to percussion, and now fast forward to 2022-23 and we have six full-time band directors in the district,” Bonsignore said. “There are two full-time directors at Barry Middle School who teach all the middle school band classes there: Mackenzie Brazier and Raymond Linville. Jon Bailey teaches all percussion at PCHS, PCMS and Barry. Mr. Callahan, Assistant Director of Bands at Platte County and Christine Chesney, Director of PCMS Bands and Assistant at the high school, along with me, team teach all the band classes at PCMS.
“I directly oversee the entire district band program as Director of Bands, but it takes a team effort for the entire Platte County program to run correctly. This year, Mr. Callahan took over the duties of teaching the Jazz Ensemble - the first year in 24 years I have not taught that class.”
Bonsignore said that as a band director, what he does is more of a lifestyle than a job. He is used to being busy, and working long hours.
“Last year was extremely stressful as we were coming out of COVID and all that entailed, dealing with Dr. Jones retiring, taking over my first year as Director of Bands, and hiring two new staff members,” Bonsignore said. “We navigated a lot of pitfalls. I’m extremely happy to say we have an awesome band staff, and very supportive administration to work for. We talk a lot about how being a band director is a lot like an iceberg: most people see us in front of the band and the kids during a performance and believe this is all we do, but in reality it’s usually the one part that the public and parents see, and most of the other work is done behind the scenes. Like all jobs, there are always ‘other duties as assigned.’”
Teaching kids, especially his students at Platte County, is extremely rewarding and the highlight of his job. But many people don’t know about the multitude of other duties and responsibilities that the band directors do. The time-consuming and challenging part of his job is time management, communication with students/staff/parents, managing the inventory and budget, making sure there is a plan in place for each aspect of the program, rehearsal planning, meetings with administration and parents, collecting money, fund-raising, and many other things.
His love of jazz began when he was growing up and listening to the music with his dad, Sal.
“He had a record player playing in the house all the time with greats like Frank Sinatra, the Count Basie Orchestra, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and the Glenn Miller Orchestra,” Bonsignore said. “I loved the music, the intricacies of the solos, and especially the trumpet. In college I played a lot of jazz as well - and fell in love with Buddy Rich and especially Stan Kenton.”
When he was hired in 1999, the jazz band was a class, but not a traditional jazz band. He started off with six trumpets, one trombone, one saxophone, four drummers, a freshman piano player, and a bass and electric guitar player. This group played a few times a year.
“It was not what most would consider a jazz band,” Bonsignore said. “I spent three years arranging music to make sure the group sounded good, recruiting to grow the trombone and saxophone sections, as well as inundating the group with jazz ‘classics.’ The students at that time only wanted to play ‘rock’ and ‘pop’ songs, and I spent a good amount of time educating them on what ‘good’ jazz was. Sometimes it worked, and other times it was a losing battle. Eventually, in 2004, I had grown the jazz band to a full-standard instrumentation group of two alto saxophones, two tenors saxophones and a bari sax, four trombones and a bass trombone, five trumpets, and a full rhythm section.”
The next year he made the group an ‘audition-only’ class, and that made the participation even more competitive. He also started taking the kids to more jazz festivals and competitions, not only so they could receive professional feedback on how they were doing, but also to listen to what other high school jazz bands sounded like.
“At this time, as the Assistant Director at the high school, this was the only group that was ‘mine,’ Bonsignore said. “I oversaw every aspect of the jazz band from day one in 1999 - and it was my goal to not only have kids who appreciated this amazing American genre of music, but to also be the best that they could possibly be at it. Ultimately, we have been very successful.
“Over the past four years we have had three students make the Missouri All-State Jazz Band, 10-12 students per year make the All-District Jazz Band (out of 20 playing members) and over the years have won many competitions, placed high at festivals, and won a National award at the Festivals of Music Festival.”
The Jazz Ensemble regularly competes in local and national competitions and festivals. Some are for ratings and some are for placement. A lot of competitions are fading and ratings festivals are more prevalent.
“There’s sometimes a negative connotation that bands are “beating” each other, and it takes away from the collaborative aspect of jazz,” Bonsignore said. “But, over the years, the jazz ensemble has accumulated a lot of hardware. They have taken first place at the Truman State Jazz Festival twice, first place in the Northwest Jazz Festival many, many times over the past 24 years, won Outstanding Trombone and Trumpet Section awards at the Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, won first place in the Festivals of Music National competition in St. Louis, taken home a plethora of number-one ratings from the Missouri Western State University Jazz Fest, Mizzou Jazz Fest, Kansas University Jazz Fest, Pitt State University Jazz Fest, Penn Valley Jazz Fest and UMKC Jazz Festivals. They have also competed nationally in Florida against bands from all over the world including Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Europe and Mexico and earned and taken home two Grand National trophies.”
The Jazz Ensemble performs a Fall Concert in October every year, tours the school district on their annual Winter Tour, performs for the Kansas City Mavericks Hockey Team, does four to six jazz festivals per year, and culminates the year with the annual “Evening of Jazz” in May.
Along with being a jazz aficionado at an early age, Bonsignore grew up singing, and had a relatively good voice. His elementary music teacher recommended that he audition for the children’s chorus for the Kansas City Lyric Opera, and he was fortunate enough to sing in three operas with them: ‘Turandot,’ ‘Tosca’ and ‘Madame Butterfly.’
“Following sixth grade (and puberty) my voice changed and I chose band in seventh grade,” Bonsignore said. “I grew up in the North Kansas City School District, and band wasn’t offered until seventh grade. I started playing trumpet then, and the rest is history. I think I experienced the normal challenges that all kids face: playing with braces, playing multiple sports while in band, eventually working a job, and still finding time to be a successful musician.
“I think sometimes, when faced with time crunches, and adversity from learning a new skill - like music - the first instinct is to quit, or cut down the activities you are doing. I am living proof that you can be successful playing two sports, playing trumpet, eventually working a job, and still get good grades and be able to participate at a high level in all things.”
He believes that students in the area are fortunate to have experts on all instruments with the amazing band staff at Platte County. The students don’t struggle to learn or play unless they don’t make practicing a habit.
“Just like anything in life, if you are going to be good at it, it requires practicing and lots of repetition,” Bonsignore said. “All instruments have their own challenges, but we want kids to be successful on the instrument they choose. In the spring, we ‘play test’ the students to physically see if they have the physical make-up to play their first-choice instrument. Then we allow the kids up to three choices and we try them out on those instruments - and ultimately help them select the instrument they will play. This is standard practice and something I went through in seventh grade as well.”
He, the band staff and the schools are extremely proud of all the music students and the success they have achieved. They credit their students’ outstanding success on the students’ work ethic, talent and grit.
“We are their biggest cheerleaders,” Bonsignore said. “Sure, we guide them along the path, but our kids work hard, and are tenacious with their goals and expectations. Because of the positive reputation of our band across the state, and the success of our students, many of our kids go on to play music in college and beyond. t’s exciting to see the many opportunities our kids have in music, and where it ultimately will take them. We have students who have attended school all over the world, in Canada, and even now in Europe. We have students who are playing professionally in major symphonies such as the San Antonio Symphony, and kids who earned Masters and even Doctorate degrees in music. We also have numerous students who have gone on to earn Music Education degrees and are in the teaching field as band directors of their own now. Not to mention, how many students are doctors, lawyers, policemen and woman, fighter pilots, nurses and the list goes on. The students all attribute the skills they learned in band to helping them in college and into their career.”
The eighth-grade bands are preparing for a large group festival night in March, and the high school bands are preparing for the MSHSAA State Large Group Music Festival in April. Many students are preparing solos and ensembles for the MSHSAA District Solo and Ensemble Festival. Jon Bailey and Christine Chesney also run a Platte County Middle School Solo and Ensemble Festival that all the band staff encourages their sixth- to eighth-grade students from Barry and PCMS to participate in as well.
Bonsignore’s family members are also music lovers. His wife, Cheri, played alto saxophone in the Fort Osage program.
His oldest daughter Adelaide is a freshman and started on piano at an early age, and plays trumpet in the high school band. His youngest daughter is in fourth grade and plays piano and has started flute lessons this year.
As a band director, a person is required to learn, and be proficient in playing and teaching all band instruments: flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, French horn, trombone, baritone, tuba and percussion. “Since I’ve been at Platte County, my job has always been to build the brass sections, and I have done that,” Bonsignore said. “Since I don’t teach a lot of woodwind classes anymore - my proficiency with them has diminished. I would really like to get my flute and saxophone playing back to at least eighth-grade level.”
The band staff fosters and cultivates a family atmosphere for all of their students, and they believe in having a positive, safe environment for all kids to learn and thrive in.
“Platte County Bands is an outstanding place to be, because it’s more than music to us,” Bonsignore said. We love our kids, and we love our jobs - and when you mix those two - it’s more than just about music or band. I have long-standing relationships with my students, some who are in their late 30’s now. I believe if you genuinely care, kids will want to learn. For us, music has so many benefits on the whole child development that it’s imperative they like band and stay in band. Band was the reason I went to school, and that’s the reason some of our kids do as well.
“The most important part of learning to play an instrument well is practice. Eventually, the shine wears off anything that’s new, and then to be truly good at something, it takes work. We try to let the kids know that although learning to play an instrument is fun - it is work. Teaching kids that it’s OK to fail is important as well. We talk a lot about failing - and learning from it - and then getting back up and doing it again.”
Numerous other band director jobs have been offered to him over the years in different areas of the state and country, but Bonsignore is very loyal, and loves Platte County. In his opinion, there is no better place to live or to teach than Platte County.
“The parents, community members, and administration are all very supportive of the band program here, and we are fortunate to have that support,” Bonsignore said. “I can tell you that it’s not always like that in other schools. Former Director of Bands, Dr. Jay Jones, always prescribed to the philosophy of ‘always leave it better than you found it.’ We are always trying to give more and more performance opportunities for our kids, and to continue to grow the program. We currently have the most middle school students involved in band than at any other point in our history. If that trend continues - the numbers in the band will continue to swell exponentially. As Dr. Harpst used to say all the time, ‘It’s a great day to be a Pirate.’”
Loving his job is the reason Bonsignore gets up every day with exuberance, ready to make music and to impact students’ lives.
“I get to do what I love: teach music to band kids. There’s really nothing else I want to do in life. Some people teach for a paycheck, some for personal accolades, some because they just couldn’t figure out what else they were meant to do in life. For me, this is a calling. I actually started college as an accounting major on a trumpet scholarship because I wanted to ‘make money.’ Well, eventually my head listened to my heart - and I followed my passion. Band kids are some of the smartest, most talented kids in the school, and we get the opportunity to be around them all day long.
“The hardest part of this job is saying goodbye when they graduate. What other teacher gets the opportunity to have their kids for seven years in a row? I love that we create relationships that span a lifetime. I am now experiencing a phenomenon I never thought I would: I am teaching the offspring of former students. It’s just another rewarding chapter in this teaching career that I am forever blessed to be part of.”