Maplewood native leads fine arts in district

By Christina Hernandez, Managing Editor
Anthony Mazzocchi said he “accidentally” became an educator.
“I wanted to move back to New York from L.A. and would take any work in order to do so,” said the 36-year-old who grew up in Maplewood. “It ended up that the work happened to be a middle school band job, not a Broadway show.”
Mazzocchi, however, looks at it this way: If he never would’ve become a teacher, he never would have been recently hired as the new supervisor of fine arts in the South Orange-Maplewood K-12 district.
After graduating from the Manhattan School of Music with a bachelor’s and a master’s, Mazzocchi performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, Key West Symphony and in various Broadway shows.
And his resume as an art and music educator in public schools is just as expansive.
He served as the trombone professor at Montclair State and Kean universities, and was the director of bands and arts and music coordinator at Marine Park Junior High School in Brooklyn for nine years.
The Marine Park band program was nationally recognized, receiving seven straight “Gold With Distinction” honors in the annual New York Festival and several first-place awards in regional band competitions. Also, the school’s jazz ensemble won first place overall in the Disney World National Jazz Competition.
Mazzocchi said he is a proud product of the South Orange-Maplewood school system. He lives with his wife, Deborah, and their children, Luca and Tahila, and enjoys cooking, golf and driving.
This is what he had to say about his plans:
News-Record: With the school year right around the corner, what are some of the things you are excited about?
Anthony Mazzocchi: I can’t tell you how excited I am to just start! It is a great feeling to look forward to what you do on a daily basis. I have been very fortunate in my life that way; I have never dreaded going to work. I look forward to meeting new people and, of course, seeing and hearing the arts pour out of kids on a daily basis.
NR: What are your goals as the new supervisor of fine arts?
AM: It’s important that our schools are a mirror of our community, which happens to be rich in all the art forms. Our residents are incredible visual artists and performing musicians. Every single one of our kids needs to experience the arts at a high level for an extended period of time during their schooling. You can be sure that each school will have a strong artistic identity for the community to appreciate based on the talents of the students attending from year to year.
NR: What was high school like for you?
AM: I remember that whatever I dreamed of doing, there was an incredibly thoughtful, talented teacher present to help facilitate that dream coming true.
NR: What advice would you give educators on how to keep students engaged in learning throughout the school year?
AM: Arts educators are very unique. They are artists and musicians first and foremost. The more we stay in touch with our craft, whether it be painting or performing on an instrument, the more we continue our own education as artists. That helps us maintain a passion and excitement for what we do, and that emanates from us during our lessons with kids. If we are going to teach students to be lifelong learners, we need to be one ourselves.
NR: What is one thing that someone may not know about you?
AM: I like cooking for 50 plus people. At a camp where I teach in Vermont, I cook an Italian dinner for 100 kids each week and 50 faculty on the weekend.
NR: What made you want to become an educator at the SOMa district?
AM: There is not enough room on this page to describe how much I love this community. I owe most of my successes to the teachers I had and the schools I attended. When I first learned that there might be this opening. I went back to college for the year to get the proper certifications, and that was before I had any guarantee that I would even be interviewed. That’s how badly I wanted this job, and luckily the feeling was mutual.