The Siena College Chorus and Chamber Singers perform at numerous events throughout the school year, including Vocomotion, Lessons and Carols, and Spring Cabaret. Chorus recently sang at the Inauguration of our new president, Br. F. Edward Coughlin, O.F.M, Ph.D, and Chamber Singers just got back from a performance at the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Conference in Rochester, NY. Dr. Timothy Reno, an accomplished musician and conductor, is the man behind the success of these groups. His passion and enthusiasm for music inspires everyone he teaches, regardless of class year, major, or musical experience.
HC: Where did you grow up?
Dr. Reno: I grew up in Farmington, Connecticut.
HC: And what brought you to the Albany area?
Dr. Reno: Getting hired at Siena brought me to the area. I had previously been down in Maryland as I was finishing my grad work. [My wife and I] thought that the integrated arts department at Siena was a really neat idea and so I pursued it and, poof, here we are. It’s our fifth year up here.
HC: What is your educational background?
Dr. Reno: Really for a musician, educational background is musical background too. Our church organist was my first piano teacher and then later I started singing at the church for her.
The music programs at the local schools were really wonderful. I knew from my first music class in kindergarten that I wanted to teach music. I just thought, “I’m supposed to share this with people”.
By the time I got to high school, I was playing the piano in the jazz band, I was playing the clarinet in band, and I was singing in the concert choir, which is the large group chamber choir and I was the first freshman in thirty-four years or something to be in Madrigals, so I was really excited about that. Singing by then had taken the primary position for me.
I did my undergrad in Music Ed and Voice Performance at Ithaca College. I had a wonderful student teaching experience. Then I taught for a couple of years in Connecticut and then I decided to do my graduate studies in Conducting. I ended up going to the University of Maryland. During my second year in my Master’s Program we were preparing for the Bach St. Matthew Passion, which is a two and half to three hour setting of “The Passion”. I had to prepare the choir to perform this at the Kennedy Center.
I ended up interviewing and getting a high school position in New Jersey. A day later, I got a phone call from Germany from Maestro Rilling. He said, “I have this summer project, this summer chorus and orchestra that we’re putting together. We’re looking for a few more tenors and I know you understudied the narrator part for the Bach when you were preparing the students – would you come and sing for a month?” And I said “Yes, absolutely.”
And now I had no job, but I was going to Germany for a month to sing Mozart. It was amazing. The choir was amazing. The people I met from all over the world coming to do this were amazing. I’m so glad I did it. Looking back, it was absolutely the right choice.
I ended up with a full time church position. Being down in Maryland and having the church job, I decided to stay on and do my doctorate. So I ended up reapplying at Maryland for the program there and the rest is kind of history.
HC: Did you teach anywhere else before Siena?
Dr. Reno: When I graduated from Ithaca, I taught middle school for half a year as a long term sub and then I taught high school for three years. At Maryland, I was teaching classes as a graduate assistant so I was actually teaching an ensemble on a fairly regular basis and teaching a conducting class. When I was doing my doctorate, I was in charge of the woman’s chorus, still teaching conducting classes, and balancing that with a full-time, very vibrant, church music position. This is my first full time college teaching position, but I’ve been at this for about fifteen years.
HC: What are your favorite things to do when not at Siena?
Dr. Reno: I love to play with my kids. I love to play music with them, I love to have fun with them. I love to cook – it’s a great way for me to decompress. And just doing seasonal things like apple picking. We went last weekend and it was so cold, I felt like we should be coming home with a Christmas tree on the top of the car. [My wife] Andrea actually, a couple of years ago, wanted to teach me something so she taught me how to crochet and I actually enjoy crocheting hats and scarves for people. I’m actually working on a hat for the director of the musical right now.
HC: What is your favorite part about teaching music at Siena?
Dr. Reno: There are so many! I love that my students are passionate about music. They sing because they simply have to sing, not because anyone’s forcing them to. Not because it’s their primary area of study or because they’re Clarinet or Music Ed majors and they have to do chorus for a year. We have Physics majors and Business majors and Philosophy and Psychology majors and Social Work majors – every kind of major – and we come together and we form a musical community three times a week. And that’s really exciting. They all want to do well and they want to share stories and talk about how they feel about the pieces they are singing. And to me that’s very exciting. When we put this together, we have fifty stories that we sing into the concert hall or a church or whatever musical setting that we’re in. I love sharing that with students and watching music come alive.
HC: Do you have a favorite class to teach?
Dr. Reno: I’ve written this on my webpage – at some point in the semester, I tell every class that they’re my favorite. And they are. I love teaching Basics of Singing, which is an introduction to solo singing, to work on your own instrument and work on standing in front of an audience as an individual and singing. It’s a very different kind of work and it really makes me feel like a private voice teacher. I love Chorus because, again, it’s the large community coming together. I love Chamber Singers because I’m also a big music geek so to actually talk about more advanced music and to work in a setting where we learn things really quickly, it’s exciting in a different way. They’re all my favorite at some time.
And when we do a musical, I become the music director of the show, so being able to watch a show take shape and work with character while we’re working through music things and make contact with musical theatre lovers is really exciting too. I’m glad to be working on The Drowsy Chaperone this semester.
HC: What has been your best experience at Siena so far?
Dr. Reno: There are too many! I love everything that we do. I feel like one of the best experiences my students have had has been singing the John Rutter Requiem at Westminster Presbyterian. We do a Master Works concert with professional instrumentalists every year and I think that piece speaks on a very universal level to contemporary audiences. I think that would stand out to the broader population of my students and it’s a piece that I’ve known since I was a freshman in college. After my first year, I was actually asked to go in and be the sub for my high school choir director who was teaching this piece at the time, so he needed me to learn it very quickly. I listened to it constantly for a week before he left – he was on jury duty of all things, so he didn’t know how long he was going to be away and he needed me to teach this piece to his students. I’ve had this piece in my bones for a long time, so for me to realize it and finally do it was really exciting. It was really exciting.
HC: What’s your favorite piece that you’ve ever sung?
Dr. Reno: I have no idea. I have absolutely no idea.
There’s a wonderful piece that I’ve gotten to sing as an undergraduate and to conduct as a Master’s student by John Corigliano called Fern Hill. It’s a wonderful setting of a Dylan Thomas poem. It’s about a sixteen minute piece. It’s gorgeous music. It’s incredibly emotional and compelling to sing. The accompaniment is in three different versions. There’s a full orchestra version, there’s a piano only reduction, and there’s a chamber setting of it with strings and harp and piano. I’ve heard all three, I’ve sung it with just piano, and I’ve conducted it in the chamber version. It’s probably my favorite piece. I keep coming back to it at unexpected moments. It holds a very special place in my heart.
HC: Any advice for people who enjoy singing but don’t have any experience or are scared to come to chorus?
Dr. Reno: There is nothing to be scared of! Come sing.
I remember I would always recruit for the choir when I was a Church Music Director down in Maryland. We had a deacon who was quite aged and he was just this great, great guy and so after communion, I stood up and I invited anybody who might be interested to please come and join us. I remember Deacon Al stood up with his little cane and he hobbled over to the microphone and he said, “You should sing in the chorus. God gave you that voice. He deserves to hear it back.”
You have a voice, you have something to express. Come join us.