After the pandemic, the marching band at James Madison High School in Brooklyn, New York, was shut down. Aron Kontorovich wanted to resurrect the band and was “building the ensemble with no existing band members,” he explains. “To get students to join, I made frequent visits to band classes during the day to make my pitch.”

Sharing his excitement with students worked! In the Fall of 2023, the marching band returned and currently consists of the color guard, winds, drum line and majorette squad with a total enrollment of 60 students.

Madison High has always had a strong and large music program. When Kontorovich was hired in 2018, he became the eighth music staff member. “I was bouncing from room to room teaching Concert Band, Modern Band, West African Drumming and wherever I was needed within the existing programs,” he said.

In his second year, he started a piano program and grew it to four sections before COVID. When students returned to in-person learning, Kontorovich had to start over because all his previous piano students had graduated. He drew from his experience running and teaching a private lesson studio to design a curriculum that prioritized student experience and retention to grow the program. “Since returning from the pandemic, the program has grown to a full sequence of beginning, intermediate and advanced classes,” he says proudly. “We hired another educator to teach additional beginner classes and currently serve approximately 160 students.”

Kontorovich has taken on additional roles at Madison. He created a club focused on technical theater in partnership with Roundabout Theater Company. Once-a-month sessions with teaching artists provide hands-on training in lighting, set design and other areas of technical theater. The school now has a stage crew that supports everything from Spring concerts and culture festivals to senior movie nights on the field.

Last year, Kontorovich became the Coordinator of Student Activities, which includes overseeing 70 clubs and serving as the club advisor for student government. “In this new role, I work with students from beyond my classroom to inform and incorporate the massive music program that we have into school events like Open House and our Alumni Association luncheon,” he says. “For this year’s Centennial Homecoming pep rally, the marching band came out to the field for a surprise performance, which also served as the debut of the majorettes, the newest section of the marching band!”

Kontorovich has been able to connect with all students at Madison High because of his community-building skills. “Building relationships has allowed me to develop a rapport with students that yields a culture of trust, so when I tell a student that I believe in them chasing their dreams, they know that I mean every word,” he explains. “Students know that I will always support them in their growth and at every step of their journey.”

One way Kontorovich brings togetherness and a love of music to his community is to share music in anyway he can. “I play holiday sing-a-long songs in the lobby before winter break, play accompanying piano for concerts or simply walk into a classroom while students are rehearsing to sing along or complement them for their growth and hard work,” he says with smile. “While I am the piano teacher and the after-school marching band director, I feel that every department of our music program is a part of one family with a set of shared values and goals.”

Outside of Madison High School, Kontorovich co-directs the Brooklyn Concert Band for the Salute to Music NYC program on Saturday mornings where he works with serious band students in grades 4 to 8 for a three-hour rehearsal to elevate their skills and have a musical experience they normally wouldn’t have in their school programs.

In the Summer of 2024, he spearheaded the development of a new piano component to the Instrumental Studio for the Middle School Summer Arts Audition Bootcamp, where students spend two weeks at the Lincoln Center and the Juilliard School to elevate their musicianship, develop new skills on their instruments and prepare for their auditions for performing arts high schools.