Community Corner

Meridenite of the Week: Brian Cyr

We feature Meriden's Music Man -- 31-year-old Maloney Band Director and District Music Coordinator Brian Cyr.

Since the day we started this column celebrating outstanding Meridenites back in December, readers have been asking us to feature Maloney High School Band Director Brian Cyr.

But despite all good intentions to talk him sooner, my first meeting with the 31-year-old Meriden native ended up being last Tuesday. We were two of the final three audience members left in City Hall at the last gasp of a contentious 5-and-a-half hour Finance Committee hearing on reconstructing Platt and Maloney High Schools.

Cyr, like many others, spoke in favor of the renovation during the meeting’s public comment portion early on. He also championed the cause of keeping both schools' exceptionally large auditoriums intact, something that has been debated because of costs this will add to reconstruction. 

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“They were built as the premier auditoriums of their day,” he said to the crowd, adding that the grand auditoriums are now some of the only high school facilities in the state large enough to hold major performing arts festivals and crowds – drawing folks from throughout Connecticut to Meriden, and providing a home for local community events. 

Invoking Meriden history, he said the spaces held some of the first stages successful home-grown musicians like Juilliard Brass Department Chair Raymond Mase and studio keyboardist Matt Rohde played on.

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By 11:20 p.m., nearly everyone who was not from the city council, the superintendent’s office, or a contracting architectural firm had left. But Cyr sat in the front row until the committee finally voted to recommend the City Council approve plans to renovate both schools -- each retaining their auditorium.

It’s this kind of dedication that has made Cyr a much-loved high school teacher and the go-to guy for all things music education in this town. He lives his job.

Cyr has been the director of instrumental music at Maloney for the last 9 years, and as of this January, he was also named to the district's newly created Music Coordinator position, overseeing music instruction and concerts for all Meriden public schools.

At Maloney alone he directs the school's marching band, jazz ensemble, and concert band, teaches music technology, adaptive music and AP music theory, and works with the school's theatre department – spending not only days but 3-4 nights a week and many weekends with his groups.  

And yet sitting in Maloney as a student 15 years ago, he said in an interview Friday that he never dreamed he'd be doing this. But the quick departure of the previous director opened up the spot at the right time. In fact, when he took over band instruction at the school in 2002 – just a year after graduating from Plymouth State University in New Hampshire – he said that he had to change some of the classrooms around because, "It was too weird for me to be sitting in my old band room."

The physical changes prefaced shifts Cyr would usher into the culture of the program. Maloney had long had an emphasis on its jazz band, but Cyr started working to grow and improve the school's marching band as well. Now the group is a staple at state-wide competitions. Membership in the band's booster club, which pays for the costs that come along with competitions and shows through fundraising, swelled as well. 

Today there are about 250 students – more than one-fifth of the school – in the band program at Maloney, which has grown 10-15 percent almost every year in recent memory, Cyr said. Next year, it looks like the program will increase by another 20 percent.  

Seeing the program grow is exciting for Cyr - both because of students who will go on as musicians and for those who won't. 

"We’re sending students every year to college to study music," he said. "That is one of the ultimate goals, but it’s important for the student who’s not going into music.  It teaches them to be a good listener, to be cultured – maybe they’ll get their son or daughter into this." 

Cyr was one of those students who took his Maloney band education far beyond high school, but family also played a big help. 

He is the grandson of the late Robert Cyr, Sr., a long-time choir director at Platt High School who was also the district's music supervisor until 1982. 

“I think he taught at every school in Meriden except Maloney,” he said. Cyr's grandfather is the person who introduced him to music and bought him some of his first instruments. 

And that early help has certainly borne fruit -- and not just in Meriden. Yale University honored Cyr with its Distinguished Music Educator Award in 2009. The university is also helping Cyr develop a multi-disciplinary arts project at Nathan Hale Elementary School in the Spring of 2012.

Next time he talks about Meriden greats who started off on the stages of Maloney and Platt, he may have to add his name to that list. 

Name: Brian Cyr

Age: 31

How long have you lived in Meriden? All my life.

What do you like best about town? I like the people of Meriden, they’re a great group of people, a well-rounded community. The Students at Maloney are obviously the same. 

What do you like least about town? The current situation of the downtown. I really hope in the years to come we can do something to bring that back. It’s one of our biggest challenges. But by bringing the Y down there, and the Y arts center you’re seeing some youth down there, and that’s a huge step in the right direction. 

Best place to hear music in town? Downtown Meriden in the summer, the Augusta Curtis Center and the Daffodil Festival.

What is your favorite place to shop in town? Loews. I’ve bought everything for my house there. 

What is your favorite place to eat in town? Little Rendezvous, without question. I just love the coal fire and your hands are a mess when you're done. And Zorba's - they're both pizza, but they're two completely different things. 

What is your favorite place to visit in town? Giuffrida Park. It’s so close to the busyness of the city, but is so serene and quiet and relaxing. It’s a best-kept secret. 

What is your fondest Meriden memory? Watching the (now defunct) Meriden Symphony Orchestra over the years.

You can catch Brian Cyr this Monday with the Maloney Marching Band in Meriden's Memorial Day Parade, and Tuesday night in Hubbard Park for an all-district instrumental concert. 


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