Once a student of music at RHS, Catalano returns as teacher, pursuing love of music education

Imbued with a passion for music and education, Melina Catalano points to her family and her education at English Montreal School Board (EMSB) schools as paving the way for a career combining her two passions.

Currently Educational Consultant for the Arts-études program at Rosemount High School, Ms. Catalano’s history at the EMSB starts at Honoré Mercier Elementary School in St. Leonard. She remembers her first dedicated music teacher in Grade 1, “Mr. George,” who would visit classrooms with his cart full of instruments and teach students little melodies and beginner rhythms.

But her love of music comes in large part from her family, whose every member has a talent for something musical and who continues to follow these interests on top of their regular jobs. Her father, who now sings for pleasure, was, at the time, a singer in his own wedding band. Both her sisters have an interest in the performing arts – one in drama and acting and the other in dance. And her mom always played music in the house. “We were always singing along to something!” Ms. Catalano recalled.

In 2007, when Ms. Catalano started high school at Rosemount, there was a music concentration program. Interested in singing, she had chosen the school for what she thought was a voice development program. It turned out it was a wind program. She remembers thinking, “Ok, that’s a little different! But it’s still music and I love it. Let me try. And I fell in love with it!” She ended up learning the classical trumpet, and outside of school, took classical voice lessons. (She was also a singer in a punk rock band!)

All three Catalano sisters attended Rosemount, with Melina, the youngest by 13 years, bringing up the rear. Her first music teacher was her middle sister’s first music teacher, making another musical connection between family and school. “Rosemount has always been a part of my life. I will always remember walking up onto the stage as a young child while my sister was performing.”

After Rosemount, Ms. Catalano was accepted at Vanier CEGEP in classical trumpet performance, under the tutelage of Jocelyn Couture, a well-known jazz trumpet player in Canada. There, she focused on chamber groups and wind band. She was also part of the Westmount Youth Orchestra (now the Mount Royal Youth Orchestra), which met on Saturday mornings in Westmount to rehearse for public concerts. She became principal trumpet player in her second year.

The interest in following a career path in teaching music started back in Secondary II, Ms. Catalano said. “That’s why I worked hard to get into a music program. It was either that or I go into law. I choose music – and music education.”

She was accepted into McGill’s Music Education program, and there pursued a five-year double major in music and education. Already, her musical journey was taking her back to her EMSB roots. In her final year of study, she began substitute teaching at Gerald McShane Elementary School in Montreal North, where she had previously been a student teacher and had given trumpet clinics.

Ms. Catalano also did a segment of her student teaching at Rosemount. “I came back to my alma mater, which was a big dream for me at the time,” she said.

After she earned her university degree, she worked for the Lester B. Pearson School Board (LBPSB), where she was a music specialist in an elementary – a position available only to someone who has both a teaching degree and a music degree and helped start an after-school band program. One initiative she is proud of during her time there was integrating band into the curriculum for Grade 5 and 6 students.

In her last year with the LBPSB, in 2023, her contract allowed her time to head to Rosemount High School one morning a week to be a brass coach. This is where she learned about a new position opening up – in the province and at this very school.

The Quebec Ministry of Education had recently added an educational consultant position to manage the music concentration in its Arts-études program, which includes concentrations in one of four artistic disciplines (drama, visual arts, dance or music) at the secondary level. She knew she had to apply. “I knew this would be the best way to keep the values that music education instills in students – not just a love of music, but a sense of belonging, community, partnership empathy and the sense of self it helps to create in young people. And, also, I wanted to help my music teacher, who had this vision. I wanted to help bring it to light to the best of my abilities.”

In her role as the Arts-études educational consultant at RHS, Ms. Catalano supports the music education department by managing the administration of the program and monitoring student academic progress.

“The music department is its own world – its own magical world, family and environment. Students come in with [their] own essence and inner beauty, and they leave radiating that even more. We really aim to pull that out of our students – not just through music but also with the other connections we make with them.”