A passing of the baton in the Manchester Jr./Sr. High School Music Program
Incoming music director Jenna Kezelian (left) stands on the podium and accepts the conductor’s baton from outgoing music director Jared Throneberry (right). Photo by Sara Swanson.
by Sara Swanson
Manchester Community Schools is losing a titan of the Music Program this week as longtime music director Jared Throneberry is retiring. With almost three decades of championing the music and arts in the community, you can imagine that those are huge shoes to fill. Thankfully, the district has hired an exceptional replacement who is no stranger to the students she’ll soon be directing, and Throneberry has high hopes for the smoothest possible transition.
A graduate of Eastern Michigan University, Throneberry started his teaching career in 1993 as a student teacher in Ida, a small farming town in Monroe County. After graduating, he was hired as an assistant director in 1994 in Coldwater. Two years later, hearing a band director position had opened in Saline, a position that would be both more permanent and closer to home, he called and was told that they’d just hired someone for the position. He asked what school they were from, knowing that there would most likely be an opening there. It was Manchester. When he called the district’s office to ask for an application, he was told they’d already sent him one!
Throneberry’s father worked at one of the banks in town at the time selling securities. In a very Manchester turn of events, one of his father’s co-workers was involved with the schools and knew he was looking for a job and wanting to move home, and she had already put things in motion. Throneberry filled out the application, returned it, and was interviewed on the day of the Chicken Broil. He got the job.
“The person who I took over from,” Mr. Thronebery remembered, “had started getting the program moving in the right direction so it was on a pretty good foundation to start with.” He estimates that the high school band had 40 students and the 7th/8th grade band had over 80 students with large 5th and 6th grade bands as well. The numbers just grew from there. In the beginning he was in charge of all of the bands, but in 1999, Ed Schoendorff was hired in as the elementary music teacher, at which time they split band duties, settling on Throneberry being in charge of 7th through 12th around 2010, with occasional years of directing the younger bands as well. “I know there was a lot of years I never had the same schedule twice,” he added.
And it wasn’t just the music program he was involved in. In 2006 or 2007 he began working with the drama program. Emily Duncan, who had just taken over the program, approached him and asked if he wanted to help. He had helped put on a small production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, but she was envisioning full-blown musicals. They did several shows together, starting with Grease and then Oklahoma. His most memorable was their third, though, a production of Damn Yankees. That year, they needed a few more roles filled and he found the solution very close to home. Throneberry explained, “It was the only time that I ever got to do that. That’s what made that show so special for me was getting to direct my kid in one of my productions. I think that’s why it was my favorite.”
A couple of years after Duncan left, he transitioned out of of directing, but stayed involved as facilitator for drama club. It was actually at a rehearsal for Willy Wonka on the evening of Friday, March 13, 2020, that he heard the news that everything was shutting down because of COVID. He remembers thinking, “This is the end of the drama program.” And though Sue Thompson was able to keep it going for a bit after things resumed, he was correct. Throneberry stated, “The writing was on the wall, and it was done. COVID had killed it.” He continued, “I value that time. I mean, it was such an amazing thing to do for all those years. Getting kids that you never would expect to be involved in drama to do shows. That was very important to me, to have that opportunity, especially with this amazing facility that we have. It was a wonderful run.”
COVID was the first time he questioned whether maybe it was time to retire. Having to teach through COVID, students leaving the music programs because of conditions outside his control, and the tense climate in the district, all made it difficult to continue running a music program at optimal levels. So he decided to go out while he still loves it. He explained that he’s seen too many people overstay and go out bitter and he feels that is not the way to go. So he made the decision. He said, “You don’t want to get up every morning and dread going to work. I still love coming here.”
On top of his positions as band and choir director and his work in the drama program, Throneberry served as class advisor for Class of 2002, as assistant principal for three years, which involved weekly trips out to Pleasant Lake School, Alliance Club advisor providing a safe place for LGBTQ+ students, and 26 years as Quizbowl coach, including in 2005 when Manchester won the State Championship. He was around long enough to remember teaching 5th–8th graders in the Ackerson building, and high schoolers in what is now Riverside Intermediate. He organized and took many groups of kids on “monumental” trips, including in 2022 when the high school band went to England. Just this spring he was recognized as District 8’s band director of the year by the Michigan Band and Orchestra Association (MSBOA). But all of those accomplishments wouldn’t have been enough for him to retire. He wanted to make sure the high school music program was in good hands before he left. And those good hands came in the form of Jenna Kezelian.
In all of his years, Throneberry had only had two student teachers so it was an unusual circumstance when chatting to Mary Schneider, Director of Bands at Eastern Michigan University, she asked, “Jared, why don’t we ever send you any student teachers?” Then she proceeded to tell him that she had someone for him that she thought would fit, and who was the best they had, Jenna Kezelian. And Schneider was right. When they met through Zoom, Throneberry could tell that she was the right fit, and in the back of his mind he thought that she could possibly, maybe, be his replacement. “Not many people get to write their own ending, you know, to their career,” he stated. He contacted Eastern and said, “Yep, I think she’d be great.”
Kezelian started in Manchester in January of 2023. She worked with both Schoendorff and Throneberry and graduated at the end of Eastern’s school year, which ended in April. Even though she was totally done and didn’t need to, she came back every day and worked until school was out in Manchester. Throneberry stated, “That shows a lot of character that she wanted to see this through to the end even though she could have just been done. I mean, there were other student teachers working in the area and I’m friends with those directors. And they said, ‘Yeah, [our student teachers] didn’t come back. They were done.’” Throneberry trusted her enough to have her conduct the concert band for a piece at a state festival. He explained that band directors don’t like handing over the reins. “We tend to be kind of like coaches, we’re very protective of our program,” he stated, “but I had no problem trusting her with these kids and getting them prepared for performance.” It was not just the flashy stuff she returned for, though; Kezelian worked on the mundane, end-of-the-year tasks, too, like inventorying uniforms and paperwork.
With her degree in hand, Kezelian took on a long-term substitute position this fall semester in Birmingham, then this winter as a long-term sub for Chelsea when their band director went on maternity leave. Not only did she get the experience of serving as the director in the classroom but she also got out-of-the-classroom experience as she accompanied one of the bands on a trip to Disney World. She returned to Manchester in the mornings in April, subbing for Throneberry as he took on a part-time job that necessitated starting immediately. So she was back in the district when Throneberry publicly announced his decision to retire.
“When I made the decision to retire,” Mr. Throneberry observed, “that was, by far, probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, telling the kids that I was retiring. As I’m blubbering, telling them what’s going on, I did say I really hoped that Jenna would be able to take over. And once I told them that, they kind of went, ‘Oh, okay, then.’” The band boosters supported her as did Schoendorff, but in the end it was the administration that got the final say. Throneberry stated that when the position was posted, Kezelian ended up against two pretty qualified applicants. He continued, “What gave Jenna the upper hand was that she already knew the program. She knew the families. She knew the kids. And that really was kind of the deciding factor. … In this case, I don’t think they could have hired a better fit than her.”
Throneberry has been here long enough that he now has second-generation students; his students are the children of his former students. He recalls meeting 5th grade band students for the first time and having them say “my mom or dad is so-and-so and they had you for band.” He explained, “I always thought that meant a lot, that they thought it was important enough to have their kids do [band] because they had such a good experience as being part of this family. Because it is, you know, I’ve always treated this like a family.
“I remember asking [Kezelian] several times over the last year, ‘Are you still interested in coming here?’” Throneberry stated, “and every time the answer was, ‘Yes, I still would like to come here.’ And that kind of made my decision to retire a little bit easier. Because I knew that if she wanted to be here and she got the job, that the program would be in great hands. Between Ed and Jenna, they’re gonna do great things and continue the program in a positive manner.”
Throneberry is not stepping away from directing completely. He will continue conducting at Blue Lake and judging for MSBOA festivals. His last day teaching in Manchester was Friday.
Thank you, Jared Throneberry, for almost 30 years of service to the community — and good luck in whatever comes next for you! Welcome, Jenna Kezelian!
Kezelian conducts the Manchester High School choir at the spring concert in May. Photo by Sara Swanson.
Jared Throneberry conducts next year’s high school band at graduation, June 2, his last performance as Manchester’s music director. Photo courtesy of Mark Ball.
Manchester Jr./Sr. High School’s outgoing music director, Jared Throneberry, in the band room that has been home for almost 30 years. Photo by Sara Swanson.
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