Music for All is full of outstanding employees and we want you to meet them! Each month you’ll have the opportunity to learn about a different staff member with our Staff Profiles.
Name: Michelle Maloney-Mangold
Position: Administrative Assistant and Receptionist
Hometown: La Porte, IN
How long have you been with MFA?
Seven months.
What is your educational background? Where did you go to school, and what did you study?
I have a bachelor’s degree in music and English from Butler University, a master’s degree in English from the University of Connecticut, and in one year (hopefully) I will have a Ph.D. in English from the University of Connecticut.
What is your musical background? (What instruments have you played? Played in groups or bands? Just enjoy music in general?)
I started playing the clarinet when I was in sixth grade, and I played all through college and still play it today. I was also a drum major in high school and college. I majored in music education, so I had to learn most of the wind instruments, percussion, and some string instruments. I was so bad at the trombone, though, that my director named a syndrome after me, and my piano playing is pitiful. The only instrument other than the clarinets that I would play in public would be saxophone and maybe, maybe trumpet.
What kind of music do you like to listen to?
I have loved rock music since I was born. I was the kid in middle school who only wore band t-shirts (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Bush, Pearl Jam) and dyed her hair with Kool Aid to try to look as much like Kurt Cobain as possible. Today, I mostly listen to alternative, indie, and classic rock, although I also love music I can dance to. The thing I miss most about college is listening to and discussing classical (especially the Romantics and the Modernists and 15th-century polyphony) and jazz (especially Cool Jazz) on a daily basis. I also have a ridiculous schoolgirl crush on Eric Whitacre.
Why is music important to you?
Music was my whole life growing up. My parents taught me to love rock music from the time I was a baby (some of my first words were Bon Jovi lyrics), and I always wanted to be a musician. In high school in particular, music gave me a place to belong—I was pretty much queen of the band kids, and I loved it so passionately. My band directors took a special interest in me from the beginning; I went into high school thinking I was going to quit after one year, but on the very first day of high school concert band, I knew I’d stay all four years. In college, I had a built-in group of friends from the day I stepped on campus, and those people are still some of my best friends today. I don’t get to play very much anymore, but music is still crucial to my everyday life. I don’t know what I’d do without it.
Why do you believe in music education?
For all the reasons I listed above and more. I used to be really big about throwing statistics about SAT scores and grades at people, but now I just say that music—like literature, dance, theater, visual art—is integral to our experience of being human and understanding what it means to be human. I strongly believe in the value of a liberal arts education, and you can’t have that without art.
One of my favorite quotations has always been, “Music is essentially useless, as life is.” In other words, music is key to our humanness, to what it means to be alive. To dismiss the value of music is to dismiss the value of life and the beauty of the world.
What sort of things do you do in your free time?
I read, a lot, for school and for fun. I obsessively watch TV and see movies, and I love going to concerts and good restaurants. I’m also pretty loyal to my sports teams, especially to Butler Basketball (go Bulldogs!), the Chicago White Sox and Blackhawks, the Indianapolis Colts, and Liverpool F.C. In general, I love being around my friends and family, so I love to combine the above activities with them as much as possible.
What led you to Music for All?
I recently moved back to Indianapolis to finish my dissertation, and my friend Laura Blake (one of the people I met on my first day at Butler in 2002) let me know about the opening. I had marched in BOA events in high school and volunteered for them in college, so I knew the value of the organization and that Laura had loved working here for years. So I applied and here I am!
What do you enjoy the most about working for Music for All?
I love seeing the looks on students’ faces at our events. I get choked up a lot when they are walking off the field or the stage or Chuck has just given a particularly epic announcement or Dr. Tim has just given a big speech and enthralled everyone. Our events really do change students’ (and their families’ and directors’) lives. That’s the best part.
I also adore my co-workers. Their passion and sense of humor makes it a joy to come to work.
What is your favorite Music for All event, and why?
I haven’t gone through Symposium yet, so this could change, but probably Grand Nationals. It’s aptly named, because it really is grand. There are just so many students, spectators, and schools in attendance, and the level of performance is so incredibly high. I just love it, the grandeur and pageantry.
What’s one interesting thing about yourself that some on staff may not be aware of?
Oh, gosh. I’m a pretty open person, so I’m not sure there’s much people don’t know. I think my two defining characteristics, though, are that I’m the oldest of six kids and that I’m basically a nerdy, 14-year-old fangirl. (That’s not an insult to 14-year-olds. I mean it in the best possible way.) When I love something, I tend to obsess over it, which leads to lots of embarrassing rambling and my buying posters and dolls I don’t need and my owning so many books that my husband threatens to cut me off. I don’t believe in guilty pleasures, so everything I love is in earnest. (There goes my hipster cred…) But less this be known: my obsession with vampires has earned me a great deal of ridicule, yes, but it also led to my first academic publication and several conference presentations. So kids—stay nerdy.
