He needed a bow tie. Not just any bow tie — he needed one that he would have to tie himself, one that would match his dark sweater and red-checkered button-up. His midday trip to Men’s Wearhouse proved successful. Not only did he get his ideal blue-patterned bow tie for $12, he also got a second one for free. It took him nearly an hour to tie himself; an hour on a day when every minute counted. But he knew it was important, something that had been on his bucket list. He didn’t want to wear a normal tie — no, that would just be hidden under his sweater. And he certainly couldn’t make the faux pas of a tieless ensemble. That blue, lightly patterned, non-clip bow tie was everything.
It had taken him 14 years to get to this point, after all. 14 years of blisters, callused hands and hauling 40-pound bell sets. 14 years so he could wear this bow tie on the Weber stage and play his solo percussion recital to get the degree he’d been tirelessly working for: his Master of Music.
His name is Matthew Bronson.
Bronson was 9 years old, living in Connecticut when he started playing the drums. It was an easy choice for him, so easy that he decided a year before band classes even began.
“I knew I didn’t want to play something lame, like the trumpet,” Bronson said. “I just always wanted to play drums.”
Despite the early enthusiasm — even making his own drum out of a tin can and plastic lid for his town’s “Colonial Days” — sticking with percussion wasn’t always an easy choice for Bronson. In fifth grade, practicing at home meant lugging a set of bells to and from school. This very task was almost enough to make him quit.
“It was like 40 pounds, but that feels like a million when you’re in fifth grade. So I never brought it home. I never practiced,” Bronson said.
But the allure of a drum set was enough to keep him going. After cutting lawns for three years, Bronson saved up $350, half of what he would need to buy his own drum set. His parents pitched in the rest and he eventually paid them back. At the end of seventh grade, he owned his very own drums.
Percussionists play a massive variety of instruments, but Bronson spent most of middle school and high school focused on the drum set.
“The kind of classical percussion — like marimba — I didn’t do any of that until undergrad,” Bronson said. “I almost exclusively played drum set, which is funny because I don’t really do that anymore.”
Instead, Bronson spent his undergraduate years at Western Connecticut State University learning about and enjoying the diversity of percussion instruments he had once ignored.
It’s hard to explain just how many instruments a percussionist plays. Many people typically imagine percussion instruments as the drum set, triangle, cymbals, xylophone and timpani. But percussion goes far beyond instruments that are hit with sticks.
“Percussion is anything from a human hand that makes a sound when it strikes another thing,” Bronson said. “Piano is technically a percussion instrument,” Bronson adds, “but that doesn’t necessarily make someone who plays piano a percussionist.
An excellent example of this is “I Ching,” a piece Bronson played at his graduate recital.
“‘I Ching’ is considered a multi-percussion piece, centered around a kalimba — an African thumb piano. When you take the kalimba and put it on the timpani, it resonates in the bowl. It makes it significantly louder,” Bronson said.
In addition to having to learn an incredible variety of percussion instruments, Bronson got experience with woodwinds, brass and strings as an undergraduate student.
And yes, this included the trumpet. As a music education major, he would have to know about all of these in order to be a successful teacher and conductor.
Bronson used his education to teach Nordic High marching band and indoor drumlines beginning his sophomore year of college. He spent every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday night at the high school, including full Saturday rehearsals — not to mention competitions, which typically take up entire weekends. This was in addition to his schoolwork for the notoriously over-scheduled music education major. But this would give him a taste of what was to come as a grad student.
Bronson was even working during this interview. He had to prepare for a junior high honor band festival that was hosted by UMD. So, I had to ask, what all does he do?
In addition to being a graduate student, Bronson: is a Teaching Assistant for Dr. Koshinski; manages gear in Humanities and Chester Park; coaches pieces for percussion ensemble; repairs, fixes and creates instruments; plays in percussion ensemble, graduate percussion ensemble, jazz combo two, big band two, and various student recitals; is the percussion specialist at the Fine Arts Academy; instructs Grand Rapids High School drumline and writes their show music. And that’s not including all of his gigs.
“I just take it one step at a time,” Bronson said. “It is a lot though, I won’t lie.”
However, Bronson is very hesitant to complain. He knows that many of these responsibilities keep him employed, and they’re jobs he enjoys.
“I think the more you can do, the more opportunity you have to be employed,” Bronson said. “That’s always been my goal, not only because I want to make money but because it all interests me. And it’s all really exciting to me.”
Of course, it helps that Bronson enjoys the work he does. And he gets to use his teaching experience at the Fine Arts Academy by giving percussion lessons to young students.
“I have a really, really, really talented third-grade student named Ben, and he’s absolutely amazing,” Bronson said.
But Bronson ultimately hopes to teach an older group: college students.
“I would like to teach at the university level at some point. I think I would have a lot to offer. I like to have diversity in what I’m doing, and I like what I teach to promote that,” Bronson said.
In order to teach at this level, Bronson will have to get his DMA (Doctoral of Musical Arts). He has already applied to and interviewed at two schools: the University of Minnesota and the University of Hartford .
“I’m really not sure if I want to go into a DMA program just yet, but I wanted to keep as many options open as possible,” Bronson said. He also applied to a few teaching positions at community colleges in Connecticut.
Bronson went straight from undergraduate to graduate school, a decision he doesn’t regret. But he is aware that it’s easy to get caught up in learning, always wondering when it’s been enough.
“It’s a struggle to be somebody that is a lifelong learner — especially in a field where you have to be a lifelong learner — and looking at things saying, ‘Alright, when am I going to be good enough to be an authority on this as opposed to being someone that’s still learning?’” Bronson said.
“And there’s kind of that gray area because you still want to be learning, but then you also have to be a teacher at some point and that’s kind of a struggle.”
Before he moves onto his next adventure, though, Bronson needs to wrap up his master’s degree. He had his recital on _____, but he still has to write extended program notes — around 5-7 pages per piece he played. Then he has to defend his musical and written choices to a committee.
But Bronson is confident.
“I think that as stressful as things get sometimes, I never have once thought that I made the wrong decision to not only go to grad school, but to come here,” he said.
It wasn’t always an easy decision. Choosing to major in an artistic field can be a risk, and there’s often pressure from family and friends to pursue something more lucrative.
“I could probably major in accounting like my dad did,” Bronson said. “Get my undergrad degree and MBA. He makes really good money and he’s cool with all of that, he’s happy and he’s great. He’s awesome, but I couldn’t do that.”
Though his parents are incredibly supportive of him — his mom got to watch his recital live via a video stream — they were skeptical at first, according to Bronson.
“Now in hindsight, I don’t blame them, but at the time was a little frustrating,” he said. “But they’re really supportive. I can’t say that they aren’t in any way. So is my sister.”
Having this support network has been crucial for Bronson’s success, but so has following his passion, regardless of the difficulties.
“My advice — and it’s not just for someone going into music — if there’s something that you really like and it’s not always about doing what is the easiest thing to shape your career,” he said. “It’s about trying to figure out what’s going to make you happy.”
Happiness may require sacrifice, but Bronson said it’s all been worth it.
“Part of the reason why I do all of this is that I just want to be happy working for the rest of my life,” Bronson said.
Armed with two bow ties, Bronson’s ready to tackle whatever comes next, and he’ll do it in style.
BY APRILL EMIG