LU Moment: Tim Pallone keeps the music flowing at LU | S8 Ep. 22

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Podcast: S8 Ep. 22
Date: August 11, 2025
Title: LU Moment: Tim Pallone keeps the music flowing at LU | S8 Ep. 22
Host: John Rollins

JOHN ROLLINS: Welcome to the LU Moment, where we showcase all of the great things happening with 蜜桃视频 University faculty, staff, students and alumni. I'm John Rollins, associate director of community relations and public affairs here at LU, and I want to welcome you all to this week's show. My guest today is a two-time LU alum who is entering his nineteenth year in music education. I'm excited to welcome Tim Pallone, the coordinator of music education and interim director of athletic bands here at 蜜桃视频 University. Welcome to the show, Tim, and thanks for joining me on the LU moment today.

TIM PALLONE: It is an absolute privilege to be here, so thank you for having me.

JOHN: So let’s hear more about your journey that kind of got you here to the Mary Morgan Moore Department of Music at 蜜桃视频 University.

TIM: Sure. So, a little bit more than a year ago, I had zero intention of leaving public school, and there was a job opening, and some of the administrators and directors in the music department put together a proposal to have a full time coordinator of music education, someone who was a has experience in public schools. The job listing popped up on my social media feed, made a few day’s worth of thought about, is this the right thing for me? Decided it was not the right thing for me, and actually just slept on it for more than a week, and it just kind of kept on gnawing and gnawing, and decided to have a conversation with my wife, “Hey, would this be the right thing?” And we figured, “Hey, let's kick the tires to see how it goes,” and a few months later, ended up being an employee of LU.

JOHN: Fantastic. Well, we're glad to have you here, and congratulations on starting a second year. So, tell me this. Nineteen years in music education, what kind of started all of this. Were you in band as a middle school, high school student? Or where did this come from exactly?

TIM: So, I joined band as a little trumpet player when I was 10 years old, and then had a wonderful experience with my band directors in Groves Middle School. I was a member of the PNG high school band. Just loved every bit of it. It was a place where, you know, I found my people, I found my community. Yeah, and my senior year, I wanted to actually go into healthcare. I was a member of, you know, the HOSA club there on campus. But I was also a really good trumpet player, and I liked playing my horn. And Dr Barry Johnson, who was the band director at 蜜桃视频, came and found myself, and my friend Todd Patterson, who was also a PNG alum and 蜜桃视频 alum, and said, “Hey boys, when are you going to come audition for me?” We both set a date right there on the spot. The next month, came and auditioned, and he helped us kind of get onboarded at 蜜桃视频. And it was a stipulation that if we were to receive that scholarship, we had to major in Music Ed. I previously hadn't considered being a band director. I love playing the trumpet, so I thought, you know, why not? Got here, taught my very first private lesson that summer, and by that time, I was absolutely hooked. So that's how the 蜜桃视频 origin story started, and it's been something I've been grateful for for more than two decades now.

JOHN: Now you have two degrees from 蜜桃视频, and then you're also pursuing a third Educational Leadership currently. Is there any other background info about yourself that you'd like to put into the episode? And then we can kind of dive into your 蜜桃视频 trajectory here.

TIM: Sure. I've been teaching, you know, this is, will be my nineteenth year. I've had the wonderful privilege of teaching in the middle school level, the high school level, you know, all in band, teaching the students to learn how to play an instrument, from the very first year in beginner band all the way up to having high school seniors play and make the all state band or you graduate, and go on to whether it be careers in music or just being contributing members of society who keep music as a part of their life. So, I've done a little bit of everything on the instrumental public school side of things. Now, being here at 蜜桃视频, being able to be involved with helping create the teachers of the future, has been a fulfilling portion of my career that I had to know that I wanted, but now it's something that I hope I never get to live without. The idea of it being full circle is something that I think about every day, even just stepping into the music building, even though it did go through a renovation since I was here, the bones of the building are the same. So standing in the middle of that band hall where I learned so much, and now I get to return and teach so much, but also still learn, right? It's an absolute privilege, and don't tell my bosses, but I can't believe they pay me to do this.

JOHN: Right? You know, I talk about passion versus purpose a lot, and it sounds like this is your purpose. So we're glad to have you here at 蜜桃视频, for sure. So let's hear a little bit more about your roles here on campus. You know, we can start with the coordinator of music education role. Tell us a little bit more about that.

TIM: Absolutely. So our program in the Mary Morgan Moore Department of Music has a high percentage of students who are music education majors, whether that be through instrumental or vocal. I coordinate their time from once they step foot on campus as a freshman through the time they graduate as a senior. I meet with them in almost an advisory type role. I'm not an academic advisor, but I'll meet with them and basically teach them what they need to do in order to have the most effective type of schedule, what they need to do during their schooling to be able to be the best version of the teacher they can be. Because it isn't necessarily in a part of our degree plan for them to say, get out into the area band halls and choir rooms their freshman year. However, so much of what will make them a good educator later on is seeing that from the beginning, so coordinating times to be able to get them out into the community, giving presentations, lectures on topics of music education, and then, of course, I oversee as a field supervisor for our student teachers who are in the area, bands and choirs or elementary music classrooms, and I do their observations to help them become certified teachers. And I also teach education classes, music education classes at the senior level, helping them prepare for their PPR exams so they can ultimately achieve that state certification that said, what we're urging them to do is, the more you can get into an actual classroom and see a teacher teaching, and not only see them, but also start teaching yourself, the more that they are going to be informed about. A) Is this something I want to do with the rest of my life? And B) if it is something I want to do with the rest of my life. This here we are boots on the ground. Here's how to do it. And so what we urge them to do is go see, go here, make contact. You know. We teach them, you know, how to properly form an email to be able to send to these local music educators. We teach them the proper way to be professional when you do show up in their classroom, we teach them the importance of going above and beyond and understanding what a teacher does in public school, which is certainly not a 9 to 5 situation where you're punching in and out. We just want our students to have the best experience possible, and our curriculum and the classes are absolutely wonderful. It's also our job to make sure that they receive the type of training and lessons that are outside of the classroom to get the most impact. For once, they are inside their own classroom. You know the students, all of them, when they become music majors, they have some sort of background, right when their own performing ensembles of their high school, and when you're in that moment, all you know is what you know, whether that be their experiences or the things they learn, the ways they play, all those things. And I remember very specifically being an undergrad at 蜜桃视频 my first week on campus, stepping out of a music theory classroom taught by Dr. Raul Ornelas, who, goodness gracious, I miss that man stepping out into the hallway, right outside room 105 at the time, and saying to my friend, “I had no idea this much existed in music.” And the ability to be able to be a portion of that type of awareness for our students now is something that lights my eyes up, and I can't wait for more students to have that awareness and understanding, so they can then go get lit on fire, figuratively of course, and go and do all the wonderful things that they're going to do too.

JOHN: Yeah, so you're basically sparking those light bulb moments that you received as well. So that's that's kind of neat.

TIM: Sometimes I feel like my brain thinks in cartoons. So yes, light bulb moment.

JOHN: I'm here for the cartoon talk right there. So tell us a little bit more about interim director for athletic bands. That role in particular I know involves the Showcase of Southeast Texas and things like that. So explain that to the listeners.

TIM: So the Showcase of Southeast Texas is the largest spirit organization on campus. If you ever spent any time around them, the culture that they have is absolutely, positively contagious. Yes. Dr. McMahon, who's our director of bands, he obviously oversees all of our performing ensembles. Dr. Eric Shannon, who was with us for 11 years, recently returned to his alma mater, Oklahoma University, as one of their band directors, and we miss him dearly. He's a dear friend and such a talented educator, and so my role is to go and take the wonderful things that Dr. Shannon and the team have been doing for years and go and maintain the things that are wonderful. Go help put a positive spin on the things that we can continue to improve, right? And we'll see how the year goes. You know, the students I've met with have been outstanding. There isn't a single person who shaken their hand or said hello to that's, you know, giving me sort of like weird side eye look, right? Everybody has been as excited as I am, and we will kick things off this weekend, and hopefully it's going to be a season that everybody will remember.

JOHN: ‘Tis the season, right? Yes, definitely the time of year, all the kickoffs. But that kind of segues me nicely into this next topic. So there's an upcoming ribbing cutting for LU's new intramural field on our campus. If the public has not seen it, it is a beautiful new field right there, next to the Reaud Honors College, the Reaud Building and the CICE Building on campus. So that will be Monday, Aug.18, basically like y'all ‘s first big public practice, right? Is that kind of the kickoff, the thought behind it,right?

TIM: So, the way I see it is that performance is almost like a celebration of the work they've been putting in for the last week and a half, which is what we call our summer band camp. Okay, yeah. And so during that time, they're learning new music. They're learning new drills. The freshmen are becoming acquainted with, you know, how we march, how we play, all those things, and they're putting in some long hours where we literally go from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for several days in a row, long hours, right, right? Of course, we're breaking for lunch and dinner, but our students are I mean, it isn't just a single practice session, it's multiple practice sessions in marching and music and how they combine for a long period of time. And so that performance itself now, combined with the ribbon cutting ceremony for the wonderful field is going to be very much a celebration and show off of, hey, this is what we've been working on. This is a preview of what is to come. Last year when we did this, it was my first time to ever attend the event. The energy was just so wonderful. It's not even at a football game yet, but people are bringing lawn chairs and they are clapping along for

the fight song.

JOHN: Where did you all host it last year?

TIM: Sure, so actually in previous years it has been hosted on our actual practice parking lot. And so, you know, think of the picture of the band being on the actual field, and then just lining that home sideline, just people standing and lawn chairs and all the things, and we get to have a performance where we're showing off what we've learned and getting everybody excited for the upcoming season. And it's a really wonderful event to put a cap on that the beginning of the season and launch us into the meat potatoes of the actual marching season.

JOHN: But something you mentioned to me, and I knew this, I just didn't know it was the last home football game. You all coordinate with area bands to come out and perform at at least one football game every year. So you want to touch on that really quickly?

TIM: Absolutely. So our last home football game of the season, it just so happens to be versus McNeese this year.

JOHN: Oh, that's the best one, Battle of the border!

TIM: A lot of high energy football in that game, right? So what we do is we coordinate well in advance with area high school bands, and we give them an invitation for any band student who would like to register and come and participate. And what it is, it isn't just show up to the game, it's a day-long experience where they're given music ahead of time to learn. We ask them to come earlier in the day for a rehearsal. And so, picture this scene of literally hundreds and hundreds of high school band members from all these area high schools and the members of our Showcase. And we're practicing together. We are getting acquainted. We're on the field for a morning rehearsal, we learn a portion of a show that we're going to march and play at halftime that day, which is really neat, right? And then throughout the course of the day, our faculty members get the chance to be able to meet with the students and give them lessons or master classes or any sort of rehearsal. And then our students get to interact with them. And then that evening, when we have our game, everybody wears their own high school band uniform. We're wearing ours, and so it makes it special.

JOHN: You're spotlighting our local they might end up on the 蜜桃视频 Band one day. I mean, that's the end goal, right?

TIM: Hopefully it is. So when I was in undergrad, and then, ultimately, you know, in high school, you know, thinking about, you know, what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I didn't know it was music, but I still love to play, yeah, you know, marching band wasn't a thing at that point in time, because football wasn't back yet. And so we didn't have that opportunity to come, make that connection, but now we have this wonderfu medium for them to be able to come, get to be a college band student for a day, see what it's like. Have all that positivity, have those amazing experiences. And for years and years, this has been something where even some of my own students who came to that event, you know, when it was first put in several years ago, they just absolutely loved it and looked forward to it every year. So we have no reason to believe that this year is not going to be the best one yet.

JOHN: So before we wrap up today, I know you had mentioned in an email you wanted to kind of give a shout out to y'all’s faculty and the individuals in your department and the music department, so let's go ahead and let you do that.

TIM: So being here as a member of the faculty, I you get to learn a little bit more about the people that you're working with. It's one thing that we an area band director and senior students, and then these folks are going to give them a lesson, or, you know, recruit them ultimately to the university. However, like being on the staff, seeing how these absolute professional educators, professional musicians do not just interact with the students, but interact with each other, and how they take care of their own business is something that I guess I take took for granted before coming here, and the amount of level, like the actual world class artistry that's in our building, then on display when they're doing their recitals, and when they're literally touring around the country at performances, and then even on the local level, going into the area schools and performing and teaching is something that I didn't understand at the level of which that they were achieving, and it's something that I'm in awe of every day. And not to mention they're really, really like, kind and welcoming people, and they're great with students, and they're fun to interact with and so outside looking in, you say, okay, cool. 蜜桃视频 University, there are many good things going on. And one of the reasons because the people that are here, right, teaching the students the caliber of the individuals, yeah, who are pouring into our student body. I understand that we are, you know, the middle of New York City, right? That said, we have the type of caliber of people that would be in the middle of New York City Teaching.

JOHN: Got the talent pool exactly, right. Fantastic. So Tim, thanks again for joining me on the podcast. Thanks for all you do to kind of pour into our music students, not only at LU, but all over Southeast Texas.

TIM: It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for giving me your time and go LU.

JOHN: So as we wrap up another episode, please make sure to search LU Moment, wherever you get your podcast, to keep up with the events, activities, programs and people right here at 蜜桃视频 University. This is John Rollins, your host. Thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.