From staff reports
Francis J. Nesta, a retired music teacher from Knox, has been named to the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Hall of Fame. Nesta was one of four music educators honored in this year’s ceremony. Michael Bodolosky of Johnstown, James Falvo of Pittsburgh, and James Dunlop, deceased band director of the Penn State Blue Band also received this prestigious award.
Nesta completed 42 years of service, all in the Keystone School District. During his tenure, he taught elementary instrumental music, junior high and senior high choral music, music theory, and general music.
During the final five years, he also directed the marching and concert bands. He was the director for the Keystone High School musicals in 1983 and 1984 and resumed leadership of those productions in 2004.
Nesta graduated in 1973 from Clarion State College with a bachelor of science in music education and went on to complete a master of education in music education in 1977, at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
In 1991, he was named as one of ten participants in a national Summer Music Fellowship program at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. where he studied choral conducting under Dr. Robert Harris and computers in music under Dr. Peter Webster.
He also completed some theological studies at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky. and is currently continuing in that area through the Alliance Theological Seminary in Nyack, N.Y.
During his career, Nesta served in numerous leadership roles. He served three terms as president of the Clarion County Music Educators, two terms as president of PMEA District 3, and was elected to serve as the PMEA State President from 2009-2010.
Along with these responsibilities, he led or served on various planning committees at the local, state, and national level.
As a music teacher, he was repeatedly invited to be the guest conductor at many choral festivals in Pennsylvania. He has guest conducted multiple times each at the Jefferson County Choral Festival, the Beaver County Honors chorus, and the Indiana and Somerset County Choral Festivals.
He has been PMEA Songfest guest conductor in District 3 and in District 12. He conducted Intermediate Unit 5 and 9 Junior High District Chorus and served as guest conductor for the Western Pennsylvania Christian District Chorus at Christian Life Academy and Warren County Christian School.
Outside of the school environment, he has guest conducted for several church choir festivals.
Nesta is an active composer, writing for his own students as well as for other ensembles. His lone publication to date, “The Argument,” has been performed and enjoyed by choral ensembles and audiences across the country with numerous performances posted on an internet venue.
In addition to choral music for school and church choirs, his work includes several commissions, including manuscript compositions and arrangements for marching band, concert band, orchestra, brass quintet, and jazz band. His most recent work, “Sing a Song of Hope,” was premiered at the 2016 PMEA District 3 Songfest in November at Keystone High School, and will be presented again at the Keystone Elementary and Clarion Area Elementary Choir Spring concerts.
When asked about music teaching, it is obvious that Nesta has strong feelings about that area of education. “Music does things to people and for people that nothing else can. It unifies singers and instrumentalists through the discipline of hard work as they reach together toward a standard of excellence that simply cannot be compromised.
“When applied to a music performance, a 95 percent accuracy rate, acceptable on most test assessments as exemplary, is just not pleasing to the ear.
“Music stirs the emotions of performer and audience alike as it speaks to our life experience in a way that is almost mystical. It expresses the full range of human emotion and expression, communicating everything from heart wrenching sadness, to energetic joy, to passionate love, to spirit enriching worship.
“The effort it takes to move from learning music written on a page to the actual creation of the sounds that we share in rehearsals and performances can galvanize a group of individuals around a goal that transcends our differences. The result deposits in us a unique treasure that we can remember and cherish for many years.”
Nesta received this award during the PMEA State Professional Development Conference Awards Breakfast at the Convention Center in Erie with a number of colleagues and friends in attendance. He and his wife, Sharon, are the parents of four adult children, Jamison and Meghan Nesta of Eagleville; Jonathan and Laura Nesta of Nashville, Tenn.; Kyle and Michelle Nesta of Roxborough, and Kristan Nesta of Hawthorne, Calif. and grandparents of three boys.