FRESH MEADOWS — It’s 7:50 a.m. and the school day hasn’t begun at St. Francis Preparatory School, yet more than 150 students are already onstage in the auditorium tuning their trumpets, trombones, clarinets, flutes, and other instruments to prepare for band class with their music teacher, Dr. Robert Corbino.
Class begins, and Corbino stands at the conductor’s podium, lifts his arms, and guides them through “Ave Maria” and other classical pieces, stopping every few minutes to gently correct a wrong note or compliment the students on a job well done.
The band class, offered before the first official period of the day, is an elective, meaning students choose to come to school early to learn from Corbino.
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Corbino has taught music at St. Francis Prep for 50 years, starting as a 24-year-old in September of 1976, before becoming chair of the school’s music department in 1980. He has held the position ever since.
For his half-century of work, St. Francis Prep is honoring Corbino with a lasting thank-you. Principal Patrick McLaughlin recently announced that the school established a scholarship in his name — the Dr. Robert Corbino Music Scholarship — to be awarded each year to an incoming freshman to study music.
The school is currently raising money to reach $100,000 so that the scholarship can be offered in perpetuity. So far, McLaughlin said, the school has reached approximately 70% of that goal.
Corbino said that while he is flattered to have his name attached to a scholarship, he is more excited about fostering a student’s love of music. “I usually like to remain in the background, but it’s nice of them to do that,” he said. “I like the idea that when I’m gone, it’ll help kids later on.”
Corbino deserves the recognition, McLaughlin said, noting that he is beloved by his students.
“He makes them work hard, and they appreciate that,” he said. “Many of our students come to us without having any musical experience at all, and they really develop.
“That’s a credit to Bob’s leadership.”
When St. Francis Prep recently honored teachers celebrating milestones at the school, students met Corbino‘s 50th-anniversary acknowledgment with thunderous applause.
Corbino has been at St. Francis Prep so long that he not only taught the parents of many of his current students; in some cases, he taught their grandparents.
When Corbino arrived at St. Francis Prep 50 years ago, band class had 27 students. Now it has more than 150. With support from the administration and the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn, who sponsor the school, St. Francis Prep has created a large and varied musical program.
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At any time, 1,600 students — over half of the school’s entire population — are taking music classes and/or playing in a band or orchestra. The school has 11 performing groups, including a concert band, junior band, jazz ensemble, string orchestra, chamber orchestra, concert chorus, female chorus, chamber choir, and two percussion ensembles.
As Music Department chair, Corbino oversees it all. But he’s also busy teaching music theory courses.
A Bensonhurst native, Corbino earned his bachelor’s degree in music from CUNY, a master’s from Hunter College, and a doctorate in education from New York University. He plays piano, trumpet, baritone horn, and tuba, and his favorite music is Renaissance classical.
He said he loves his job and hopes he has had an impact on his students.
“I hope that they keep music in their lives somehow, whether they’re playing or just listening,” he said, “And I hope they remember their time here as a good experience.”