John Neal, new director at the Kennebec Performing Arts Company, smiles Tuesday behind Cumston Hall in Monmouth. “You’ve got to look beyond the page and find the soul of the composer,” Neal says of his approach to music. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel

MANCHESTER — John Neal punches eighth notes quickly into his left hand, pacing furiously from one side of his music stand to another and trying to keep his choir from slowing down.

After two or three attempts, when the choir members finally keep the tempo, he smiles wide, takes off his glasses and lets them fall around his neck for dramatic effect. A small win.

Monday night’s rehearsal is the first time since he was hired in May that he’s directed this group, the Kennebec Performing Arts Company’s chorus. It’s not a beginner group, and Neal said he hopes to challenge the 40 singers more than they have been previously. He said he wants to do things differently than the group’s previous director, Charles Milazzo, 85, who retired earlier this year and moved to Connecticut to be closer to family. Milazzo spent more than four decades at the helm.

KPAC evolved from several separate ensembles — dating back into the early 19th century — into just three consolidated groups during Milazzo’s tenure. The nonprofit has more than 100 professional and amateur members, from high schoolers to retirees, who put on five free performances throughout the year.

Monday’s rehearsal, Neal’s first, was also the first of the season for KPAC. The wind ensemble will begin rehearsals Sept. 3 at 7 p.m. in the Cony High School band room, while the chorus will continue rehearsals at 6:30 p.m. Monday nights after skipping Labor Day.

Neal retired after a long career in music education in 2022. In his most recent stint, he spent six years as the director of music at the Maine Arts Academy in Sidney. Before that, he had taught music at three other secondary schools since he graduated from Ohio State University with a music education degree in 1978.

But he couldn’t stay away from the music, the scores, the conducting.

“I became widowed in 2018, and have been sort of kicking around, shuffling my feet after I retired,” Neal said. “I worked four years, but when I retired in ’22, I’m alone in the house, right? I still had friends in the music education world, of course, and I got word from one of them that there might be an opportunity to use my skills again.”

After hearing about Milazzo’s retirement from friends in the music education world, he decided to ask around about the position. KPAC leaders and members told him they were looking for change in the organization.

“So I thought, ‘Well, you know, these people need somebody with my skill set, right?'” he said. “‘And I need some people who need my skill set. So let me apply.'”

The Kennebec Performing Arts Company Jazz Band rehearses in November 2023 under the direction of Charles T. Milazzo, third from left, at the Winthrop Performing Arts Center. Milazzo retired last year following a 43-year career. John Neal is the new director. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal file

Judy Mank, who has been a member of KPAC for more than 40 years, said she met Neal during an all-state music competition he hosted where she was a judge for the flutes. She was instantly impressed with his organization and his command of the situation.

Several years later, when she was working at a school in Monmouth, Neal took a long-term substitute job for one of her colleagues who was on maternity leave. He encouraged Mank to get her master’s degree, like he did at the University of Connecticut in the early 1980s. Every time they saw each other after that, he asked about her progress, until she eventually graduated with her master’s from the University of Maine.

“I really credit him with giving me a little push, and he did that with so many students, colleagues,” Mank said. “He’s just a very friendly but encouraging person.”

When word started circulating among music educators that Neal was applying for the KPAC position, she said she immediately heard praise from people all over the state.

“When word got out that he was applying for the job, a lot of comments were, ‘I can’t think of anyone better for the job,'” Mank said.

Neal said he takes inspiration from Frank Glaser, a longtime artist-in-residence at Bates College in Lewiston, who wrote that there are two parts of making music: the subject matter, or the notes and markings on the page, and the “spirit matter.”

He said he doesn’t see his role as following in Milazzo’s big footsteps, but instead as connecting the performers to that spirit and emotion in the music. After all, he said, that’s the only reason music exists — to convey a feeling that can’t be conveyed with just words.

“You’ve got to look beyond the page and find the soul of the composer,” Neal said. “You’ve got to connect with that, filter it through your own soul and then connect that to the souls of the performers, who must then connect it to the souls of the listeners.”

Connecting those souls requires him to bring extra energy to the rehearsals, he said, and being in front of a group of musicians gives him that energy. It has ever since he was chosen as his marching band’s drum major during his senior year of high school.

So, he throws his glasses back on, picks up his baton and tells the choir which measure of the music to start on.