Joe Chonto has already had a colorful, varied career in the arts around the world.
The passionate 70-year-old Davenport native is starting his next chapter as director of musical activities for The Deanery School of Music, 1103 Main St., Davenport.
The prior private school director (Gates Thomas) served as both business manager and head of musical activities, and the job was split in two to make it more manageable. The Deanery is still looking for a business/office manager.
“I think The Deanery is very lucky to have Joe Chonto as our new director of musical activities. Joe has a unique global perspective and is quite literally bringing it home to the Quad Cities,” founder and artistic adviser Hannah Holman said recently by email. “He has boundless enthusiasm, big ideas, and a lot of determination. I’m very excited for the Deanery’s future with Joe!”
Holman is a world-class cellist with vast experience in solo, chamber, and orchestral settings, and as a teacher. She joined the Quad City Symphony in 2001 and became principal cellist in 2008; she has also been a member of the New York City Ballet Orchestra since 2012.
Holman founded the school (next to Trinity Episcopal Cathedral) in 2019, and after over $230,000 in renovations to the 1930 building (the former residence of the cathedral’s dean, which previously was vacant from 2009), the new school and concert venue opened in January 2022.
The Deanery website says it “builds connections between students, teachers, performers, and the Quad-City community, through accessible and transformative education, culturally enriching events, and performance opportunities that cultivate musical excellence.”
Chonto “brings an extensive background in the business of music as well as being a musician,” said Deanery board member Kay Hall. “A native of Davenport, Joe returned to his roots from New York City and is well connected with the local music scene. He possesses a vision of what the Deanery School of Music can bring to the Quad-City community that the Deanery uniquely provides.
“He is raising the profile of our music education program which offers quality instruction in strings, piano, guitar, and flute to children, youth, and adults—also as well as a budding Suzuki string education program for young children—the only such opportunity in the Quad Cities,” Hall said. “He has already successfully raised the awareness of our concert series—quality performances from classical to country in the intimate setting of the beautiful Deanery. Joe knows music, musicians, and how to reach people to share the joy.”
“With a passion for music education and a commitment to fostering musical excellence, creativity, and community, Joe has already developed opportunities for students and musicians of all ages and experience levels,” board member Leslie O’Ryan said by email.
“Through collaborative programming, performance opportunities, and engaging musical experiences, Joe will play an important role in strengthening The Deanery’s mission to make high-quality music education accessible to the community,” she added. “This exciting addition marks another step forward in The Deanery’s continued growth as a welcoming place where musicians can learn, develop their talents, share their love of music, and build lasting connections through the arts.”
Boosting faculty and students
Chonto said in a recent interview at the school one of his first goals is to increase the number of faculty and students.
Including Holman and Michelle Ottesen (violinist and conductor of a new Hilltop Community Orchestra), there are currently 10 faculty and about 60 students, primarily in strings and piano.
“We have a Suzuki strings program that we are getting ready to launch very, very soon, and I think that'll be a really important thing to offer in the community,” Chonto said, noting that it will be led by Iowa City-based violinist Renee Santos. “She's highly qualified, and so that's going to kick off. And I'm in charge of getting things going. The other thing is musical performances, and I'm thinking of people that I know that I think are excellent, top-grade musicians.”
He also wants to showcase a wide variety of musical genres in concerts – from jazz to classical, to bluegrass to country. Earlier this month, they hosted country and bluegrass musician Greg Garing one night, and Philip Bergman, principal cellist of Orchestra Iowa and the Dubuque Symphony another.
“By offering a greater variety, I hope to bring more people into The Deanery tent and to also hopefully educate the ears of people in the area that there's a lot of really great music out there,” Chonto said. “It's not always at the Vibrant Arena or a lot of the clubs. There's a lot of people that just get looked over, and I'm trying to do something against that trend.”
That also should be reflected in The Deanery faculty, which now includes jazz trumpeter Edgar Crockett, former head of the jazz program at Black Hawk College.
“I want to bring in people who can teach guitar lessons and classical guitar, blues guitar, rock and roll guitar, you know, all these kinds of things,” Chonto said. “Drums, percussion, everything. Why not?”
About one-third of current students receive scholarships.
“That was a really big thing. The founder, Hannah Holman, this was her idea to have a music school in which music education could be provided to children and adults who otherwise can't really afford the going rate for musical education,” Chonto said.
“That's part of it, and we want to really expand that. We're going to be looking to do that through fundraising, grant applications, etc. But that is a big part of The Deanery mission.”
“The Deanery historically has had a good solid regular support base. However, in and of itself, it's not enough to keep things going and it's certainly not enough to expand things, which is really what we're looking to do,” he said. “More fundraising, more grant applications, and more concert productions that I'm planning on doing, hoping to generate some income from that as well.”
Starting with piano and drums
A St. Ambrose University alum, Chonto said he was forced to study piano when he was 7 years old because “I had seen the Beatles on TV and started insisting I needed a drum set because I wanted to be Ringo. And my parents instead got a piano,” he said. “And had I known anything about Little Richard or Jerry Lee Lewis at the time, I would have gone for it. But I didn't know them, and the piano to me represented something that was just so square, and I hated it and didn't get very far with it, of course.
“When I was 16, the first paycheck I got for the job, I went downtown. I had seen a sign in a music store, drum sets, $4 a week,” Chonto recalled. He went on to play in a few QC bar bands, and was self-taught. After moving to New York in 1985, he took drums more seriously, and later took five years of lessons from Andrew Cyrille, “who's one of the greatest jazz drummers of all time,” he said. “Andrew started out playing with Coleman Hawkins and all kinds of great people, and then with Cecil Taylor in the 1960s. And he's still very active now, playing concerts.”
His day job in New York was at a major law firm as a supervisor of document production, including proofreading and editing.
Among Chonto’s 30 years working in New York City, he was manager for famed jazz pianist Cecil Taylor (1929-2018) for about six months (1989-1990), and just in that time, had success writing grants for him – receiving about $150,000 total — from Meet the Composer; an NEA Jazz Master Award and a New England Foundation for the Arts touring grant.
Chonto said Taylor had “a mercurial personality,” and got connected with him by interviewing him for Modern Keyboard magazine.
“I reconnected with him a few nights later because I had some follow-up questions, and we got along really well. And then there was another person that knew him and said, you know what he really needs is a manager,” he recalled. “I think I could probably help them out that way. I had no experience, but I just figured something's better than nothing. And I figured, it'd be a quick learning curve, and it pretty much was.”
Chonto has had a wide variety of music jobs over the years (including running record stores, producing records and hosting radio talk shows), and in 1983, he produced a Louis Bellson album in Chicago, “Loose Walk.” The legendary jazz drummer and Moline native recorded with George Duvivier (bass), Warren Parrish (piano), and Jack Scott (alto saxophone).
“I'm quite proud of it. In fact, on the Greg Gehring concert (recently at The Deanery), a gentleman came up to me and he says, I understand you're— did you produce that ‘Loose Walk’ album?” Chonto said. “He says, wow. Oh man, I love that record. You know, people remember it.” He first met Bellson at a concert at Augustana’s Centennial Hall in 1982.
“George was playing with Louie's band at the time, and we recorded it in Chicago, got almost the entire album recorded the first time, the first day,” Chonto recalled. “I think we spent maybe two hours the second day and it was done. And we had more music than— more finished takes of tunes than I could fit on a record. So I'm going to be giving a Deanery talk about the making of this album. Les Bell, he was there when we recorded it. He took some of the photos at the session.”
That talk will build on the success of The Deanery’s previous Time Capsule Lecture Series, which prior school director Gates Thomas launched in February 2025 and included multimedia talks on George Gershwin, Leopold Stokowski, and Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn.
“He did a fantastic job on them. I saw a couple that he did -- one on Duke Ellington, another on Louis Armstrong, and just really well received,” Chonto said. “So I want to kind of continue that. But I'm thinking more of like a salon-type presentation where it's very informal, people can interject with questions.”
Chonto became a district manager of five record retail stores in Manhattan, two years later became senior editor of Modern Keyboard magazine, which led to him becoming the personal manager of jazz legend Cecil Taylor (awarded the Kyoto Prize, and honorary doctorates from Princeton, Columbia and numerous other honors).
Chonto also produced a weekly TV series in Manhattan, “Some Real Music,” numerous videos from which are available on his Some Real Music YouTube channel.
Chonto’s career included living in Berlin for five years (working as a contractor for the U.S. Army), and co-founding and curating an art gallery in Shanghai, China, from 2011 to 2016, where he’d spend about 10 weeks out of the year. He called the growth of that city “meteoric.”
“It's just amazing. You would see these construction cranes just everywhere, and it's a city that makes New York City seem small because there's 30 million people there. It's just huge,” he said.
“There are 8-lane, 10-lane divided highways running through the middle of the city here, there, all over. The hotels we stayed in, you know, around the 30-something floor, and then 360 degrees, you just see nothing but more and more skyscrapers in every direction. It's just like, it's mind-boggling.”
Back to QC in 2021
He came back to visit friends and family in Davenport every few years, and decided to move back full-time in 2021; he has a brother here. Chonto is encouraged by the local music scene.
“There's a lot more that I'd like to see happening, and that's the direction that I want to take The Deanery in. But to see clubs like Raccoon Motel, Rozz-Tox, also Bootleg Hill Honey Meads,” he said. “The Quad City Symphony does a really great job with really interesting programs a lot of the times. And Ballet Quad Cities, I mean that was one of the main reasons I relocated here.”
Les Bell invited him to a Ballet on the Lawn at Davenport’s Outing Club, and Chonto didn’t know what to expect.
“Ballet Quad Cities, how good could it be? But I thought, okay, I'm new in town, maybe it's a chance to meet people. And I went and I was just astonished at the quality of the things,” he said.
“That right there was just a big wake-up call for me that there are things happening in the Quad Cities that weren't when I left in '85,” Chonto said. “And being in this position here at The Deanery is like, okay, I feel like I can do something here to also make a positive impact on the culture scene here.”
Since he’s been back in the QC, Chonto has been working on writing a biography of Cecil Taylor, who earned a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” in 1991. The avant-garde jazz composer and pianist was described as “distinct for his exploration of the power of sounds beyond traditional harmony, melody and rhythm. As one of the pioneers of free jazz, Taylor has created a personal aesthetic from the jazz tradition without easily accessed, traditional points of reference,” MacArthur Foundation said. “His work is percussive and spontaneous, and is characterized by sonic intensity and structurally intertwined chords and melodies.”
“I've got like 30 some hours of recorded conversations with him that he reveals details about his life that I don't think he divulged to anybody else ever,” Chonto said. “He had such a great memory of his early childhood and just on through the years. And his great insights in the nature of art, music-making, And his perspectives on life in general. So, interesting stuff.”
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