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A noteworthy professor

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is the reason Leonard Candelaria, professor of music, first wanted to play the trumpet.

"Rocky Rockwell was playing trumpet on the Lawrence Welk Show one evening when I was about 8 or 9. I was so impressed because he was playing 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' with a reindeer puppet on the hand he used to push the valves," Candelaria says. "I wanted to do that."

So, in fourth grade, Candelaria began his musical career. His talent was immediately apparent.

He gave his first public performance at a PTA meeting, with his band director as his piano accompanist, when he was 10.

Since then, the virtuoso trumpet soloist has performed in concerts and master classes across the United States and in Norway, Russia, Mexico, Taiwan, Sweden, Thailand, Switzerland, Germany, the Ukraine and France.

Even though Candelaria is recognized internationally for performing, his greatest successes have come from teaching others.

During the last 25 years at UNT, he has taught and guided many musicians who pursued professional performing and teaching careers. Many of those students recently returned to UNT to join Candelaria's current students for a concert celebrating his first 25 years of teaching.

"That concert and everything surrounding it will occupy a special place in my memory and heart for the rest of my life," he says.

But Candelaria is not solely defined by his music and teaching.

He is the father of two young children — Alexander, 3, and Arianna, 1 — and he spends two days a week at home with them while his wife, Kathryn Fouse, teaches piano in the College of Music. He also has two older children — Dara, 23, and Gabriel, 18 — from a previous marriage.

In his free time, Candelaria enjoys calligraphy, reading, weightlifting and being outdoors.

"My father gave me a genuine love of hunting and fishing because of the totality of oneness with nature that it allows," he says.

But perhaps his favorite pastime is cooking.

"My mother taught me that cooking a good meal for those you love is an expression of that love," he says. "So I really enjoy the process of preparing a meal for my family and friends. Even though we're busy, and it might be easier to do something fast, there's no love in putting a pre-made meal in the microwave."

BY KELLEY REESE
kreese@unt.edu 		 

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