Presbyterian College bands and orchestra director, flute instructor strives to push students toward excellence
Dr. Giovani Briguente has been surrounded by music his entire life. In fact, his first clear memory was watching his dad sing with an orchestra in a public square back in Brazil when he was three years old.
“I think it was just natural. At home, my parents were always playing classical music on the radio,” he said. “And my sister, who’s seven years older than me, was already studying music.”
He began studying music when he was 10 years old, with his sister as his biggest supporter.
Once he finished his degree, he moved to Minnesota to pursue his master’s degree before moving to Michigan and eventually South Carolina, where he found himself at Presbyterian College.
Discovering a love of teaching
Briguente first discovered his love of teaching in high school, when he began tutoring his friends and classmates before their history tests.
“I noticed that I really liked teaching. I like to interact with people, and teaching is nice because it’s not just an interaction, it’s something that I can give,” he said. “My mom is a retired teacher, and my sister is a teacher, so I think there was a little bit of fate at home for both music and teaching.”
It wasn’t until later on in his career that he decided to combine his two interests and pursue teaching music.
“It was a natural progression. It wasn’t something that happened one day,” he said. “For me, it was wanting to share the thing that I love so much.”
For me specifically, it’s a service position. When you’re teaching, you’re serving students, and even the community. It’s my priority to serve the students I see every day.”
Dr. Giovani Briguente, Assistant Professor of Music
A passion for serving students
Throughout his five years at PC, Briguente has enjoyed having the opportunity to give back to his students while also sharing his passion for music.
“For me specifically, it’s a service position,” he said. “When you’re teaching, you’re serving students, and even the community. It’s my priority to serve the students I see every day.”
To Briguente, part of serving his students is pushing them outside of their comfort zones with new arrangements, because he knows students can’t always see what they’re truly capable of.
“Sometimes it’s not what they want, to play this hard music, but it’s what they need, and then they overcome that feeling and realize that it was the push they needed,” he said.
It’s this dedication from students that makes seeing his students progress as they become more confident in their talents Briguente’s favorite aspect of teaching.
“When we get close to the end of the process, and you see these students, who at the beginning of the semester were unable to play a song, perform, you can see how happy they are because they became a better version of themselves in a very short period of time,” he said.
Planning for the future
Briguente thinks of the future in terms of performances and arranging pieces, often beginning preparations for the next semester before the current one has finished.
“I’m always excited for the next program,” he said. “The process is always different because you don’t have the same rehearsal technique or model, there’s different music, and different students.”
As the spring semester begins, Briguente looks forward to embracing the change that comes with it and is excited to challenge his students with pieces that will help them hone their skills even further.
