‘Our program has all been Bob’: St. Francis’ music director has given program a huge boost

“Songs in the Key of Life” is a classic 1976 Stevie Wonder album. It also could be St. Francis High School music teacher Bob Mamminga’s manifesto.

Stevie Wonder is indeed a family favorite, so Mamminga will punch in some Stevie and other 1970s bops on the way from his Geneva home to the Catholic, college preparatory school in Wheaton. At stop lights he may jot down notes for his students.

Mamminga came of age in the 1990s, though, so even as he played trumpet at Batavia High School and then with the University of Illinois Marching Illini, bands like the Smashing Pumpkins were his jam.

He’s since gravitated to modern folk — The Avett Brothers, The Lumineers, The Head and the Heart — and Christian rock that works for school Mass.

Seen the Mammajammas? They are a family band formed by Bob and Jennifer Mamminga; daughter Elena, a junior at St. Francis, and Amber, a 2025 graduate. Their son, Ryan, a freshman, favors baseball and the visual arts.

Bob Mamminga is all over artificial intelligence — when it comes to creating play lists.

“I’m a big runner,” he said. “If I need to run, I’ll pull that ’90s punk and I’ll throw that on my headphones if I need a little extra push.”

Since Mamminga, the Performing and Visual Arts Department chair at St. Francis, started as a part-time instructor in 2004, he’s given the music program a huge push, which has attracted Grammy Music Educator consideration and multiple Golden Apple nominations.

“Our program has all been Bob,” said St. Francis Principal Raeann Huhn. “He just meets the kids where they are and helps them to grow and become confident young men and women.”

In Mamminga’s first year at St. Francis, the band program had 13 students, puny enough that for his first football game as director he enlisted family members to fill out the sound.

In 2025, 80 musicians were in band.

Early in his tenure, a couple students asked Mamminga to teach them guitar. He took lessons to learn the instrument, then developed a program that over two decades has drawn 800 players.

From what began as a small “hodgepodge” of musicians, including five pianists, Mamminga created a Music Ensemble — “everybody knows it as the ‘Rock Band,’” he said — that this summer played in Chicago during opening ceremonies for the annual conference of the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Illinois High School Association Executive Director Craig Anderson sat in on drums on the final song.

“I did, with a lot of guidance from Bob and the rest of his band,” said Anderson, who added that he “could not say enough good things” about the director.

Mamminga makes it fun to be part of the act.

“If anything, it’s seen as, like, cool to be in it. It’s not like some people look down on it, or think ‘band is weird’ or whatever. Here it’s very respected,” said vocalist Maura Sheppard, a senior who attended public schools before she came to St. Francis for its music program.

“I’ve kind of found a sense of community, and I found myself through doing it,” she said.

Sheppard has been singing since she was 7 years old. Not everyone enters St. Francis’ music program with that much experience. Mamminga adapts his instruction around his students rather then forcing them into concrete, repetitive curriculum.

That could mean “formulating small steps,” he said, an easy guitar solo or even just playing open chords.

“The goal is to put the kids in the best possible situation to succeed,” said Mamminga, 45, who teaches five music classes while maintaining his trumpet and guitar licks at church in Geneva.

“What is it that they want to do, what do they want to get out of the class that I’m teaching, and how do I get them there, how do I help them achieve those goals,” he said.

“Work with the talent you have. I tell the kids all the time, I want to put you in a position to where your strengths are going to be brought out. They’re going to be augmented through that, but, at the same time, I want to work on your weaknesses and work on things that you want to get better at.”

It sometimes requires unconventional methods.

“I remember the other day, just to kind of get us some more stage presence, he climbed up on the bass amp, started dancing,” said senior Yaahn Mody, who plays guitar in Music Ensemble and Jazz Ensemble, and bass drum in Drumline.

“He’s really helped me get way better as an overall musician, especially in class,” Mody said. “He’ll go away from the song and cover the music theory in general, just kind of help everyone to make them better for the future.”

Lots of St. Francis musicians study music in college. Belmont University and the Berklee College of Music are popular choices.

If their music education ends at St. Francis, Mamminga is there for that, too.

“There’s a lot of things you’re trying to instill that are lifelong skills,” he said. “If they choose not to do music but they are going to be a CEO or a doctor or whatever, they still have the ability to communicate with people and have the confidence to stand up in front of people and give a presentation, or whatever it may be.”

This line of thought is why St. Francis ensembles have the chops, and the chutzpah, to have performed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, eight times at Disneyworld, twice at IHSA basketball state finals.

“You kind of just want to listen to him. You want to follow,” said Sheppard, who described Mamminga as calm and patient, yet disciplined.

Curriculum vitae: Bob Mamminga

School: St. Francis High School

Position: Performing and Visual Arts Department chair

Education: Bachelor’s in music education from the University of Illinois; master’s in biblical studies from the Moody Bible Institute; master’s of education in leadership and administration, Benedictine University

Work experience: Started in 2004 teaching part-time at St. Francis; co-director of activities from 2014-24; current member of the Advancement department, raising scholarships for those in need

Honors: First trumpet at University of Illinois, 2002; multiple Pep Band selections for Illinois High School Association state series events; Music Ensemble (“Rock Band”) invited to perform at the Illinois Music Educators Conference, Illinois High School Theatre Fest, and that National Federation of State High School Associations; multiple Golden Apple Award nominations; 2024 Grammy Foundation Music Educator Award quarterfinalist; Division A IHSA Solo and Ensemble top-10 finisher seven of the last 10 years

“The seriousness with how he treats it makes you want to be on top of it and be prepared every day,” she said.

Mamminga is all-in. Eight days a week.

“It’s more than just about the music,” he said. “It’s about the relationships and the kids, and about their lives.”

Tips from a top teacher

Tips from Bob Mamminga:

1) Be firm and fun. I try to have a good balance of classroom expectations and work ethic while also making a class period fun and enjoyable for the students.

2) One of the traditions I started years ago was to talk about each senior in the program at the final concert. I pride myself on doing this from the heart and speaking about how I got to know the student, why they made our program better, what is unique and special about them and where they are headed in the future. Showing each individual student you care for them as a person is key. Investing in them in and out of the classroom with genuine sincerity allows my voice to have more weight when I am teaching.

3) Stay relevant. When I first started teaching, I was young, hip, maybe considered a cool teacher. I was 23-24 years old and I had all kinds of new ideas and strategies having just left the college classroom. I’m 22 years in now and I am of similar age to my students’ parents. How my students saw me in 2005 is much different, I imagine, than in 2025. I’ve embraced that. I also have tried to adjust with the times and have found new ways to stay creative and relevant. Much of my motivation comes from making previous years better and adding something that is new for me.