Amedeo Tritto has loved music since childhood, and he anticipates continuing to help others enjoy it for years to come.
Tritto, 51, teaches music in Jones County schools and is the Minister of Music at Haddock Baptist Church. He has been in Jones County 20 years. How he got here is an interesting story.
Tritto’s dad, Matteo Tritto, and his mother, Carmela Lattanzi, were from Bari, Italy, and dated before leaving there separately.
“My dad and his brothers came to Canada in the late ’60s,” Tritto recalled. “My mother, her two sisters and their parents came to Brooklyn, N.Y., in the early ’70s. Dad ended up coming to Brooklyn, and they got engaged and married in 1972.”
The story is one you hear — or did hear in years past — according to Tritto.
“They all came to the U.S. looking for more opportunities for their families and seeking the American dream. Praise God! They succeeded,” he proclaimed.
Tritto realized early in life that music was his future.
“I remember in elementary school always being involved in it and always just loving it. So, my love for music has been there my entire life.
“I wanted to be an opera singer,” he went on. “I was going to be an opera singer, but after meeting Monica (future wife), I realized that it was more important for me to have a family. Being an opera singer, it’s very, very difficult to maintain a pretty rigorous schedule and be a husband and father at the same time.”
Following high school graduation, Tritto attended and graduated from a school of music, Westminister Choir College in Princeton, N.J. In his senior year, he met Monica Thomas, the daughter of a Jones County minster, now retired Dr. Gary Thomas of Elam Baptist Church. The future bride was a first-year graduate student.
“We just met on campus, started dating, and later got married,” Tritto said. The couple wed in 1997 and have 21-year old triplets, two identical boys and a girl: Samuel, William and Sophia.
The Trittos were living in Wake Forest and attending Wake Forest Baptist Church when the children were born.
“The church really took us in with loving arms,” Tritto shared. “During the day there was a team of ladies that would always help Monica with the kids. There was always one person at home with Monica until I got home. When I got home, I was on daddy duty.”
Tritto started his teaching career at a high school in North Plainfield, N.J., but soon after the triplets’ birth, reality set in.
“We realized that we needed help either from my parents up north or from her parents here in Georgia. So we sort of trickled down here, moved to Gray,” he explained. “Eventually, my parents retired and moved to Gray as well.
“We moved to Gray in 2006. In 2006, I started teaching at Georgia Military College at the prep school. Then after two years, I started teaching in Jones County. So this upcoming year will be 25 years of teaching.”
Tritto teaches at both middle schools, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades.
“It’s pretty much either kids singing or introducing them to the love of music,” he pointed out, “looking at the history of music, looking at how music affects different cultures and looking at how music is a major part of many, many people’s lives.”
While he cannot give a number, the instructor knows some students have done more in music.
“I’ve had students that have gone on to study music in college, and several of them are either performing or they’re either teaching privately or they’re teaching in public or private schools.
“And, now I am at the point in my teaching career where I am teaching children of kids that I taught. So it’s almost like a full life circle where I taught those kids, they grow up to be wonderful adults. They have families; they have children. They start raising a family, then I end up teaching some of their children, which is a pretty huge blessing.”
The minister of music position became available while Tritto and his family still lived in North Carolina. Conversation was had, but he did not jump at the opportunity initially.
“I sort of shrugged it off for a little bit, said to myself, ‘That’s not something I was interested in.’ But the question kept on coming up, whether I was interested or not. So after thinking and praying about it for a time, I felt called to get involved.
“I told them when I get to Georgia, then we can have a more serious conversation.”
Tritto said the primary reason for moving to Georgia was to be closer to family, her parents. However, the music minister position was still open.
“We knew that it was available as an option when we did come,” he acknowledged, “And, after thoughtful prayer, I felt sort of being called into ministry.
“We set up an interview, met with the search committee, and the rest is pretty much history. I’ve been here ever since.
“After meeting the search committee and after talking with them, I felt like this was the place for me,” he shared, “and I felt like that for the last 20 years. Usually, you don’t have ministers or pastors staying at a church for 20 years. It’s pretty rare, but I can’t see myself being any place else because of the people here. They’re not congregants; they’re more like family.”
Tritto has more than one title … and various duties.
“I’m the music minister here, but I’m also associate pastor,” he pointed out. “Pretty much my chief responsibility is music. But I also do other stuff, like preaching or doing pastoral care, or whatever else needs to be done. My main responsibility is music, however.
“I am pretty much in charge of worship services. We have a praise band here. We also have an adult choir. We have a hand bell choir. Those are my main responsibilities. Anything that’s happening musically during a worship service falls under me.”
Tritto has stayed involved in music otherwise.
“I havemainly been performing and teaching. Singing, whether it be by myself or in ensembles. I’ll give recitals, or serving here and doing funerals and weddings and things like that.”
Music still runs in the family. Monica is a music teacher at Gray Elementary. “She’s also a singer and performer as well,” her husband commented, “and we sometimes perform together if the schedule allows. We certainly sing together during worship whenever we can.”
Though he is just 51, with his 20 years in, Tritto is only 10 years from being retirement-eligible. He is pretty sure that won’t happen then.
“I’ll always be teaching, whether that be in public schools or on the college level. Just because of the passion that I have for teaching and music,” he declared. “I don’t think that’s ever going to end. You know, I certainly may retire. But, being here for 20 years, working with a congregation and being in ministry, that’s also a huge, huge part of my life. So I don’t see that going away anytime soon.”
Tritto actually has two other jobs to help occupy his time.
“I also am on the voice faculty — I teach voice — at Georgia College and State University, and I also work part-time at Hart’s, the funeral home.
“My plate is pretty full,” Tritto conceded, “but, I mean I love helping people. I feel like that’s why I am in ministry, because I love people. I love building relationships, and of course sharing Christ with everybody.”
