Editor’s Note: Hispanic Heritage Month officially ended on October 15, but we have one more story to tell. We couldn’t close out our Faces of Kearny series without introducing readers to Danny Conde, Kearny High School’s Band Director and another remarkable member of our community.
By Marisol Joven
For Danny Conde, music and Kearny have always been connected. One helped him find his place in the world, and the other gave him a place to call home.
Born in Los Angeles to Peruvian parents, Danny was only three when his family moved across the country. His father had struggled to find work in California, and an opportunity in New Jersey offered the family a new beginning. He eventually found work with trucks at Plymouth Rock in Jersey City, while the Conde family planted roots in Kearny.
“I guess it was fate that we moved to Kearny,” Danny says. That move would eventually shape not only his childhood, but his life’s purpose. Danny graduated from Kearny High School, where band became particularly important during some of the most difficult moments of his teenage years. By his sophomore year, he already knew where he hoped life would bring him back. “I want to come back to KHS and teach this band,” he remembers telling himself.
Today, that dream has become reality. Danny is in his fifth year as KHS Band Director, a position he describes as his dream job and life goal. When he inherited the program, the band had just 12 students. Today, more than 50 students participate in the instrumental program. He also helped establish Kearny’s District Junior Honor Band and has brought his students into community traditions and celebrations. During his second year, the KHS Concert Band earned Top Honors at Hudson County Teen Arts, an achievement Danny says was a first for KHS.
But behind those accomplishments is something much more personal. Growing up, Danny remembers that his parents were not always able to participate fully in school activities because they were not fluent in English. As a teenager, he did not think much about it. As an adult and now a father himself, he understands it differently. “When I look back, I remember that it must have felt lonely for my parents not being able to participate with band events,” he says.
Today, Danny uses Spanish to make sure other families feel connected. He speaks with parents about their children, encourages students to join band, and explains why music can matter far beyond a performance. “I am able to speak to their parents and explain how important music is and how it helped me become the person I am today.”
His Peruvian heritage also comes alive through performance. With The Danny Conde Band, he
has performed throughout New Jersey and at Kearny celebrations, including Señor de los Milagros and the town’s 250th Fourth of July celebration.
Danny loves seeing Kearny embrace the many cultures that now call it home, from community events and live music to the food that brings people together. “Kearny has truly become a place full of different nationalities,” he says. “It is lively and has now a sense of pride in all of our nationalities.”
His hope is simple: a safe community where people continue gathering, celebrating their cultures, and getting to know one another.
Danny’s parents came to New Jersey searching for opportunity and found a home for their family in Kearny. Years later, Danny returned to the same high school where music once gave him a sense of belonging, this time as the teacher helping a new generation find its own voice.
In many ways, Danny’s story has come full circle. The son of Peruvian immigrants who once found comfort and purpose in the KHS band now stands in front of that same band, using music and the Spanish his family gave him to make students and their families feel seen, welcomed, and connected.
For Danny Conde, Hispanic heritage is not only about remembering where his family came from. It is about using those roots to give back to the Kearny community that became home.
Marisol Joven is a longtime Kearny resident, freelance writer, community advocate, and one half of the Mari Twins, with family roots in Spain and Ecuador.