Profile: Rocky Mountain Virtual Co-Founder Alyssa Montaño joins Sonder Music Management as Contributor, Writes About Balancing Full-Time Teaching and Supporting the Local Music Scene
Photo by Alyssa Montaño
“Though 2020 has been a horrific year in so many ways, it has had its silver linings. For me, one of those silver linings is that the absolute lack of live music and oppressive headlines of the day-to-day news cycle kicked my drive to make a difference into high gear. I am doing this. I am managing incredible artists. I am expanding Sonder Music Management. And I’m doing it with a little help from my friends. I’m so excited to announce a few additions to the Sonder team, and I’m starting with Alyssa Montaño, my Co-Founder on Rocky Mountain Virtual. Alyssa is coming on as a contributor to the Sonder Blog, and seeks to focus her attention on topics that involve education and representing those populations that are sorely under-represented in the public eye of the Colorado Music Scene. I’m so excited to have her on board, and I can’t wait to see what she writes in the future. Please meet Alyssa Montaño, the newest contributor on the Sonder Music Management Blog.” - Sarah Shuel, Owner of Sonder Music Management
Alyssa, Ms. Montaño, Rocky Mountain Virtual Co-Founder
My story begins like any good story: at Moe’s BBQ on Broadway. I had just gone through a horrific breakup and I was told by a friend that I would be attending a live show to feel better. I hadn’t heard of the band at the time; all I knew was that my friend knew someone who played trombone for them. Cool, I love a good horn line. While I didn’t know it at the time, this August evening in 2017 marked the beginning of my love for the Denver music scene.
Who was playing this monumental show that changed your life, Alyssa? Float Like a Buffalo. If you know me, you know my boyfriend Luke. We’ve been together for over 3 years, and throughout our entire relationship, he has been the saxophone and trumpet player for Float. What you may not know is that we did truly meet at a Float show. It’s not just a cheesy, fake story we tell everyone we meet. Luke absolutely deserves credit for introducing me to the live music scene in Denver. In our first year of dating, concerts became hobbies, Christmas presents and date night activities. Most weekends, you could find us at a SunSquabi, GRiZ, Big Gigantic or Graham Good & The Painters show. When we weren’t at shows, we were at other shows.
Photo courtesy of Alyssa Montaño
With all of those shows, I must have a pretty chill and easy job, right? Nope.
I’m not just known as Alyssa, die-hard music fan. I’m also known as Ms. Montaño. This school year is my 10th year in the classroom. Well, “classroom.”
Education has always been a passion of mine. I went overseas to teach in South Korea after college. When I came back to the United States, I knew I had found my career for life. When researching cities to move back to, Denver called my name. In 2016, I accepted an 8th grade English teaching position. I have remained at the same school since then and couldn’t be happier.
I knew that I wanted to make a difference in the classroom, but I also wanted to make a difference in my school. Over the last 5 years, I’ve been promoted into three separate leadership roles that allow me to tackle new challenges each day. In addition to teaching, I’m the Department Head of our ELA department and our 8th grade team. On the district level, I am the Curriculum Lead for all 8th grade English teachers in the district.
Photo courtesy of Alyssa Montaño
How did I have time for shows?
I made time. I loved music that much. I felt so blessed living my crazy, busy life. During the school year, I easily worked 75+ hours a week including evenings and weekends. In between working, I’d be driving to Larimer Lounge or the Gothic to see a Float show. Many Saturdays involved waking up at 7, doing a few hours of work, rushing to get ready because Luke had to be at the venue at 2...for a show at 9. Our calendar was often booked out 12 weeks in advance. Want to grab wings? Can we do 3:40pm right before sound check? Otherwise, we can grab wings in 8 weeks.
Photo by Alyssa Montaño
Then, 2020 hit. No more classrooms. No more live shows. No more gigs. Hell, I even miss 2pm load-in times.
The pandemic TORE through the music scene and it hit very close to home for me. Luke and Float Like a Buffalo were 2 days into a National Tour. They weren’t even out of Colorado and had 21 more shows to play. This was in March, so we didn’t know much about the spread or prevention of the virus. All I knew was that Luke was coming home and I had 12 concert cancellation notifications in a row on my phone. My heart broke for everyone.
A few days after our school went remote, on St. Patrick’s Day, I got a phone call from my college best friend, Sarah Shuel. Yes, the amazing Sarah Shuel who owns Sonder Music Management and manages Float Like a Buffalo. See how that all ties together in a neat little bow?
Sarah had an idea. She wanted to host a virtual festival of bands that we loved and were friends with. One week turned into 25+ straight weeks of live music; this was music Sarah and I co-produced at our new business: Rocky Mountain Virtual (formerly Rocky Mountain Virtual Music Festival).
As I sit here and write this, I am excited to say that RMV now works closely with ARISE Music Festival. They supported RMV in so many incredible ways and now we’re honored to support them with ARISE Online. I have been to one camping music festival in my life and it was ARISE 2019. After literally 5 minutes of Tipper, I told Luke that, “yeah, we’re doing this every year.”
Photo courtesy of Alyssa Montaño
It’s absolutely surreal but here I am. Alyssa. Ms. Montaño. And now, Co-Founder of Rocky Mountain Virtual.
Next month, I will go more into depth of the birth and first few months of RMV as well as touch on how I used what I learned to be an effective online teacher. 86 kids in Zoom at once. All 13-year-olds. Yup. I love every second of it… with a SunSquabi and Float Like a Buffalo playlist for my breaks of course.