By Scott Brinton
Gilley, who lives down the street, is moving effortlessly through Billy Joel's "Piano Man," belting out the melancholic verses of Joel's signature song. There's a slight rasp detectable in Gilley's voice, because earlier that Friday he had sung for several hours with students at Merrick Avenue Middle School, where the 47-year-old teacher and master musician directs the band.
Besides the rasp, Gilley's rendition of "Piano Man" is virtually indistinguishable from its composer's. Even the movements of his head and shoulders mimic Joel in concert.
Meanwhile, Rich's parents, Dick and Rita Gilley, themselves accomplished musicians, stand by the piano and marvel at their son with parental pride.
Few Herald interviews end with a mini-concert. When meeting the Gilley family, however, you can expect to hear at least one song, if not more, as music permeates nearly every facet of their amazing lives.
Rita and Dick's life together is really one long-running love song. They met more than a half-century ago at Rochester's prestigious Eastman School of Music. Dick had come from Bethlehem, Pa., to study trombone and voice, and Rita from Cutchogue to master the violin.
They were married the day Rita finished at Eastman. She graduated in the morning, and the couple wed in the afternoon.
Ever since, the Gilleys, 42-year North Merrick residents, have devoted their lives to music, public service and, above all, their family.
In addition to Rich, the Gilley clan includes another son, Robert, an orthopedic veterinary surgeon and assistant professor, and a daughter, Rebecca, who also took up the family business and plays the viola at Las Vegas casinos.
In 1976, the Gilleys' love for each other led them to found the Merrick Symphony, which today stands as the only professional orchestra in Nassau or Suffolk counties beside the Long Island Philharmonic.
Both had long careers teaching music in the public schools -- Dick in Lynbrook, Rita in the Merrick Elementary district. At the same time, they each maintained busy but separate schedules as professional musicians, performing in churches, synagogues and numerous other venues such as the South Shore Symphony in Bay Shore.
They wanted desperately to be together more, but because of their differing musical backgrounds -- Dick in band and chorus, Rita in strings -- they rarely got the chance to appear on stage together.
"We were always out," said Dick, who now also heads the Merrick Chorale. "Rita was out playing somewhere, and I was out singing."
So they developed the Merrick Symphony as a way to spend time together on a joint project while also giving back to the Merrick community.
Establishing a symphony orchestra was no small task, though. Many doubted it would come to fruition. "For a long while, people said, oh, no, you can't do it," said Rita.
But the Gilleys pulled off the seemingly impossible, thanks over the years to the support of local friends and family members such as Diane and Pat Vecchione; the late Ben DiDia, band director for the North Merrick School District; the late Glanville Davies; Betty Mordoff Hendrix; Ted Mordoff; the late William Katz; Robert Griffin; Fran and Vincent Guercio; Robert Luce, and son Rich and his wife, Rea.
The symphony started as an all-volunteer orchestra, comprising mainly South Shore school teachers. In 1985, though, it went professional, hiring musicians from New York City's Local 802, the American Federation of Music, to fill its ranks.
Since then the Gilleys have had to furiously raise funds to pay the musicians, who mostly trek from Manhattan once a year to perform at a local school (this year, in Merrick Avenue Middle School's recently renovated auditorium).
The Gilleys have attracted major-league talent to the symphony, including such luminaries as soprano Renee Flemming, who is now a star of the Metropolitan Opera in Manhattan.
The Gilleys, who remain with the symphony as volunteers, have received numerous government grants to support the orchestra, but state and federal cutbacks for the arts have forced them to drop two of three annual performances in recent years.
Today, Rita serves as the symphony's executive director, Dick as its production manager and long-time friend Frances Guercio as its secretary and fund-raising chairwoman. Additionally, Dick and Rita perform with the orchestra, as does son Rich, who plays the tuba.
This year, the Merrick Symphony celebrated its 27th season, recently presenting "Opera in the Afternoon," which featured performances of Pietro Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" and selections from George Bizet's "Carmen."
The symphony was a life-long dream of Rita Gilley's. "That's what I really wanted to do: play in the orchestra," she said.
The close bonds among the Gilleys are readily apparent as they speak of past family adventures. Dick served as scoutmaster of Troop No. 351 in North Merrick, where his sons both became senior patrol leaders and Eagle Scouts.
Each summer, Rita and Dick, himself an Eagle Scout, took the family on camping vacations for six weeks at a clip throughout the United States, visiting major national parks such as Yellowstone. "That was just the best, the best," said Rich of the annual excursions. "It kept the family very close together and made us a team."
Indeed, Rich, who is as comfortable performing a work such as George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" on piano as he is with Billy Joel, has followed his parents' path to success. In addition to teaching, the father of three has his own music business, Rich Gilley Entertainment, which provides talent for a variety of occasions ranging from weddings to bar and bat mitzvahs to graduations.
For Rita and Dick, the Merrick Symphony is all about community service, which they learned the importance of while in college. Dick's life motto is simple: "Try to get perfection and give back to your community."
