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We are please to announce our stellar panel of judes for the 2009 Capital City Marching Festival!
Murray Gusseck is considered an innovator and trend setter in the world of marching percussion. He has been a musician since the age of 7 when he studied piano and violin. At age 15 he took up playing the drums and has been performing in bands ever since. Murray made his mark as a teacher and composer with the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum & Bugle Corps, of which he has been both a performer and instructor for almost 20 years. He became nationally known for a unique compositional style, a signature sound, and a propensity for achieving a smooth drumset-oriented approach to this musical genre. Murray helped start Tapspace Publications in 1998 with friend and partner Jim Casella. He is the co-author of Fresh Perspectives, a method book for drumlines that has grown into a mainstream publication in this genre. He has also written many popular battery exercises and etudes that can be heard performed by groups all over the world. He has taught and/or arranged percussion music for many top high schools and winter percussion ensembles throughout the country, including Amador Valley (CA), Richland Hills (TX), Tunstall Concert Ensemble (VA), Fred C. Beyer High School (CA), James Logan High School (CA), Evergreen High School (WA), and Stephen F. Austin High School (TX). Murray is currently back teaching at SCV. Murray attended San Jose State University in San Jose, CA as a music major specializing in world music. During this time he studied with Dan Sabanovich, Hafez Modirzadeh, Royal Hartigan, and C.K. Ladzekpo. Currently Murray lives in the Portland, OR area where he helps manage Tapspace and plays drums for Mars Retrieval Unit. He is sponsored by Pearl Drums, Remo drumheads, Zildjian cymbals, and Vic Firth drumsticks. His Vic Firth signature series marching stick (nicknamed “M-Dawgs”) was released in November of 2008.
Frank Troyka has been a widely respected band director since beginning his career in 1984 in the Richardson ISD as the Assistant Band Director. Since that time he worked at Lake Highlands High School and Westfield High School in the Spring ISD, garnering many prestigious invitations and awards. Since 1999, Frank has been the Director of Bands at Cypress Falls High School in the Cypress-Fairbanks ISD until joining Berkner High School in May of 2006. Under his leadership, the Cypress Falls Band was selected as a finalist in the Texas Music Educators Association Honor Band Competition, a featured ensemble at the Bands of America National Concert Band Festival, a featured ensemble at The Midwest Clinic, and it is one of only two band programs world-wide to receive the 2005 Sudler Flag of Honor from the John Philip Sousa Foundation. The percussion ensemble was a showcase group at the 2004 Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Nashville and has captured five state championship titles in concert and marching percussion competition in the Texas Color Guard Circuit percussion division. The Cypress Falls Marching Band is a top three finalist at Bands of America regional competition, a finalist at the BOA Super Regional in San Antonio, a UIL State Marching Band Contest semi-finalist, and the color guard recently received its third consecutive state title in Texas Color Guard Circuit competition. After having been promoted from the Scholastic A classification in Winter Guard International competition to the Scholastic Open class, the 2006 Cypress Falls Color Guard finished 4th in the world at the 2006 WGI Championships in Dayton, Ohio in April of this year. Since that time, the color guard has been promoted to the Scholastic World classification, the most competitive and select level of competition in the activity. Frank is also very active as a lecturer and clinician throughout Texas and the United States. He is a perennial faculty member of the Bands of America Weekend Leadership Experience summer workshop and served as one of the concert band conductors at the 2003 BOA Summer Symposium held at Illinois State University. In addition, he occupies a seat on the Bands of America Advisory Board. A member of the Texas Music Educators Association and the Texas Bandmasters Association, Frank has presented numerous clinics for directors and students at both of these conventions since 1982. He also has presented workshops for directors and students in Georgia, New Jersey, Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Michigan, Illinois, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Wyoming. A native of Tupelo, Mississippi, Frank graduated from Sturgis High School (Michigan) in 1977 and began his college career at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. It was there that he learned about the quality of the public school band programs in the state of Texas, so at the age of 19 he moved to Dallas to finish his degree at the University of Texas at Arlington. A resident of Texas since 1979, Frank considers himself a “Naturalized Texan.”
Ferd Vollmar currently serves as Music Director for the North East Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas. Mr. Vollmar’s duties include over-seeing the band, choir, and orchestra programs at seven high schools, fourteen middle schools, forty-three elementary schools, and the district’s Fine Arts Magnet School. Prior to this position, Mr. Vollmar served as Director of Bands at Winston Churchill High School from 1987-2001. Under Mr. Vollmar’s direction, the Churchill Band has been a consistent TMEA Honor Band and UIL State Marching Band finalist. Also, the Churchill band has been a Bands of America Regional Champion five times and a semifinalist at the BOA Grand Nationals in Indianapolis, Indiana. Debbie Sanchez is a native Austinite and graduate of LBJ High School.
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Mr. Murray Gusseck,
Mr. Frank Troyka,
Mr. Ferd Vollmar,