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George Garza

O'Connor High School, Texas State University
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Mr. Garza received both his Bachelors of Music in Education and Masters of Music in Performance degrees from Texas State University. While working on his Masters Degree, Mr. Garza was a graduate teaching assistant for the university music/percussion department.  During that time he taught applied percussion lessons to undergraduate music majors, assisted and conducted with the university marching band, percussion ensembles, Panorama Steel Band, and was the section leader of the university wind ensemble under the direction of John Stansberry. Mr. Garza was also on the instructional staff for the university marching drum line.

George Garza is currently Associate Director of Bands and Percussion Director at Sandra Day O`Connor High School in Helotes, Texas. Mr. Garza works with and conducts all four concert bands, jazz bands, jazz combos, and the marching and concert percussion ensembles. Throughout the years some of the percussion sections’ accomplishments include, outstanding
percussion at the Drums along the Medina marching festival, outstanding percussion at East Central Hornet Marching Invitational, and grand champion at South Texas Drumline Classic. The O’Connor HS Marching Percussion Ensemble has also made several appearances at PAS marching festival. In 2004, the OCHS marching percussion ensemble finished 3rd place
nationally in the marching division at the Percussive Arts Society’s Marching Percussion Festival in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2005, they were awarded 1st place overall in the marching division in Columbus, Ohio. Along with their first place award the group also received the awards foroutstanding snare line, bass line, cymbal line, and tenor line. In 2009 the marching percussion also performed at PASIC and brought home the outstanding cymbal line award. The OCHS small percussion ensemble has also performed twice at the PAS convention and was awarded 1st place at the PAS Small Ensemble Competition in Indianapolis in 2011. Along with the full ensemble many individual students have competed and have ranked as high as 2nd place in individuals competition. Prior to his teaching at O`Connor High School, Mr. Garza was assistant band director and percussion coordinator for Hays CISD in Buda, Texas just south of Austin.  While at Hays, Mr. Garza taught 6th grade beginning percussion classes, conducted the jr. high and High School percussion ensembles, and directed the Hays HS marching percussion section and indoor drum line.

Along with his duties at O’Connor High School, Mr. Garza is also currently adjunct faculty at Texas State University. He has also been an instructor for the Texas State University Summer Percussion Camp for the past 8 years, and the percussion instructor for the Youth Orchestra of San Antonio(YOSA) summer symphony camp. In 2006 Mr. Garza presented a timpani clinic at the Texas Bandmasters Annual Convention in San Antonio.

Along with his own band that plays regularly (Road Trip the band), Mr. Garza’s professional playing experience includes performances at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, the World Percussion Festival at Berklee School of Music in Boston, Mass., Euro Disney in Paris, France, and was a performer at Fiesta Texas Theme Park in San Antonio. Mr. Garza has also performed with the San Antonio Jazz Orchestra, the Infinity variety band, the Starlight band, and was also a member of the UTSA jazz band, Texas State University jazz band under the direction of Dr. Keith Winking and the Texas State University Basketball band under the direction of James Hudson. Mr. Garza also played lead pan in the Panorama Steel Band which has has done tours in Europe and Mexico City.