CONDUCTORS & GUESTS
larry matysiak
Conductor
Larry Matysiak has been a music educator for the past 47 years. He earned a Bachelor of Music in 1976 and a Masters Degree in 1986 from the University of Houston. He was an assistant director at Dulles High School from 1977-1983. In 1983 he was appointed Head Director and Fine Arts Chair at Clements High School. During his tenure there, the band received 22 consecutive UIL Sweepstakes Awards, and was selected as the 1994 TMEA 5A (now 6A) Honor Band. In 1995 they performed at the Mid-West Clinic in Chicago. That same year they were awarded the Sudler Flag of Honor by the Sousa Foundation. Mr. Matysiak was also named the Clements High School “Teacher of the Year” in 1995. The Clements Band was selected to the UIL State Marching Contest in 1998 and made four appearances there during his tenure. This culminated with the band being selected to UIL State Marching Finals in 2004.
Mr. Matysiak is a recipient of the TMEA Leadership Award, the Sudler Flag of Honor by the Sousa Foundation and the state UIL Denius Award for Outstanding UIL Sponsors. Mr. Matysiak was co-founder and co-conductor of the Clements Symphony Orchestra. They performed at the Mid-West Clinic and were selected as the TMEA Honor Symphony Orchestra in 2000.
From 2006 to 2014 Mr. Matysiak served as the Director of Fine Arts for the Cypress Fairbanks ISD. During his time in the Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, staffing increased each year and many of the districts performing groups received state and national honors. In addition, the district received an award from NAMM as an outstanding district for fine arts. In 2010 he was recipient of the Outstanding Alumni Award from the Moores School of Music at The University of Houston. In 2016, he co-founded the Sugar Land Winds, a community wind ensemble comprised of music educators and other professionals. In 2018 he was inducted to the Texas Bandmasters Hall of Fame.
In 2023, Mr. Matysiak was recipient of the Meritorious Achievement Award given by the Texas Bandmasters Association for his devotion to music education. Mr. Matysiak is currently an active clinician and judge. He has provided in-service workshops for surrounding districts as well as clinics at TMEA and TBA. His affiliations include the Texas Music Educators Association, the Texas Bandmasters Association, The American Concert Band Association and the honor band director fraternity Phi Beta Mu. He also serves on the board of trustees for the Foundation for Music Education.
He resides in Sugar Land with his wife Mary. They have two children, John Matysiak, a cinematographer in Los Angeles and Laura Yoakum, an elementary teacher in Colorado Springs. They are blessed to have four grandchildren, Charlotte, Jamie, Mason and Mia.
Rick Yancey
Conductor
Rick Yancey is co-conductor of the Sugar Land Winds, a wind ensemble composed of band directors and private teachers in the Houston area. He was a 2019 inductee into the Texas Bandmasters Association Hall of Fame. He was director of bands at Stratford High School from 1985 – 1991 and Elkins High School from 1992 – 2006.
Mr. Yancey has a broad experience teaching band and orchestra in Texas. He grew up in Texas City Texas, where he played in the Texas City bands under Mr. Robert Renfroe, and won All State honors twice. While at the University of Houston, he was principal clarinet of the University Symphony Orchestra and Wind Ensemble under A. Clyde Roller and James Matthews. Mr. Yancey attended the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado and was principal clarinet of the Chamber Symphony. As a clarinetist, he has performed with the Rapides and Lake Charles Orchestras in Louisiana, and in Houston with Theater Under the Stars (TUTS), the Houston Ballet and Houston Pops Orchestra. He has taken his high school bands and orchestras to New York, Washington DC, Durango Colorado, Chicago, London England, Nassau, and to the Rose Parade. As head band director at Elkins High School in Fort Bend ISD, the Elkins Band won 14 consecutive UIL sweepstakes awards and were outstanding in class at numerous festivals. After retiring from Elkins, he was orchestra director and director of Instrumental Music for Lamar High School in Houston for three years.
Mr. Yancey is the Managing Director of the Mark of Excellence project for The Foundation for Music Education, and is on their Board of Trustees. This project serves over 500 musical ensembles annually and provides them with feedback from master adjudicators. He is an active judge of band and orchestra competitions, conducts region honor bands, and presents staff development for school districts. He is married to Jill Yancey, former band director at Sugar Land Middle School, and has a son, Chris, who is Director of Bands at Stratford High School. The Yancey family loves to spend time with grand children Sadie, Samantha, and Cole.
KEITH FICKEL
Arranger
Keith Fickel has held multiple roles in education over the last 34 years. His career started as a middle school band director and ended as a high school principal. He earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Texas Tech University in 1991, and he completed his Master of Music Education degree, also from Texas Tech, in 1997. Starting first as a band director at Trinity Christian School in Lubbock, Texas in 1991, he came to Fort Bend ISD in 1993 to work as an assistant band director at Lake Olympia Middle School with Nancy Caston. In 1996 he moved over to neighboring Quail Valley Middle School to be the assistant band director with Greg Countryman, where in 2000 the band was named as the CCC Honor Band. The QVMS band was invited to perform at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in December 2000. In 2001, Mr. Fickel moved to the Cypress-Fairbanks ISD to be the head director at Labay Middle School. He returned to Fort Bend ISD and to Lake Olympia MS in 2004, and then opened Baines Middle School in 2006, where he also started the school’s string orchestra program and served as the Fine Arts Department Chair. In 2008, he was named the Baines Middle School Teacher of the Year, and he was named as a finalist for the FBISD Secondary Teacher of the Year.
In the fall of 2008, Mr. Fickel shifted from the band hall to the administrative team, serving as assistant and associate principal at Baines Middle School, then in 2015 served as assistant principal at Willowridge High School. In 2016, Mr. Fickel was named principal of Sugar Land Middle School, where he was named the Fort Bend ISD Secondary Principal of the Year in 2022. He had the honor of opening the district’s newest high school, Almeta Crawford High School, in August of 2023, as its founding principal, and he retired from education in June 2024.
He lives in Sugar Land with his wife, Anne. They have one child, a daughter named Laura, who is an instructional designer for San Jacinto College. Both Anne and Laura are performing members of the Sugar Land Winds.