CONDUCTORS
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.
Dr. Matthew Lamm
Guest Conductor
Dr. Matthew Robert Lamm is currently Director of Bands & Instrumental Studies at Houston Christian University. He holds a DMA in tuba & conducting from the University of Houston, an MM in music performance from DePaul University, and a BM in tuba performance from the University of Houston.
It is an interesting fact that Dr. Lamm originally pursued a career as an orchestral musician. This was likely the result of positive early experience performing with the Fort Worth Youth Orchestra (junior high) and the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra (high school). This continued with performances as a substitute musician in the Houston Ballet Orchestra during undergraduate studies and with the Chicago Civic Symphony in graduate school.
Matthew also owes much to the robust public school band programs in the state of Texas. Keller ISD provided his initial music ensemble experience and marching band in high school sparked a life-long relationship with the marching arts. As a performer, Matthew is a 2x DCI World champion, 4x DCI I&E champion, and featured in the recorded audio and on-field choreography of an MTV-produced NFL Super Bowl halftime show. As an educator he has taught all age groups, from beginning 5th/6th grade band to middle and high school; bands under his guidance have reached UIL state finals (both marching & concert), earned a BOA Regional championship, a BOA Grand Nationals championship, and a Midwest Clinic feature.
Dr. Lamm’s unique performing background – as both orchestral tuba player and marching band member - enables him to bring the resonance and gravitas of the concert hall to the field, and the integration and work-ethic of the marching field to the concert hall. Matthew is privileged to bring these diverse musical experiences to bear on modern music-making endeavors with adult students of various backgrounds. He finds joy and purpose in realizing human potential through cultivated psychoanalytic & physio-analytic approaches to music performance. Yet Dr. Matthew Lamm’s true goal is the comprehensive development of the human organism through an intellectual, experiential & evidence-based teaching methodology. It is his sincere hope that you leave this performance inspired – by the music, first and foremost, but also through the demonstration of realized human potential.
Terry Crummel
Terry Crummel graduated from the University of North Texas in 1977 with a Bachelor of Music Education. During his time at UNT he performed with the Marching Band, Symphonic Band, Jazz Lab Bands and Trumpet Choir. He taught high school band for 29 years in the Spring ISD, Alief ISD and Ft. Bend ISD. He currently plays in the Lone Star Symphonic Band (Associate Music Director), Lone Star Big Band, Houston Brass Band (British-style brass band), and the Sugar Land Winds. During a short period he continued teaching band and playing in the Thornton Community Concert Band and the Rocky Mountain Brassworks (brass band) while he lived in Denver, Colorado.
Terry enjoys writing and arranging music for concert bands, brass bands, jazz bands and brass quintets. Several of his compositions/arrangements have been performed by the ensembles in Colorado & Texas mentioned above, as well as an original Paso Doble march performed by a high school band at the UIL Concert & Sight-Reading Evaluation. Terry was married to Maree for 38 years and has 4 children & 2 grand-children.
