Sprague Middle School Symphonic Winds

Performer Details

Performer Bio Synopsis

Sprague Middle School opened in the fall of 2023 in the Bridgeland community of Cypress-Fairbanks ISD. The band department at Sprague Middle School has approximately 360 students. Band instruction begins in the sixth grade. Students are taught daily in mostly homogenous classes with the main emphasis on characteristic tone production, music reading skills, and individual technical development. The mastery of these basic fundamentals is the focus this year, with the students’ only performances being a Holiday Concert in December and a Spring Concert in May. Seventh and eighth-grade students audition for placement in one of three performing groups: the Concert Winds, the Symphonic Band, and the Symphonic Winds. In these band classes, the students continue to work on tone production, music reading skills, and technical development, with major emphasis being placed on ensemble skills and techniques. To provide as much individual and small group instruction as possible, the students are divided into woodwind and brass sectionals for approximately fifty percent of the class periods during the year. In addition, members of these bands are also required to attend a one-hour sectional each week throughout most of the school year. During these sectionals, instrument-specific concepts and techniques are taught, with special attention being given to addressing the needs of the individual players within the section. The band program has a thriving private lesson program employing professional and college student musicians from the greater Houston area. Since the school opened in 2023, students have received over one hundred medals for superior performances at the U.I.L. Solo and Ensemble Festival. Additionally, over thirty students have earned a place in the All-Region Band for the past three years. All three performing ensembles have earned consistent UIL Sweepstakes distinctions each year since the school opened. In 2024, the Sprague Symphonic Winds was a Commended Winner in the Mark of Excellence/National Wind Band Honors project! The Sprague Concert Winds and Symphonic Winds were named the Grand Champion of the 2025 Bridgeland Invitational.

Sprague Middle School Symphonic Winds

Conductor's Bio

Stetson Begin is in his fourteenth year as an educator and opened Roy J. Sprague Middle School in Cypress-Fairbanks ISD as its new head director in the Fall of 2023. Before this appointment, he served as the director of bands at Krimmel Intermediate School in Klein ISD for five years and as the assistant director for five years. Mr. Begin graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Houston where he studied with John Benzer, Marion West, David Bertman, and Randall Griffin. In 2012, Mr. Begin was the recipient of the Malcolm Helm Scholarship. Mr. Begin was named the Krimmel Intermediate School Teacher of the Year in 2016 and was named the Phi Beta Mu Texas Young Bandmaster of the Year in 2023. Bands under his direction have consistently received superior sweepstakes ratings at UIL Concert and Sightreading Contest and have also earned recognition at both the state and national levels. In 2021, the Krimmel Intermediate Symphonic Band was named a National Winner in the 2021 Mark of Excellence/ Wind Band Honors Project. In February 2022, the Krimmel Intermediate Symphonic Band performed at the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) Convention as an Invited Middle School Ensemble. Also in 2022, the Krimmel Intermediate Symphonic Band was invited to perform at the 76th Annual Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, Illinois. In its first year of inception, the Krimmel Intermediate Full Orchestra was the runner-up in the TMEA Middle School Honor Full Orchestra contest in 2023. From 2018 to 2023, Mr. Begin served as the Region IX Middle School Band Coordinator. Mr. Begin’s professional affiliations include the Phi Beta Mu International Bandmasters Fraternity, Texas Music Adjudicators Association, Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Bandmasters Association, and Pi Kappa Lamba National Music Honor Society.

Additional Directors

David Garcia

Sean Picot Priewe