Founded in 2024 to promote professional development and community engagement through music, the Cypress Winds Community Band is composed of music educators from the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District.

The community band is seeking to become a nonprofit organization to continue to enrich the community with high-quality musical performances, co-director Todd Clearwater said.

The inspiration

The community band idea was brought in by Rowe Middle School music directors who participated in a community band concert in Austin.

After the directors shared the idea with music educators within the CFISD district, Clearwater said there was enough interest to form their own community band.“The thing that happens when you become a teacher is all of a sudden the day-to-day changes, because you're not playing your instrument, you're teaching other people to play,” Clearwater said. “So that aspect of what drew you to music in the first place almost evaporates. And so I really want to applaud the staff at Rowe Middle School and the young teachers in the district that made it happen, because we realized that our own musicianship is crucial to us being good teachers.”

The impact

With directors Clearwater, the former Klein High School head band director and Tom Harrington, the former Cypress Woods High School band director, the community band is made up of over 70 CFISD educators and former educators from several schools, including:

• Bridgeland High School
• Rowe Middle School
• Cypress Ridge High School
• Cypress Park High School
• Hamilton Middle School and Hamilton Elementary School
• Cy-Fair High School

The remaining membership is made up of band directors from several other CFISD schools, as well as private school and retired teachers, Harrington said.

Cypress Winds Directors Clearwater and Harrington said the ensemble offers a creative and inspiring environment for musicians passionate about performing wind band literature while providing students with the opportunity to see their teachers perform.

The community band performs free hour-long concerts three times a year at local schools. Clearwater said they are hoping to soon partner with Cy-Fair Lone Star College to make it their home base campus for performances.Members of the band rehearse standard band literature as well as more challenging pieces to offer audience-friendly music while furthering their skills as musicians.

Performances take place starting in December and continue through May with various themed performances.

Clearwater said Cypress Winds is in the process of becoming a nonprofit organization to fund its community and education initiatives.