Award Winners Nick Estrada
Don Schmeer Friend of Music Award
The CBDA Don Schmeer Friend of Music Award is an annual recognition bestowed on an individual or organization who has demonstrated a history of promoting band music education in California. Recipients of this award have gone above and beyond a common calling to serve the fine art of music in the name of increasing, supporting, and spreading the love and joy of music to students in scholastic areas. Past recipients include music education advocates, industry professionals, university educators, music lobbyists, and others. This year’s award winner is no stranger to CASMEC and CBDA. That said, for many of you, you’ve likely never known his work to be so important because he does all his volunteering behind the scenes. In the last 6-7 years, his work was done before the conference and then after the conference. Prior to that, he could be found back stage of the Saroyan, or running back and forth from rehearsal rooms to Saroyan. If you were lucky enough to be a part of his crew, he would make sure you had plenty of Red Wave tacos! Nick Estrada is the recipient of 2022 CBDA Don Schmeer Friend of Music Award. Nick has been providing pianos for CASMEC for our last 6 years of conferences held in Fresno. As you can imagine, this is no small task, especially when having to lug a grand piano up the stairs of valdez to the Wine Room. Prior to helping CASMEC with pianos, Nick Estrada served as the Stage Crew leader for many years. Many of the systems that served CASMEC for years, were systems he developed, in order to best serve the All State students. His group of stage crew volunteers always enjoyed his leadership, attitude, joy, and once again, his love for Red Wave Tacos! Nick Estrada, or El Guapo (a story for another time), has volunteered countless hours, always with a smile, and we are indebted to his selfless acts.
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Mike Gangemi
Distinguished Service Award
The description of the CBDA distinguished service award starts by saying the recipient has given selfless service to California Band Director. This year our honoree epitomizes just that. He has given countless hours, days, and years to this organization helping in every aspect of the conference. There was never a point that Mike Gangemi questioned jumping in to help, but always asked what more he could do to help others. His unwavering commitment to CBDA, and more importantly the All-State students, was second to none. Another criteria for this award is that the recipient must participate in giving continual effort in mentoring other music educators in the state. Although he would never admit it, Mike Gangemi was one of the greatest educators our state has seen. He may have not had the official title of teacher for much of his career, but he was teaching students and colleagues far before he earned that degree. I’m sure many of us have a list of jazz charts he compiled and recommended for various programs on a variety of levels. If you had a question about it, you knew who to ask. And his response always came with a smile, and a compliment about how great you were doing. Mike not only gave his time to the organization, but he would often anonymously donate toward student’s all-state costs when they had a financial need or struggled to pay. Never for the attention, in fact most didn’t know he had done this. But his heart of gold, and ever-giving spirit would never rest, even if it meant he went without for a few weeks, just to give this student, who he didn’t know, the opportunity to perform with an all-state ensemble. That is why it is with no question, that the 2022 CBDA Distinguished Service award goes to our dear friend and colleague, who we miss dearly. Over the last few months the amount of work Mike did “behind the scenes” continues to surprise us.
