CBDA Award Winners

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.

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.

Cheryl Yee Glass

Dave Goedecke Lifetime Achievement Award

The following is the speech given by Chavonta Edington at the CBDA/CMEA Awards Gala to present this award.

The Dave Goedecke Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to a CBDA member who has exhibited a lifetime of achievement in music education at the state and national level.

As an aspiring music teacher looking for mentorship, I found very few women who were leading high school band and orchestra programs in my community. I remember clearly the first time I saw her conducting a concert during the summer band camp at UoP and knew from that moment that I needed to be connected to her.

I am pleased to present this year’s David Goedecke Lifetime Achievement Award to Cheryl Yee Glass. Celebrating her 40th year at San Ramon Valley High School, Cheryl serves as mentor to all who pass through the San Ramon Valley as an educator or student teacher. She is on the Board of Directors at Cazadero Music Camp and has been an integral part of the Diablo Theater Company and Diablo Light Opera. She also supervises student teachers at Cal State East Bay and founded the non-competitive jazz festival at San Ramon Valley High School.

Cheryl leads by example, working her way through leadership and service roles in music education and has served as Past Bay Section and State President for the California Music Educators Association, receiving the Bay Section Outstanding Music Educator Award in 2012.

Cheryl’s mentorship is not limited to her guiding discussions on what to wear to a job interview, how to hold your own during conversations in a room full of men or how to navigate the music world as a person of color. Her mentorship is not limited to the free double bass lessons she gives to the middle school and high school students in our district (and she gave them virtually via ZOOM during distance learning) or filling in for the elementary band teacher who needed a long term substitute teacher.

In fact, I would describe Cheryl Yee Glass as a person with no limits. She is here tonight even though her marching band is participating in the San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade tomorrow morning. Cheryl has stepped back from much of her music teaching responsibilities so our music staff created a wild story to get her to Fresno tonight given her performance schedule. When I asked her earlier this week how she was able to make it all happen, her response was, “Honey, I haven’t given up!”.

Tonight, I stand here to publicly say, “Thank you, Cheryl Yee Glass, for not giving up”!

Social Justice Consortium

CBDA was proud to premiere our first two social justice consortium pieces at CASMEC in February.

The powerful messages portrayed through the work of these amazing composers was beautifully performed by our California All State high school and junior high school students.

These pieces are now available for purchase at Murphy Music Press

Be on the lookout for information about our next social justice consortium for this upcoming year.