2010-2011 Staff

Mr. Almanza graduated from San Marino High School in San Marino, California, and California State University Long Beach. While attending college, he played trumpet professionally at Disneyland and on the Queen Mary berthed in Long Beach. Mr. Almanza began teaching in 1981 at Helix High School. He has taught music at all levels of the public school system (K-12), including private instruction. He is a judge for the Southern California School Band & Orchestra Association (SCSBOA) for Parade, Field Show, Solo/Ensemble and Festival. Committed to music excellence, Mr. Almanza serves as Chairperson for the Grossmont Union High School District (GUHSD) Band Directors and is a member of California Association for Music Education (CMEA), National Association for Music Education (formerly Music Educators National Conference) (MENC), California Band Directors Association (CBDA), Phi Mu Alpha Fraternity and SCSBOA. Mr. Almanza and his wife, Heather, have four children, Keith, Michael, Brittany, and Jacob. He has taught music for 28 years; 15 of those years have been at Valhalla High School.

Barbie Anthony has been the Color Guard Advisor at Valhalla High School for 14 years. She graduated from Grossmont High School in 1985 and began her Color Guard instruction at Mt. Miguel High School immediately thereafter. She has also taught at Christian High School, Lemon Grove Middle School, Montgomery High School, and West Hills High School. Along with coaching at Valhalla , Barbie is currently instructing at Granite Hills High School and Grossmont High School. She has two daughters, Emily and Rachael.

Hugo Ramirez has been an arranger/educator in Southern California for over a decade. He has taught numerous groups including Helix High School, Ramona High School, Rancho Bernardo High School, Poway High School, Mira Mesa High School and most recently, Valhalla High School. Since its inception, Hugo has also been the Tenor Technician and Battery Caption for San Diego Alternative Percussion Ensemble while also arranging for the group. On the side, he also gives private lessons. As a performer, he has played with numerous groups. The Earthquake Drum and Bugle Corps, The Madison Scouts, San Diego State University Indoor Percussion, The San Diego Concert Jazz Band, The Procrastinators, The Sea World Castaways, and the San Diego Wind Ensemble to name a few. Mr. Ramirez has a degree in Computer Information Science, is an avid golfer, and loves to cook.

Mr. Carl Reed is the current Assistant Music Director for Hillsdale Middle School in Rancho San Diego. At Hillsdale Middle School, Mr. Reed teaches Band, Orchestra and a competitive Drumline. His formal training is with Danlee Mitchell at San Diego State University (SDSU). Mr. Reed has achieved many awards with his various wind, percussion and string ensembles. He has performed with such groups as the Velvet Knights Drum & Bugle Corps, SDSU Wind Symphony & Marching Aztec Band, San Diego County Orchestra, San Diego Mesa College Jazz Ensemble, & Cuyamaca College Concert Band. Besides the many fine performing groups Mr. Reed has participated in, he has enjoyed working with the Southern California Schools Band and Orchestra Association (SCSBOA) as a field adjudicator and as a guest adjudicator for the Grossmont District Honor Band and San Diego County Middle School Honor Band. Mr. Reed is also a clinician and has worked as a guest artist. He is an accomplished arranger and composer whose music has been performed in front of international audiences. Two outstanding memories are being a clinician for the World of Music Festival at Sea and being an arranger and percussion staff member for the 2000 Summer Olympic Band in Sydney, Australia. Mr. Reed is very glad to be back at Valhalla High School as a marching instructor and field coordinator and is looking forward to a successful season.

Gary Backlund has worked thoughout Southern California and is known as one of the top arrangers and drill writers in the country. Gary graduated from San Dieguito High School where he was Drum Major, and also marched 5 years with the Drum Corps International (DCI) Finalist Velvet Knights. He has taught and written for numerous Drum Corps, of note the 2003 Open Class Champion Esperanza, and Division Three Bronze medallists Teal Sound and Marion Cadets. Gary serves as music arranger and drill designer for Lyndon Johnson High School, Texas; Fox High School, Missouri; Alton High School, Illinois; as well as several bands in Southern California. He currently serves as Associate Director of Instrumental Music at Oceanside High School, where he has worked for 14 years.

Mr. Caldwell, a native of San Diego and music student of Rick
Lorenzen, studied music at San Diego State University (SDSU). Through the SDSU ensembles he had opportunities to play with the likes of Chubby Checker, the Rockets, Chuck Findly, Charles McPherson and Eric Merinthol. He also had opportunities to perform for large scale events like Super Bowl XXIV, the Holiday Bowl and Charger Football Games. At SDSU Mr. Caldwell also served as section leader for the Jazz Band, Symphonic Band and Marching Band. Mr. Caldwell also composed a song selected by the faculty to be performed by the SDSU wind symphony. Since then Mr. Caldwell has performed with the Grossmont College big band, San Diego Community Band and been featured as a guest solo artist with the Helix High School Music department for their Pops Concert. Currently Mr. Caldwell performs with the Cuyamaca Concert band and the University of San Diego (USD) pep band. Mr. Caldwell is currently the director of the Hillsdale Middle School Music program. The students have had many accomplishments including: $100,000 in tickets from Disneyland for our performances, 2 time Sony Music "top five in the Nation" finalist in the nation for CD recordings and 9 time sweepstakes winners in Music in the Parks festivals. Mr. Caldwell has been recognized as "Teacher of the Year" at Montgomery Middle School in 1996, runner up to Cajon Valley in 2002 and winner of the distinction in 2005. He was also California Music Educators Association - Southern Border Section(CMEA-SBS) Jazz Educator of the Year in 2003. Mr. Caldwell has also been an adjudicator for the Grossmont Union High School District(GUHSD) Honor Band(Sax) and Festival Judge for San Diego Unified School District's middle school band festival. He is one of the Co-founders of the CMEA Middle School Honor Band and has been the coordinator for the last 6 years.