Come join the fun!
UTEP Bands is excited to host the annual UTEP Honor Band in November 2025. UTEP Honor Band brings together high school musicians across Texas and New Mexico for a weekend of music-making and fun. Join world-class clinicians, faculty and staff for an unforgettable weekend on the UTEP campus.
Meet our Guest Conductors
Travis Cross
UCLA Director of Bands, Herb Alpert School of Music
Travis J. Cross serves as professor of music and director of bands at UCLA, where he conducts the Wind Ensemble and leads the graduate wind conducting program. Cross has conducted the UCLA Wind Ensemble at the California All-State Music Education Conference and College Band Directors National Association Western/Northwestern Division conference and prepared the band for centenary performances of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Kenneth Capshaw
The University of Texas at El Paso (retired),
Director of Bands - Coronado High School (retired)
Kenneth Capshaw retired from his lecturer position at the University of Texas at El Paso in May of 2024 where he was the Director of the UTEP Jazz Ensemble 1 and taught brass chamber and brass methods classes. He has been involved in music education for over fifty years in the El Paso area The Coronado High School Band, under his direction, received the Texas Bandmasters Exemplary High School Band award in 2012. He has performed as a guest soloist, clinician, and adjudicator throughout the Southwest for many years, and teaches trumpet master classes and private lessons throughout the state. He was selected as The Texas Bandmaster the Year in July of 2018.
Alphonse Mendez
Director of Fine Arts EPISD (retired)
Alphonse J. Mendez is a retired Director of Fine Arts for the El Paso Independent School District. During his tenure as Director of Fine Arts for EPISD, ensembles performed at TMEA, the Midwest Clinic, Texas Association of School Administrators Conference, and at El Colegio Americano de Torren, Mexico. He was the first recipient of the Lifetime Administrator Achievement award presented by the Texas Bandmasters Association in 2001. In 2023 he received the great honor of being selected Texas Bandmaster of the year by the Texas Bandmasters Association. Mr. Mendez is an active performer, adjudicator, clinician, and conductor throughout the United States.
2025 Honor Band Registration
Deadline to register is Wednesday, November 12, by 11:59pm MT
Registration involves two steps:
- - Information
- - Audition Video Link
- Perform the first three lines of two contrasting etudes (current TMEA/ATSSB), submitted as unlisted (not private) YouTube videos with performer visible.
Once you have been accepted into the 2025 UTEP Honor Band
A link to payment of a $40 participation fee will be sent to you. This covers food for the weekend, facility use, and a 2025 UTEP Honor Band patch.
Don't have your audition video ready to go?
No worries! Fill out your registration, and we'll send you a reminder to submit your video before registration closes!
