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Staff Biographies
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Richard Watson
has been the Director
of Bands at El Dorado High School
since 1975, and is presently in his
35th year as he directs the marching band,
wind ensemble, symphony orchestra and two jazz ensembles. Richard is an
honorary
life member in the Southern California School Band and Orchestra
Association, and he is one of the longest-serving high school band
directors
in Southern California. Richard is well known as a teacher,
performer, clinician, and adjudicator throughout the area and was named
“Teacher of the Year” in 2006. He
toured with Roger Williams and has played for many celebrities
including Connie
Stevens, Carol Lawrence, Maureen McGovern, and Fred Carroll.
Richard has
played with the Pacific Symphony and currently plays with the
California Wind
Symphony. He has worked for the Disney company for over 30
years and
was selected as the drummer for Disney’s ten city tour of Symphonic
Fantasy. Richard was the director of
the American contingency of the 2000 Olympic band in Sydney,
Australia. A few years ago now he was asked to be the drummer
for
Elvis Presley, but he had just signed a contract to teach instead – as
it turned
out, a very wise decision.
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Eric Samson is in his
third year as a Assistant Director at El Dorado. Eric has
served in the past as the percussion instructor and writer. His present
duties
include Marching Band, Symphonic and Concert Band, Percussion Ensemble,
Class
Guitar and AP Music Theory. In 2003, Eric was a
participant of the Henry
Mancini Institute (HMI) and performed with the HMI Orchestra until
operations
ceased in 2006. While performing with
HMI, he had the opportunity to share the stage with artists such as
Quincy
Jones, Tony Bennett, Stevie Wonder, Michael Buble and Bill
Cunliffe. Eric continues to be in demand as a freelance
percussionist, percussion arranger, and performs regularly with his own
Latin
jazz band, Indigenous Soul. |
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Corkie
Keys is
in her 10th year as the Colorguard
Director and head instructor at El Dorado High School.
Under her leadership, the EDHS Colorguard has grown from 14 to 44
members. The
EDHS Colorguard has won dozens of Sweepstakes awards both in field and
parade
competitions, and contributes to the numerous Visual, General Effect
and
Overall Sweepstakes awards won by the Golden Hawks Marching Band. The
EDHS
Colorguard was awarded the Auxiliaries Combined Parade and Field
Sweepstakes Award
in 2008 at the prestigious Arcadia Festival of Bands. Aside from her
duties at El Dorado, Corkie Keys is
a very active Auxiliaries caption parade and field adjudicator with the
Southern California School Band & Orchestra Association. She
also serves the
SCSBOA as the Auxiliaries Representative to the Parade Adjudication
Committee -
an appointed position she has held since 2005. Corkie is also an
adjudicator
for the Winter Guard Association of Southern California. In the fall of
2009 Corkie was awarded the "Distinguished Member Award" from the
SCSBOA.
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