David Bertman
Associate Professor of Music, Director of Bands/Cheer/Dance, Symphonic Winds Conductor
David Bertman, Associate Professor of music and director of Bands, Cheer, and Dance, plays a huge and very public role at the University of Houston overseeing more than 450 students. All of this makes Mr. Bertman a roving ambassador on campus and in the Houston community. Professor Bertman conducts the Moores School of Music Symphonic Winds, teaches undergraduate conducting, and oversees the graduate band conducting program. In the summers, Mr. Bertman is the brass caption head of the Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corp, based in Rosemont, Illinois.
Prior to coming to UH, Mr. Bertman was associate director of bands at Haltom High School in the Birdville ISD for 13 years. Working with Greg Hull, Cindy Lansford, Tony Smith and Ben Maughmer, the band received numerous awards, including the 1993 Texas 5A Honor Band and a performance at the 1993 Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic.
Mr. Bertman earned his BM in instrumental music education from the University of Oklahoma, under the tutelage of Gene Thraikill, William Wakefield, and Roland Barrett, and his MM in conducting from the University of Houston, where he studied with Eddie Green. As a faculty member of the University of Houston, he received the Bill Yeoman Award in 2003, in 2004, received the UH College of Liberal Arts and Social Science’s Alumni Faculty Award, and in 2005, received the Moores Society Faculty of the Year Award. He is a member of the Texas Music Educators Association, the College Band Directors National Association, and the Texas Bandmasters Association.
John Alstrin
Assitant Director of Bands
John Alstrin is the Assistant Director of Bands at the University of Houston. Mr. Alstrin is the Assistant Director of the “Spirit of Houston” Cougar Marching Band/Cheer/and Dance, Director of the Cougar Brass and Conductor of the Moores School of Music Symphonic Band. Mr. Alstrin also assists in the undergraduate conducting and instrumental music education classes and is involved in the supervision of student teachers. Mr. Alstrin completed his masters Degree at the University of Houston, studying with: David Bertman, Tom Bennett, and Eddie Green.
Mr. Alstrin is a graduate of Shawnee Mission East HS in Prairie Village, Kansas and received his Undergraduate Degree in Music Education from Texas Christian University. While at TCU he was a student of Greg Clemons, Robert Foster Jr., Alfredo Velez, Brian Youngblood and Steve Weger. He completed his student teaching at LD Bell HS and Bedford JH under the direction of Mr. Joseph Grzybowski and Mr. Steve Madsen in 2000. Prior to his appointment at University of Houston, Mr. Alstrin taught for six years in the Lake Highlands cluster of schools in the Richardson Independent School District, under the mentorship of legendary band director Marion West. While at Lake Highlands the bands enjoyed great success in marching, jazz, and concert activities.
From 2001 – 2007, Mr. Alstrin served as the director and lead instructor of several Drum Major Camps across Texas. In 2005 he worked with the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps and is currently working on with the brass staff of the Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps. Mr. Alstrin is the sponsor of the Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma chapters at the University of Houston. His professional affiliations include membership in the Texas Music Educators Association and the Texas Bandmasters Association.
John Benzer
Instrumental Music Education Faculty/University Band Consultant, and Director of Cougar Band Camp
John Benzer is on the music education faculty at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music, where he teaches undergraduate instrument pedagogy classes and band director methods classes. Through the band department, Mr. Benzer assists the Wind Ensembles and is the camp coordinator of the Cougar Band Camp. Before moving to Houston in 2000, he taught for twelve years at Griffin Middle School in The Colony, which is part of the Lewisville Independent School District. He served as Associate Director of Bands for two years before being named Director of Bands in 1990. He is a 1984 honor graduate of Plano Senior High School, and a cum laude graduate of North Texas State University, where he received his Bachelor of Music Education Degree in 1988. He completed his Masters Degree in Applied Music in 2004 at University of Houston. Mr. Benzer is co-author of Essential Musicianship-Ensemble Concepts, a published band method textbook which is on the Texas state-adopted textbook list.
During his ten years as Director of Bands, the Griffin Middle School Symphonic Band was twice named the Texas Class CC Middle School Honor Band, both in 1993 and 1997. In 1997, the Griffin Middle School Band Program was awarded the Sudler Silver Cup, the most prestigious international award to recognize junior high and middle school band programs of outstanding musical excellence.
At the 1995 Texas Bandmasters Association Convention in San Antonio, Mr. Benzer was named the 1995 “Texas Young Bandmaster of the Year,” and was inducted as a member of Phi Beta Mu in February of 2001.
Mr. Benzer is an active clinician and adjudicator throughout Texas, and has also presented band director inservices and workshops in several school districts, and various clinics at the MidWest International Band and Orchestra Clinic, the Texas Music Educators Association Convention, the Texas Bandmasters Association, the Arkansas Bandmasters Association Convention and the New Mexico Music Educators Association Convention.
Mr. Benzer’s professional affiliations include Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Bandmasters Association, Texas Music Adjudicators Association and Phi Beta Mu.
