Mr. David Yunis was born in Miami, and graduate of Braddock HS (2005). He has performed with the Drum and Bugle Corps, Magic of Orlando form 2005-2006. Has also performed with various groups in the South Florida area including the Miami Music Project, and FIU’s Percussion and Wind Ensemble. During his studies in percussion, he has composed and arranged for chamber groups and percussion ensembles.
Since graduating from high school, Mr. Yunis immediately began teaching percussion. From 2006-2008, he was the Percussion Caption Head at Miami Coral Park HS working with Mr. Dennis Llinas. From 2008 till now, Mr. Yunis has been the front ensemble instructor for Cooper City HS (2008 FMBC 4A Champions). David Yunis has become a well-known educator, arranger/composer, and consultant to various high schools in the South Florida area; including Coral Glades HS, Coral Reef HS, Miami Springs HS, Felix Varela HS, Hialeah HS, and Killian HS to name a few. 2011 will be Mr. Yunis’s first season with Flanagan HS and is very excited to be part of the team.
Mr. Yunis is currently the front ensemble caption head for STRYKE Percussion Ensemble, WGI Independent Open Class Bronze and two time Silver Medalists. Just recently, Mr. Yunis has earned his Associates in Arts from Miami Dade College and his Bachelors in Percussion Performance from New World School of the Arts. He is also a proudly endorsed and part of the education team for Vic Firth Inc.
PERCUSSION STAFF
Albert Perez, Percussion Instructor
Bio Coming Soon...
PERCUSSION STAFF
Ryan Ross, Percussion Instructor
Ryan Ross was born and raised in Orange County, New York. After graduating from Monroe Woodbury High School in 2008, where he was Percussion section leader as well as President of the Wind Ensemble, Ryan moved down to Florida to further his education. He attends Florida Atlantic University where he studies Music Education, and acts as the Percussion Section Leader for both the FAU Marching Owls, and the Florida Atlantic University Wind Ensemble. Ryan is also a member of Stryke Percussion Ensemble, a WGI silver medal winner for two consecutive years, marching on the cymbal line.
PERCUSSION STAFF
Mike Kelly, Percussion Instructor
Michael Kelly was born in Boca Raton and graduated from Olympic Heights Community High School in 2007. Since graduating, he has been composing/producing electronic music. Michael Kelly has been performing his music at numerous venues and events in the South Florida area. In addition, he has been a member of STRYKE Percussion Ensemble, WGI Independent Open Class Bronze and two time Silver Medalists since 2006. Just recently, Mr. Kelly has become the audio engineer for STRYKE.
Giovanna Bastante, Percussion Instructor
Gio Bastante was born in Miami, Fl and attended Flanagan High School from 2006-2010. She started out as a percussionist in middle school playing drum set in the jazz band and continued as a member of the front ensemble in the Falcon Sound Marching Band. She has performed as a member of the Wind Orchestra and became a captain of the percussion section in 2009. She went on to graduate from Flanagan and join the Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps as a member of the front ensemble and is currently attending Florida State University in Tallahassee, seeking a degree in Secondary Mathematics Education.
VISUAL/MUSIC STAFF
Glenn Martinez, Visual Instructor
Glenn Alexander Martinez was born and raised in South Florida. He began his musical career playing Tuba at Hialeah Middle School. As a member of the top Symphonic band, and later the Jazz Band playing Bass Trombone, Glenn excelled earning several Superior ratings at the individual and ensemble levels. He then continued his career under the direction of Mr. Rivero at Hialeah High School. While at Hialeah, Glenn served as the Band Captain his Senior year at the of 16, and lead the group to its first ever Otto J. Kraushaar Award. Personally, Glenn continued his studies in Tuba and Bass trombone, winning numerous awards and accolades, highlighted by the Director's award his senior year. Glenn then naturally transitioned into the Drum Corp venue. marching Contrabass his rookie year at the age of 15 with the Boston Crusaders for the 2000 season. Using his experience gained in Drum Corps, Glenn joined the Visual staff immediately after Graduating from Hialeah in 2001, as lead Field Tech until finally assuming the role Visual Caption Head during the 2003 season. Glenn continued his Drum corps experience with the Boston Crusaders marching 4 summers with the corps until finally aging out 2005. Glenn worked under Mr. Rivero at Hialeah High until the 2006 season, when Mr. Rivero joined Flanagan High. After a year hiatus, Glenn resumed his position alongside Mr. Rivero joining the mighty Falcon Sound for the 2007 season, and has not looked back since. In his position as Visual Caption Head and lead music tech, Glenn helped create a positive, successful environment with the Falcon Sound leading to numerous undefeated marching seasons, and a Bands of America Finalist spot at the 2008 Orlando Regional. Glenn has thoroughly enjoyed working with Mr. Broadbent designing the show programs for the last 4 seasons for the Falcon Sound, and looks forward to many more years of highly successful collaborations with all of the staff members of the Falcon Sound. Glenn recently passed and earned his U.S. Customs Brokers License and is looking forward to opening up his own Customs Brokerage company in the near future. Glenn Currently resides in Miami Lakes, FL where he lives with his younger twin brothers Michael and Angelo.
VISUAL/MUSIC STAFF
Jose Guimaraes , Visual Instructor
Jose Guimaraes Jr, a tuba player since the age of 12, was born on January 28th, 1989 in Recife, Brazil. After moving to Boca Raton, Fl in 1998, Jose began his apprenticeship under Mike Egan and later continued with Jay Bertolet, former principal tubist of the Florida Philharmonic, and Joe Murphy, founder and principal tubist of the MTJ (modern tuba jazz project). Some of his accomplishments include: principal tubist of the Florida All-State/All-Districts Bands, principal tubist for two consecutive seasons of the FIB (Florida Intercollegiate Band), principal tubist for the Souther Division Intercollegiate band, soloist for the 2009 FAU wind ensemble October concert, performing Vittorio Monti’s Czardas and being the winner of the 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 FAU concerto competition performing Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Tuba Concerto, and Arild Plaus’ Tuba Concerto. Other accomplishments include being a member of the Spirit Drum and Bugle Corp (2005) the Cadets Drum and Bugle Corp (2006, 2008, 2010), and making it to the final round of The Juilliard School audition (2009). Jose currently gives private lessons and master classes to high school, middle school, and college students all throughout the south Florida region. Jose has held staff positions with John I. Leonard high school, Atlantic high school, Jupiter high school, Stoneman Douglas high school and currently holds teaching positions with Flanagan high school and is the drill writer and music arranger for Pompano high school.
VISUAL/MUSIC STAFF
Yamil Suarez , Visual Instructor
Yamil Suarez was born in Cuba and raised in south Florida. His music career started at Henry H. Filer middle school and moved onto high school, performed with the marching, wind orchestra, and jazz band from 2002-2006. after high school ventured into professional performance with the salsa fusion combo as their first trombone and the charranga latin combo in Miami, Florida. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2008 as a tuba player for the 13th Army band, studied at the armed forces music school in Norflok, Virginia and has performed with the 13th for over 3 years. His teaching career started with Hialeah Sr. in 2007 and progressed with Hialeah Gardens Sr. as the Visual Caption Head Instructor and is now currently with the Flanagan Falcon sound. He looks forward to continue teaching music to the young minds while finishing his career in criminology.
Andreas Sanchez , Visual Instructor
Andres Sanchez was born on August 18, 1991 in South Florida. He began playing the saxophone when he was eleven, and never put it down. Andres attended Flanagan High School and had the great opportunity to play in the Falcon Sound Marching Band, Wind Orchestra, and the Concert Jazz Band for all his four years there. He has held titles as section leader, bandleader, and band captain. Before he finished his junior year, Andres enlisted into the U.S Army to be a member of the 13th Army Band. He went through Basic Combat Training and Advance Individual Training with the leadership position of squad leader. Andres graduated from Flanagan High School in 2010, and attended Florida Atlantic University working to become a Doctor in Physical Therapy.
VISUAL/MUSIC STAFF
Jorge Sanchez , Visual Instructor
Jorge Sanchez was born and raised in South Florida and started his music career at Palm Springs Middle. Jorge graduated from Hialeah High School in 2006. After his junior year of high school he ventured into the world of Drum Corps with the Magic of Orlando. When he returned he was the band captain of the T-bred band for his senior year. Since then Jorge ha marched with the Teal Sound in 2007 and just completed his age out summer with the Phantom Regiment. jorge is attending Florida International University and majoring in Political Science/International Relations.
VISUAL/MUSIC STAFF
JR Vidal , Visual Instructor
JR Vidal was born and raised in South Florida. He began his musical career playing Saxophone at Hialeah Middle School as a member of the symphonic band and later in the Jazz Band playing Bari Saxophone. He then went on to Hialeah High school where he continued under the direction of Mr. Rivero. While at Hialeah HS, JR continued to play Bari Saxophone in the Jazz Band, while taking on other instruments in the other groups. His junior year, he took on playing Bass Clarinet for the Symphonic Winds and trumpet in the marching band. Continuing Bass clarinet, his senior year he eventually transitioned to Baritone in the marching band which would prepare him for Drum Corps. As it did in middle school, his high school career ended with being awarded the Director’s award. After a summer off to prepare for college, in 2000 JR joined the Boston Crusaders Drum & Bugle Corps where he was a member for the 2000 & 2001 seasons. After returning from his rookie year of Drum Corps, JR joined Mr. Peter Muller at Miami Springs HS as Show/Drill designer and Visual Captionhead. In his 8 years at Miami Springs HS, he helped develop the marching program into consistent state finalist earning multiple Visual caption and colorguard caption state champion titles. He also helped set in motion a very competitive Winterguard program that competed at the national level, as well as, a Winter Drumline program. During his time with Miami Springs HS, JR started his own Drill and show design company designing shows for high schools across Florida and Texas, as well as, at the Drum corps level. In 2005, he joined the staff at Magic Drum & Bugle Corps as head visual tech before being promoted to co- Visual Captionhead.
After high school, JR began attending Florida International University where he studied/majored in Mechanical Engineering. While at FIU, he was also a founding member of the FIU Basketball band and the FIU marching band, both under the direction of Dr. Martin. After his 8 years at Miami Springs he took a break from teaching to focus on his career as he found a job as an Aerospace Engineer working for an F.A.A. repair station in Doral, FL. JR has been flourishing as an Engineer as he works towards achieving his life goal of getting a job with Walt Disney Imagineering.
After a break from teaching and getting settled in an Engineering career, JR has returned to teaching as he joined the Flanagan visual staff. JR prides himself on his unique methods of teaching and his creativity. His innovative shows and ability to think outside-the-box, has earned him success in the marching band community.
VISUAL/MUSIC STAFF
Tyrone Hayes , Visual Instructor
Tyrone David Hayes graduated from Olympic Heights high school in 2007, after having been involved with the band program for four years. Mr. Hayes has worked with many local high schools including John I. Leonard high school, Pompano Beach high school and Stoneman Douglas high school. Tyrone Hayes marched his first year of Drum Corps in 2006 with The Magic followed by The Boston Crusaders in 2007 and finally spending his remaining three years 2008, 2009, 2010 with the nine times DCI world champion The Cadets. Mr. Hayes is currently attending PBSC in pursuit of his Biology degree and later his M.D in dentistry. Tyrone Hayes is very glad to be a part of the staff for the 2011-2012 Flanagan high school band and is looking forward to another great season.
VISUAL/MUSIC STAFF
Christian Valaquez , Visual Instructor
Bio Coming Soon...
COLOR GUARD STAFF
Emma Roberts, Color Guard Instructor
Emma Roberts currently lives in Pembroke Pines, Florida where she is a full time member of the Flanagan High School Marching Band and Winter Guard staff. Since joining the staff in 2001 the winter guard program has won the South Florida Championships ten times in a row and also a WGI bronze medal in 2010 and 2011 and the World Title in 2008. During the summer months Emma is a full time staff member with the ten time World Champion Drum & Bugle Corps; The Cadets. She was also a performing member of the Cadets from 1997-2000. She has marched and taught color guards such as Emerald Knights, Cardinals, Oakland Crusaders, Ventures, Genesis II, Bluecoats, Patriots, Cooper city H.S, University of Miami, Ooltewah H.S, Walkersville H.S, Patriots, and Emerald Marquis. Emma also travels each year to Sweden to work with the Strangnas Drum & Bugle Corps. Emma currently works full time as a Registered Nurse.
COLOR GUARD STAFF
Matt Winans, Color Guard Instructor
Matthew Winans attended the State University of New York (SUNY) at Brockport in Rochester, NY where he earned two bachelors degrees in Communications and Dance. In 2005 he relocated to Florida to become a part of the instructional staff for the Flanagan High School Color guards and soon after became a member of the schools faculty as a Social Science teacher.
Matt's experience in the color guard activity goes beyond his age as his mother, Clara Lake, has been involved in the activity for many years in Medina, NY through marching, teaching, and in the judging community. Matt was a member of the Medina High School Winter guard and Marching Band for 7 consecutive years and recently returned to the program as a choreographer and consultant. Matt also is the Color guard Caption Head and designer for the Boston Crusaders Drum Corps (2008-Current) and returned as the Color guard designer for the Empire Statesmen Sr. Drum Corps. (2002-2004 & Current)
Other performing experiences include; many of the SUNY Brockport Dance concerts, the Empire Statesmen Sr. Drum corps, the Rochester Patriots Independent World Guard, and the Cadets Drum Corps. He has also taught and continues to teach many groups on the east coast including; Orchard Park HS, Stoneman Douglas HS, Victor HS, The Cadets Drum Corps (2005-2007) Western HS (2007-2008), Eastridge HS (Director 2002-2005), East Syracuse Minoa HS (2002-2004) & Pheonix HS color guards.
COLOR GUARD STAFF
Evan Zubkovs , Color Guard Instructor
Evan Zubkovs was born and raised in Huntington, NY. He started his marching career at Walt Whitman High School, where he was a member of the drum line and was captain his senior year. While doing High School band, he was also involved with a local independent Winter Guard called Saturday Matinee. Evan's passion for color guard during High School prompted him to expand his marching resume, and decided to march in Alter Ego Winter Guard in 2005 and 2006. From there, he went on to march in the renowned Blessed Sacrament Winter Guard for four years, from 2007 to 2010, and was one of the captains in 2010. Evan has taught several schools, including Walt Whitman High School, Hicksville High School, King Philip High School, and is proud to add Flanagan High School to the list. Other marching experiences include the Bushwackers Senior Drum Corps in 2003, and the Cadets Drum Corps in both 2008 and 2009.
COLOR GUARD STAFF
Sarah Cole , Color Guard Instructor
Sarah Cole, originally from Ithaca NY, began her color guard performing career at the age of 10 for Trumansburg High School and continued with the Rochester Patriots Drum and Bugle Corps and Patriots Winterguard from 1998-2001. During this time Sarah discovered her passion for dance which she pursued at the distinguished Amber Perkins School of the Arts in Norwich NY, as a company member and shortly after was offered a teaching position at the school. In continuing her education of dance, she attended the State University of New York at Brockport, earning a bachelors degree in Dance in 2004. She also had the opportunity to dance in the Garth Fagan Dance Company in Rochester, NY. Sarah founded the Patriots dance ensemble, while rebuilding the Patriots Winterguard from 2006 -2010 serving as the programs director and designer, and is a part of the instructional staff for the Boston Crusaders Drum Corps since 2008. Other color guard teaching/choreographing experience includes: Gates Chili Winterguard and Marching Band from 01-09; Eastridge HS; Homer HS; Norwich HS; Rochester Crusaders Drum Corps; Empire Statesmen Drum Corps. Sarah recently relocated to southern Florida and is very grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the Flanagan Color Guard programs.
COLOR GUARD STAFF
Christine Nemeth, Color Guard Instructor
Christine Nemeth grew up in Ohio and Florida, where she graduated from Plantation High School. From there, her educational career continues at Northwestern University, home of the “Best Band in the Land.” As a member of the Marching Wildcat Band, she grew to love color guard and the hard work that goes with it. At the end of her final marching season, NUMB was awarded the Sudler Trophy for college bands in 1992. With a BS in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern, she returned to Florida,and later began teaching Earth/Space Science at Flanagan High School. She fell into working with the Flanagan Color Guard soon after this, and has been blissfully happy ever since.
COLOR GUARD STAFF
Amy Naused , Color Guard Instructor
Amy Naused was born in Miami, Florida and was a graduate of Flanagan High School (2002). She has performed with the Drum and Bugle Corps, Magic of Orlando (2003) as well as the Boston Crusaders (2004, 2005 & 2006). She has also performed with various groups in the South Florida area including the FIU Winter guard (2004) and Braddock Independent World (2005).Since graduating from high school, Amy immediately began teaching color guard. She has worked with various high schools in the South Florida area; including Hollywood Hills, HialeahMiami Lakes, and more recently was the color guard director at Western High School from 2006-2008. Amy also taught the Boston Crusaders Color Guard alongside Matt Winans and Sarah Cole from 2008-2010.
Amy started her first season teaching Flanagan High School in 2009 and is looking to many more seasons with the Falcon Sound color guard and Flanagan winter guards.
COLOR GUARD STAFF
Alex Savoy, Alumni Color Guard Instructor
Born on september 22, 1992 in coconut grove, Florida, Alex was raised in pembroke pines Florida and Svarte, Sweden. He graduated from Flanagan high school in
2011 and marched in the Flanagan world guard in 2009, 2010, and 2011. As one of the guard captains in 2011, he discovered his passion for the performing arts and the program of the Flanagan color guard. He will be attending Florida International university, majoring in biology and minoring in the performing arts while aspiring to become a physician specializing in pathology.
Anthony Scudero, Color Guard Instructor
Anthony Scudero graduated from Jupiter High School where he was a Colorguard Captain as well as section leader, and Drum major. He still continues his practice with music and playing French Horn. Since graduating he has successfully worked within the hospitality industry in Florida, and Manhattan, New York. While being in New York he studied dance at Alvin Ailey and Broadway Dance Company. Anthony has marched with Braddock Independent World and Northeast Independent World. He as also worked as a Design Assistant at a prestigious interior design firm in which sparked his eye for designing, leading him to become a young show designer. Anthony has worked with and been taught by some of the most well known choreographers and instructors within our activity, which has lead him to have taught groups such as; Jupiter High School, Stoneman Douglas High School, and the Boston Crusaders.
COLOR GUARD STAFF
Shayna Middleman, Alumni Color Guard Instructor
Shayna began performing with the Falcon sound in 2006, where she was a member of the front ensemble. When the 2007 season came around, Shayna decided to make a change, and joined the color guard. She performed in six consecutive seasons with the color guard, including one year in the JV guard and two years in the world guard, as well as being a member of Flanagan's concert band as a flute player from 2006 - 2009. Shayna graduated in 2010, and is attending FIU to major in english, but she excited to be coming back to Flanagan this year as a guard instructor.
COLOR GUARD STAFF
Sara Benitez, Alumni Color Guard Instructor
MUSIC ARRANGER
Dennis Llinas, Music Arranger
Mr. Dennis Llinas graduated from Hialeah High School in 1998. Mr. Llinas then attended Florida International University earning his bachelors degree in Music Education. While in college, Mr. Llinas marched four years of Drum and Bugle Corps with the Boston Crusaders from the years 1999 through 2002. He then went on to teach the Kiwanis Kavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps in 2003.
Mr. Llinas has been instructing high school percussion programs since his graduation with schools including Hialeah High School, Miami Springs High School, Palmetto High School, Stoneman Douglas High School, Cooper City High School, and Felix Varela High School to name a few.
At the age of 19, Mr. Llinas was asked to arrange his first marching band show covering all wind and percussion parts. Since then, he has grown to write for over 20 high schools throughout Florida and extending through Minnesota and Massachusetts. He was also hired by the South Florida Percussion Company to compose and teach their program from the years 2000 through 2003.
Since then, Mr. Llinas has been commissioned to compose pieces for performers from various universities including Florida International University, University of North Texas, and the University of Central Florida.
Dennis Llinas is currently finishing his second year at Miami Coral Park Senior High School. By his second year, he has earned the marching band straight superiors (a first since 1999), the Wind Ensemble straight superiors (a first since 2000), and the Jazz Band straight superiors (first time in over 26 years). The Wind Ensemble was invited to the Grand National Adjudicators Invitational in 2006 and received straight superior ratings from adjudicators such as Mark Camphouse and David Holsinger. The Jazz Band participated at the Festival Disney competition in 2006 and was awarded grand champion for the Jazz Ensembles.
