Kenneth Capshaw, M.M.
Director of Jazz Bands
Kenneth Capshaw is currently the Director of Jazz Bands at the University of Texas at El Paso. He has been involved in music education in the El Paso community for over forty years, and was a band director in the El Paso Independent School District for twenty-five years. He began his teaching career at Henderson Middle School in 1972, and taught band at Morehead Middle School and El Paso High School before he went into business in 1981. His teaching career resumed in 1996, when he began his fifteen year tenure at Coronado High School. The concert, jazz, and marching bands at all of his schools have been consistent sweepstakes winners. The Coronado Marching Band has participated in the State Marching Contest three times, won a regional BOA Champion in Las Vegas in 2000, and has won the New Mexico State Tournament of Champions ten times. The Coronado High School Jazz Band has been winners at the Hanks Jazz Festival, the Texas Tech Jazz Festival, and the New Mexico State Jazz Festival. The concert bands at Coronado have been sweepstakes winners at UIL and EPISD festivals for sixteen consecutive years. The Coronado High School Band received the Texas Bandmasters Exemplary High School Band Award in July of 2012.
Mr. Capshaw holds the associate principal trumpet position with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra, is a founding member of the forty year old El Paso Brass, and has performed with the Las Cruces, Juarez, and Roswell Symphony Orchestras. He has toured in Italy and England as a trumpet soloist with the Choir of the Southwest, and in Turkey and Germany as a member of the El Paso Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Capshaw has been a guest soloist, clinician, and adjudicator throughout the country for many years. He taught trumpet and jazz ensembles at New Mexico State University from 2012 to 2014.
Mr. Capshaw is a member of the Texas Music Educator Association, the Texas Band Masters Association, and Phi Beta Mu. He received the Band World Legion of Honor Award in October of 2010 and the Texas Band Master Meritorious Achievement Award in July of 2011. He was inducted into the Phi Beta Mu Texas Bandmasters Hall of Fame in July of 2013.
Kenneth and his wife, Louise, are proud parents of five children, and have five beautiful young grandchildren along with two foster grandchildren. They are a branch of the very musical family founded by Ross Capshaw, former Director of Fine Arts in the El Paso Independent School District and member of the TBA Hall of Fame.
Contact Info
Department of Music: Conducting & Ensembles
Email: klcapshaw5@utep.edu
Office: FFA M231
Office Phone: (915) 747-7813