Music Director and Conductor Sixto Montesinos

Dr. Sixto F. Montesinos Jr. is a Mexican American conductor, educator, and arts advocate whose work centers on musical storytelling, community, and creating meaningful connections between musicians and audiences. Originally from Coyoacán, Mexico City and based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Montesinos serves as Music & Artistic Director of Solano Winds, beginning his tenure with the ensemble’s 2026–2027 season.

An active conductor of wind, orchestral, and musical theatre, Montesinos has appeared with ensembles in the United States and internationally. Recent engagements include conducting the Azerbaijan State Chamber Orchestra in Baku in a program featuring works by Bach, Stravinsky, Britten, and Mexican composer Nubia Jaime Donjuan. He has also conducted the Awesome Orchestra Collective in the San Francisco Bay Area and has worked across orchestral, wind ensemble, chamber, musical theater, and interdisciplinary settings. In 2027, he will travel to Estonia as a guest conductor of the Estonian Youth Wind Orchestra.

Montesinos is a Tenured Associate Professor of Music at Saint Mary’s College of California, where he serves as Director of the Music Program and Head of Instrumental Studies. He also serves as Director of the College’s Honors Program. At Saint Mary’s, his work encompasses  teaching, advising, curriculum development, and arts leadership. He has played a significant role in reshaping the Music Program’s curriculum and performance opportunities while advocating for an accessible and vibrant musical community in which students from across the College can participate.

As a conductor and educator, Montesinos draws significant inspiration from the American wind band tradition and from the teaching of legendary conductor and pedagogue Eddie Green. His rehearsal philosophy emphasizes the fundamentals of ensemble playing: characteristic sound, balance, rhythmic precision, articulation, listening, audiation, and the development of a shared internal pulse. At the same time, he believes that technical discipline should always serve expression and that the ultimate purpose of rehearsal is to give musicians the tools and confidence to communicate something meaningful together.

His artistic interests are particularly connected to the music and cultures of Mexico, Spain, Latin America, and the broader Spanish speaking world. He is an advocate for expanding the wind ensemble repertoire and placing music by contemporary and historically underrepresented composers alongside established masterworks of the band tradition. His programming frequently combines major wind literature, orchestral transcriptions, contemporary works, popular and theatrical repertoire, and music that invites audiences to experience unfamiliar musical voices.

Montesinos began his tenure with Solano Winds with the 2026–2027 season, bringing a vision centered on artistic growth, ambitious programming, community engagement, and the ensemble’s identity as one of the region’s important community music organizations. His inaugural concert, “From Spain, With Love,” reflects many of his artistic priorities, featuring contemporary Spanish inspired works by composers including Ferrer Ferran, Óscar Navarro, José Rafael Pascual-Vilaplana, and Julie Giroux.

For Montesinos, community music making is rooted in the belief that excellent music and welcoming music making are not competing ideas. He believes a community ensemble can challenge its musicians, perform significant repertoire at a high artistic level, introduce audiences to new composers and traditions, and remain a place where musicians build lasting relationships with one another.

Through his work with Solano Winds, Montesinos seeks to honor the ensemble’s history while continuing to expand its artistic possibilities, strengthen its presence throughout Solano County and the greater Bay Area, and create performances that are memorable for musicians and audiences alike.

Contact Our Director   -- swdirector@solanowinds.org

Dr. Roger Wu Fu joined the Solano Winds from June 2025 thru June 2026 as Music Director and Conductor.     Roger was only the third director in 31 seasons of Solano Winds history.  Roger is a Taiwanese American conductor, educator, and musician, born and raised in Santiago, Chile.  With years of experience working with musicians from elementary to professional settings, Roger is passionate about illuminating the importance of music's role in the classroom, in the concert hall, and in the world at large.

Drawing from his own varied background studying anthropology for a B.A. at the University of California, Los Angeles, a Masters in Music in Wind Conducting from Peabody Institute with Dr. Harlan D. Parker, as well as a Doctorate in Musical Arts from the University of Washington, Roger seeks to combine a high standard of musical performance with a rigorous and curious academic approach, to create and foster musical experiences for all audiences.

After an exciting and rewarding year leading the Solano Winds, we wish Roger the best as he moves on to become Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Bands at North Central College in Illinois.  

Bill Doherty has been participating in community bands ever since his days at a student at Encinal High School, where the Alameda Community Band rehearsed under the direction of Bill’s high school director, Jim Hewitt. He earned his music degree at the University of California, Berkeley, where he played under the direction of Bob Briggs and Michael Senturia and studied with Andrew Imbrie and Philip Shoptaugh. He has been a trumpet student of John Coppola and David Goedecke. While working as the Director of Bands at De La Salle High School and then at Orestimba High School, Bill conducted the Berkeley Symphonic Band. He performed extensively with the Diablo Valley College Night Band with Art Dougherty, the CSU Stanislaus Wind Ensemble with Ed Harris, the CSU Stanislaus Jazz Ensemble with David Goedecke, and various freelance ensembles. He was the Music Director at Vanden High School and Green Valley Middle School before adding Mathematics to his teaching credential. Since that time, he taught math at Dover Middle School in Fairfield and at Campolindo High School in Moraga, California. Bill retired from public school teaching in 2021 after a 39 year career.

In 1995, as Bob Briggs was entering his retirement from the University of California, Bill worked with Bob to help establish Solano Winds. Bill was the founding President and has served continuously on the Board of Directors since the group began. He was the principal trumpet, playing under Bob’s direction, for thirteen years. Upon the passing of Bob Briggs in 2008, Bill was named Music Director and Conductor of Solano Winds. Under his direction, the band has continued to grow and flourish, becoming a Resident Artist at the Downtown Theatre, performing annually at the Carmichael Park Community Band Festival, and accepting an invitation to perform in 2013 at the Association of Concert Bands’ National Convention. Since assuming the duties of Solano Winds Music Director, Bill continued to perform on the trumpet as well. He was a member of the North Bay Wind Ensemble and the Napa Valley College Orchestra for three years, and continues to perform in various Solano Winds small ensembles and for occasional freelance engagements.

In June of 2025, Bill retired as Director and Conductor of Solano Winds but has not left us.  We like to call him our Director Emeritus.   You will find Bill happily making music in the trumpet section and in various Solano Winds ensembles.

Bill is joined by each of his family members in the joy of the performing arts. His wife, Jennifer, is a percussionist with Solano Winds and a retired Music Educator. Daughter Melissa helps to produce cultural events for Commerce City in Colorado. Son Kevin lives with his family in the Bay Area and has several national acting credits under his belt. Daughter Emily is a Solano Winds alumnus on oboe and English horn and narrates performances for the Tiny Tots Orchestra program in the Denver area.

Contact Our Director Emeritus  -- directoremeritus@solanowinds.org