Frank Troyka
Director of Berkner Bands
469-593-7021
frank.troyka@risd.org

Frank Troyka began his career in 1984 in the Richardson ISD at Forest Meadow Junior High School where he was the Assistant Band Director. Four years later he accepted a similar position at Lake Highlands High School where he worked closely with Malcolm Helm.

From 1991-1996, Frank was the Assistant Band Director at Westfield High School in the Spring ISD. In addition to conducting the 2nd band, he played a significant role in the instruction and design of the marching band, arranging the wind book for the 1992 State Finalist Big Red Band. In 1993, Mr. Troyka’s 2nd band at Westfield was invited to perform at the Bands of America National Concert Band Festival, having been selected from an extensive pool of bands that submitted audition recordings from around the United States. Though a non-varsity ensemble, Mr. Troyka’s 2nd band at Westfield was invited as a 1st band, performing 17 of the 25 movements of Carl Orff’s magnum opus, “Carmina Burana” (four of which Mr. Troyka transcribed himself).

Since 1999, Frank has been the Director of Bands at Cypress Falls High School in the Cypress-Fairbanks ISD until joining Berkner High School in May of 2006. Under his leadership, the Cypress Falls Band was selected as a finalist in the Texas Music Educators Association Honor Band Competition, a featured ensemble at the Bands of America National Concert Band Festival, a featured ensemble at The Midwest Clinic, and it is one of only two band programs world-wide to receive the 2005 Sudler Flag of Honor from the John Philip Sousa Foundation. The percussion ensemble was a showcase group at the 2004 Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Nashville and has captured five state championship titles in concert and marching percussion competition in the Texas Color Guard Circuit percussion division.

The Cypress Falls Marching Band is a top three finalist at Bands of America regional competition, a finalist at the BOA Super Regional in San Antonio, a UIL State Marching Band Contest semi-finalist, and the color guard recently received its third consecutive state title in Texas Color Guard Circuit competition. After having been promoted from the Scholastic A classification in Winter Guard International competition to the Scholastic Open class, the 2006 Cypress Falls Color Guard finished 4th in the world at the 2006 WGI Championships in Dayton, Ohio in April of this year. Since that time, the color guard has been promoted to the Scholastic World classification, the most competitive and select level of competition in the activity.

Frank is also very active as a lecturer and clinician throughout Texas and the United States. He is a perennial faculty member of the Bands of America Weekend Leadership Experience summer workshop and served as one of the concert band conductors at the 2003 BOA Summer Symposium held at Illinois State University. In addition, he occupies a seat on the Bands of America Advisory Board.

Mr. Troyka also presents annual student leadership training workshops throughout Texas and various schools and colleges throughout the country. He is the author “Practical Leadership for Bands,” a self-published workbook and reference tool used to prepare students to step into their roles as leaders in their high school bands.

A member of the Texas Music Educators Association and the Texas Bandmasters Association, Frank has presented numerous clinics for directors and students at both of these conventions since 1982. He also has presented workshops for directors and students in Georgia, New Jersey, Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Michigan, Illinois, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Wyoming.

A native of Tupelo, Mississippi, Frank graduated from Sturgis High School (Michigan) in 1977 and began his college career at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. It was there that he learned about the quality of the public school band programs in the state of Texas, so at the age of 19 he moved to Dallas to finish his degree at the University of Texas at Arlington. A resident of Texas since 1979, Frank considers himself a “Naturalized Texan.”