Bryan Buffaloe

Bryan Buffaloe currently serves as the director of orchestras at Clear Lake High School in Houston, Texas home to NASA. Under his direction, the “Lake” Orchestra has grown to its present enrollment of over 240 members. They have received consistent superior ratings at UIL contests and have earned Best in Class and Overall Outstanding Orchestra Honors at South Coast, DC Music Festivals and Music-fest Orlando. They have been named as a GRAMMY Signature School by the GRAMMY Foundation two times and in 2013, were named National Champions at the prestigious National Orchestra Gold Cup competition in New York City at Alice Tully Hall. Under his direction, the Clear Lake Orchestras have consistently ranked as a top three finalist in the TMEA State Honor Orchestra competition in both full and string orchestra and also place a large number of students in the TMEA All-Region and All-State Orchestras. In 2011 and 2013 the Symphony Orchestra was named the State Honor Full Orchestra of Texas.

Mr. Buffaloe, a native of Wichita Falls, Texas, is a graduate of Sam Houston State University were he was a member of the Symphony Orchestra, University Chorale and Symphonic Choir. Prior to coming to Clear Lake, Bryan served six years as orchestra director at Klein Forest High School where he was named Outstanding Fine Arts Teacher in 2002, Teacher of the Year in 2003, and the music department was named the 2003 National Signature School by the GRAMMY Foundation. He also served two years as assistant orchestra director at Stratford High School in Spring Branch ISD and was a founding teacher of the youth orchestras and public school string program in Conroe ISD. Mr. Buffaloe's orchestras have performed at the Southern Music Conference in Atlanta, Georgia and the American Honor Orchestra Conference in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, as well as the National Band and Orchestra Invitational in New York City at Carnegie Hall in 2001 and 2006. In 2010 his orchestra performed in the Circle of Honor Invitational at Symphony Hall in Chicago and have been named the Grand Champion Orchestra at Festival Disney Honors in 2003, 2008 and 2011.

In addition to his teaching, Bryan is active as a clinician and adjudicator having conducted numerous all-region orchestras, the Myrtle Beach All-County Orchestra and the South Carolina All-State Philharmonic. He is past conductor of the Greater Houston Youth Orchestra Philharmonic and is the founder, and former director, of the Bay Area Youth Symphony and served six years as production manager and board member of the Austrian Alps Performing Arts Festival held in Innsbruk, Austria. Bryan has served as Orchestra Vice-President of Texas Music Adjudicators Association and is currently a Past-President of the Texas Orchestra Director's Association and currently serves as Texas Music Education Association Region 17 Secretary. Mr. Buffaloe is also the manager of the Sam Houston State University Summer Orchestra camps and has served as an instructor at the camps for the past 19 years. He has been named many times to Who's Who Among America's Teachers and was the 2003 recipient of the Marjorie Keller Young Teacher Award presented by the Texas Chapter of the American String Teachers Association. In 2008, Mr. Buffaloe received the Fidelity Future Stage Award as an Outstanding Music Educator and Music Advocate for the city of Houston presented by the Houston Symphony. Bryan has performed as a soloist at the American Choral Directors Association convention in Carnegie Hall and as an accomplished “fiddler”, has performed across the US and won several fiddling championships. Mr. Buffaloe has presented workshops for both the TODA and TMEA conferences, String Teachers Workshop for Ohio State and has served as a guest leader of professional development workshops for school districts around the state of Texas. Bryan's professional memberships include TMEA, TODA, TMAA, ASTA and Mu Omicron.