Sydney Scooler-Rivera will be starting her seventh year of teaching and her first year as an Assistant Band Director at Claudia Taylor Johnson High School.
Before coming to CTJ, Mrs. Rivera was the Assistant Director at Canyon High School in New Braunfels. At Canyon, she taught the non-varsity ensemble and ran the visual program for the marching band. While
there, the marching band saw tremendous growth, making it to 5A Area Finals in 2022 and 2023. The non-varsity ensemble also saw success, earning high ratings and positive feedback at UIL Concert and
Sightreading as well as other festivals and concerts. Prior to her position at Canyon, Mrs. Rivera worked at Paschal High School in Fort Worth, where she conducted the second and fourth bands, was responsible for brass pedagogy, and ran the visual program for the marching band.
Mrs. Rivera earned her degree in music from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa in 2018. While at Luther, she performed with the Concert Band and the Symphony Orchestra, as well as a variety of select chamber
ensembles. She was also an active participant of Luther's Future Music Educators Association chapter and served on leadership as the Iowa Bandmasters Association representative.
Mrs. Rivera is entering her tenth year in the drum corps activity. She is currently on the visual staff of the Crossmen Drum and Bugle Corps and previously served on the visual staff of Guardians and the Colt
Cadets. Before her time on staff, she was a marching member of Carolina Crown and marched mellophone from 2014 to 2017, serving as a section leader in 2017. During her time at Crown, the organization
earned the Jim Ott Award for brass performance twice and the John Brazale Award for visual performance in 2016.
At Johnson High School, Sydney will head the brass program and will teach one of the concert bands in the Spring.
