Orchestra Staff

Michael Burris is completing his 5th and final year as a director of the Braswell High School Orchestras.  He holds a Master's degree in Music Education from the University of North Texas. He is active in music curriculum design and an active music clinician and judge in the North Texas and surrounding areas. Before teaching at Braswell, he taught eight years at Strickland Middle School. He also taught band for two years in Petrolia ISD.

When not teaching, he enjoys cooking, gardening, and performing and writing a variety of music including folk, jazz, and rock styles.  With his wife, Rebecca, he has three children. His dog Penny and his cat Isla are very good girls.

Beginning next year Burris will teach orchestra at Texas Women's University.

In his second decade teaching orchestra, Ezra Hood has instructed students from 3rd graders to seniors, in Dallas, Lewisville, Fort Worth, and now in Denton ISD.  Mr. Hood will lead BHSO orchestras next year.

Beyond teaching, Mr. Hood literally wrote the book about TCU football, plays piano for fun, organ for church, composes for fun and occasional performance-- most recently an anthem for choir for the Fort Worth Stake, and a suite for symphony orchestra premiered by SymphonyHEB.  Navo MS will perform Hood's full orchestrations of string beginner favorites Apache, Dragonhunter, and Fiddles on Fire in May.

Mr. and Mrs. Hood, both TCU '05 grads, raise their family in Fort Worth.