Amy Allison-Rivera is in her 26rd year of teaching and her 24st year in Leander ISD.  Ms. Allison opened the Canyon Ridge MS Band program in 2004 and is the first and only head band director the school has known in its 20-year history.  Under her direction, the CRMS Band Program was recently named by the Texas Bandmasters Association as the Exemplary Band Program of the Year for 2021 and was awarded the Silver Sudler Cup from the John Philip Sousa Foundation in December of 2017. The Honor Band performed at the TMEA Convention in 2021 as an Invited Band and performed at The Midwest Clinic in Chicago in December of 2014. Ms. Allison brought the Honor Band to the TBA Convention in 2015 to give a demonstration clinic on rehearsal strategies and practice techniques. The band program placed tenth at the state level of the CC Honor Band competition in 2006 and has been named a National Winner in the National Wind Band Honors through the Foundation for Music Education for the past several years. Throughout her teaching career, her bands have consistently received sweepstakes ratings at the Texas UIL Concert and Sight-reading Contest. 

Before her time at Canyon Ridge, Mrs. Allison-Rivera taught at Cedar Park Middle School, Leander Middle School, and at DeSoto West Junior High. She was selected as the First Year Teacher of the Year for DeSoto ISD in 1998.

Mrs. Allison-Rivera received her Bachelor's degree in Music Education from Stephen F. Austin State University. She performed as the piccolo player with the American Wind Symphony Orchestra in Pennsylvania before pursuing her career in teaching and is currently the piccolo player for the Cedar Park Winds. Mrs. Allison-Rivera is a regular clinician throughout the state of Texas. She was inducted into Phi Beta Mu, the International Bandmasters Fraternity, in 2011, and she served as the Region 26 Middle School Coordinator from 2006-2009. She lives in Cedar Park, Texas, with her husband, Bert, and their Boston terrier, Winston.

A native of Ohio, Mr. Steven Myers is in his 17th year teaching, 16 of them here in Texas. The 2023-2024 school year will be his fifth at Canyon Ridge. An alumnus of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and the 2000 Cavaliers Drum & Bugle Corps, Mr. Myers' work on trombone, tuba, bass, steel pan, and voice has taken him all around the globe as both a performer and educator. He first came to Texas in 2008 by way of the Lopez High School Band in Brownsville, under the direction of Mr. George Trevino. Mr. Myers' low brass students earned numerous honors and chairs in All-Region, Area, and All-State Concert and Jazz Bands while the band program advanced to state in both Marching Band and the TMEA Honor Band competition.

Mr. Myers took the plunge into to teaching middle school in 2012 as Director of Bands at Palo Alto Middle School in Killeen/Fort Cavazos, TX. Here he was the lone band director leading a program averaging over 175 students. During his tenure, the band program enrollment grew by nearly 50% and the Wind Ensemble brought home the program's first Sweepstakes award in 20 years; only the second in the history of the school! Mr. Myers spent his first years in Killeen teaching at Shoemaker High School where he lead the Symphonic and Jazz Bands as well as reviving the Winter Guard, which earned a Silver Medal at TCGC State Finals in 2011. 

Most recently, Mr. Myers headed the middle school band program in Burnet CISD where the middle school bands gave strong Sweepstakes performances every time out, placed highly at Area in the Outstanding Performance Series, and returned to a level of growth and success not seen in nearly a decade. Mr. Myers also played a crucial role in the Burnet High School Marching Band's return to the 4A UIL State Marching Band contest in 2018. 

Mr. Myers resides in Cedar Park and just married his wife, Jen - a first grade teacher in LISD, this summer! Along with their Aussie-doodle puppy, Rudy, they enjoy traveling, spending time outdoors or on the water, enjoying hockey and baseball games as well as all the great art, food & drink, BBQ, and live music Austin has to offer. Mr. Myers remains active as a performer; most notably in Tubalele, an eclectic and often humorous trio comprised of fellow performing arts teachers, and the Cedar Park Winds community band with which he had the honor to perform at the 75th Annual Texas Bandmasters Association Conference as well as the Midwest International Band & Orchestra Clinic in 2017.

Tristan Rivera is in his fifth year as an Assistant Director of Bands at Canyon Ridge Middle School. At Canyon Ridge, Mr. Rivera conducts the Symphonic Band and teaches the beginning saxophone, trumpet, and horn classes. He also assists with the Concert and Honor Bands. 

He is a native Texan, born and raised in San Antonio. Mr. Rivera earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio where he was under the baton of Professor Ron Ellis and Dr. John Zarco. He also had the privilege of studying trumpet with Dr. Joseph Cooper.

Mr. Rivera has experience in the marching arts as well. He currently serves as the lead mellophone tech for the Santa Clara Vanguard. He has also served on the brass staffs for The Cadets and Genesis Drum and Bugle Corps. Prior to that, he was a four-year marching member of the Carolina Crown Drum and Bugle Corps, based out of Ft. Mill, South Carolina, aging out in 2018 as horn sergeant.

Outside of the band hall, Mr. Rivera enjoys travelling, running, coffee, and cooking (and eating) and got married in June 2021 to his long time sweetheart, Sydney Scooler-Rivera, a fellow band director and Carolina Crown alum. They reside in south Austin with their cat, Olive.