Staff & faculty

Jason Finnels is currently in his 14th year of teaching and proud to serve as the very first Director of Bands at Almeta Crawford High School in Fort Bend ISD. Prior to opening Crawford, Mr. Finnels was the Director of Bands at Ronald Thornton Middle School, Crawford’s main feeder program. From 2014-2018, Mr. Finnels also served as the Director of Bands at Watauga Middle School in Birdville ISD.

While under his direction, bands have received consistent UIL Sweepstakes awards and honors. The Watauga Middle School Honors Band was a two-time finalist at the annual North Texas Festival of Distinction in addition to being recognized as a two-time Commended Winner in the National Wind Band Mark of Excellence Competition. In 2022 and just four years after its inception, the Thornton Middle School Band was named a finalist in the North Texas Festival of Distinction, a Commended Winner in the National Wind Band Mark of Excellence Competition, and was selected as an Invited Band to perform in the 2023 Music for All National Concert Festival in Indianapolis, Indiana.
In 2022-2023, Mr. Finnels was named the Ronald Thornton Middle School Teacher of the Year and also selected as one of five Finalists for Fort Bend ISD’s Secondary Teacher of the Year.

Beginning in the Summer of 2024, Mr. Finnels will serve as the Co-Conductor of the AFA (American Festival for the Arts) Orchestra & Chamber Music Workshop Full Orchestra.

Mr. Finnels is a 2009 Cum Laude Graduate of Stephen F. Austin State University and a 2018 Summa Cum Laude Graduate of Southern Methodist University.

Mr. Finnels is an active member of the Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Bandmasters Association and the Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society. He is an active adjudicator, clinician/consultant and has presented clinics at the Texas Music Educators Association in San Antonio, Texas and the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Convention in Chicago, Illinois.

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