Mr. Casarez, better known as “Mr. C”, is currently in his 11 th year as Director of Bands at Rio Rancho High School and in his 21 st year of teaching. He was the Associate Director of Bands at Rio Rancho High School from 2007-2014. Mr. C was also the band director at Eagle Ridge MS and Rio Rancho Mid-High during his time as Associate Director at RRHS. Before coming to RRHS, Mr. C taught at LBJ MS in Albuquerque as well as Cibola HS. Before moving to New Mexico, Mr. Casarez was the Assistant Director at Pflugerville HS in Austin, TX.

Mr. C graduated from Texas State University in San Marcos, TX with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education in 2000. He was the Drum Major for the Bobcat Marching Band for 2 years. The marching band performed at BOA Grand Nationals as the exhibition band in 1999.

Mr. Casarez received his Master of Music in Trumpet Performance in 2004 from The University of New Mexico. While at UNM he was principal trumpet in both the Wind Symphony and Symphony Orchestra. Mr. C can be heard on the recording “Illuminations” featuring Joseph Alessi and the UNM Wind Symphony.

As a performer, Mr. Casarez has performed with the Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Symphony Brass Quintet, and the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps from Rockford, Illinois. Mr. Casarez has performed across the United States, as well as in Sweden and Ireland.

In 2018, Mr. Casarez was featured as New Mexico’s representative for the School Band and Orchestra’s magazine’s “50 Directors Who Make a Difference”.

Mr. Casarez lives in Rio Rancho with his wife Vanessa and two boys, Gus and Otis. He is an avid collector of Star Wars t-shirts, vinyl records (because they sound better), and anything having to do with Gustav Mahler who he considers to be the greatest composer to have ever lived. Mr. C is now getting into the marching band show design field, debuting his venture “Matt Casarez Sound Designs” in 2025.