In the Fall of 1994, as Bob Briggs was leading the California Marching Band through their last season before his retirement, it was suggested to him that he could fill his time in retirement by starting up a community band to conduct in Fairfield. Before becoming the Director of Bands at the University of California, Bob was the director of the Armijo SuperBand, building a standard of excellence with that high school program. Strong high school bands in Fairfield have been around since that time, including many successful years for the Fairfield Scarlet Brigade. What was missing was a place for adult musicians to continue to play their instruments.

Bob took on the challenge, and attended Community Band workshops at the MidWest Band Clinic in Chicago that year. In the summer of 1995, a group of musicians gathered to discuss the possibility of putting together such a group, and two months later, 40 band musicians gathered at Fairfield High School for the first rehearsal of the Solano Winds. One week after that first rehearsal of October 5, 1995, over 50 musicians from seven counties were with the band to prepare for our first performance at Will C. Wood High School in December.

Since that enthusiastic beginning, the band has regularly fielded a band of 45-65 members to perform a number of concerts throughout the year. Each year, the band has prepared four formal programs, and has also performed at events such as the Fourth of July Fireworks Show in Suisun, numerous concerts at Paradise Valley Estates, and an annual appearance in the Carmichael Park Community Band Festival each June. The band has grown organizationally from our beginnings as well - starting with $500 grants from Gordon's Music and Sound and the Fairfield Scarlet Brigade Boosters in 1995, we now enjoy funding from a number of donors and concert ticket sales. Still, the purpose of the band remains as when it started - to perform high quality band literature well, and to have fun doing it!

Dr. Sixto F. Montesinos Jr. is a Mexican American conductor, educator, and arts advocate whose work centers on musical storytelling, community, and creating meaningful connections between musicians and audiences. Originally from Coyoacán, Mexico City, and based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Montesinos serves as Music & Artistic Director of Solano Winds, beginning his tenure with the ensemble’s 2026–2027 season.

An active conductor of wind, orchestral, and musical theatre, Montesinos has appeared with ensembles in the United States and internationally. Recent engagements include conducting the Azerbaijan State Chamber Orchestra in Baku in a program featuring works by Bach, Stravinsky, Britten, and Mexican composer Nubia Jaime Donjuan. He has also conducted the Awesome Orchestra Collective in the San Francisco Bay Area and has worked across orchestral, wind ensemble, chamber, musical theater, and interdisciplinary settings.

Montesinos is a Tenured Associate Professor of Music at Saint Mary’s College of California, where he serves as Director of the Music Program and Head of Instrumental Studies. He also serves as Director of the College’s Honors Program. At Saint Mary’s, his work encompasses teaching, advising, curriculum development, and arts leadership. He has played a significant role in reshaping the Music Program’s curriculum and performance opportunities while advocating for an accessible and vibrant musical community in which students from across the College can participate.

As a conductor and educator, Montesinos draws significant inspiration from the American wind band tradition and from the teaching of legendary conductor and pedagogue Eddie Green. His rehearsal philosophy emphasizes the fundamentals of ensemble playing: characteristic sound, balance, rhythmic precision, articulation, listening, audiation, and the development of a shared internal pulse. At the same time, he believes that technical discipline should always serve expression and that the ultimate purpose of rehearsal is to give musicians the tools and confidence to communicate something meaningful together.

His artistic interests are particularly connected to the music and cultures of Mexico, Spain, Latin America, and the broader Spanish-speaking world. He is an advocate for expanding the wind ensemble repertoire and placing music by contemporary and historically underrepresented composers alongside established masterworks of the band tradition. His programming frequently combines major wind literature, orchestral transcriptions, contemporary works, popular and theatrical repertoire, and music that invites audiences to experience unfamiliar musical voices.

Montesinos began his tenure with Solano Winds with the 2026–2027 season, bringing a vision centered on artistic growth, ambitious programming, community engagement, and the ensemble’s identity as one of the region’s important community music organizations. His inaugural concert, “From Spain, With Love,” reflects many of his artistic priorities, featuring contemporary Spanish-inspired works by composers including Ferrer Ferran, Óscar Navarro, José Rafael Pascual-Vilaplana, and Julie Giroux.

For Montesinos, community music-making is rooted in the belief that excellent music and welcoming music-making are not competing ideas. He believes a community ensemble can challenge its musicians, perform significant repertoire at a high artistic level, introduce audiences to new composers and traditions, and remain a place where musicians build lasting relationships with one another. Through his work with Solano Winds, Montesinos seeks to honor the ensemble’s history while continuing to expand its artistic possibilities, strengthen its presence throughout Solano County and the greater Bay Area, and create performances that are memorable for musicians and audiences alike.