The Dallas Brass, an internationally known brass ensemble that tours the country, is coming to Sioux Falls this week to perform at Jefferson High School. The ensemble consists of two trumpets, a French horn, a trombone, a tuba, and a percussionist.
One of their trumpet players, Luis Cárdenas Casillas, grew up in Sioux Falls and graduated from Roosevelt High School in 2009.
Luis is one of the most gifted musicians from South Dakota. As a high school student, he made all-state a total of twelve times. Four of them in band, four in jazz, and four in chorus and orchestra. There's a short-list of individuals who have completed this achievement in the state.
After high school, he went on to get his bachelor's degree at the University of North Texas, while also marching in Drum Corps International for Phantom Regiment in the summer months. Luis later went on to get his master's degree at the University of California – Los Angeles and has been living in LA as a professional musician ever since.
He credits his experience at Roosevelt High School for lighting the spark with his passion for music and the trumpet.
"It had a lot to do with [Shane Macklin]. There's great music education in Sioux Falls public schools. I've had a chance now in my career to really travel all over the country and work with thousands of students of all ages, and the more I travel and the more students I see, the more grateful I am for the really incredible music education experience," said Luis. "Especially with Shane, he really is like one of the best in the world. I knew since early high school, and it was because of Sioux Falls public schools and the music education I got."
Shane Macklin was the band director at Roosevelt throughout Luis's high school days. Today, Macklin is the band director at Jefferson High School. He had a chance to see Luis perform with the Dallas Brass a year ago in Omaha.
"I've known Luis since he was an eighth grader going to Memorial Middle School. I remember the first time I saw him; he was a very tall freshman coming in the door. He was a great player in high school for us there at Roosevelt. He's a very versatile player. He can play orchestrally very well. He also plays jazz and plays all kinds of music with the Dallas Brass. He's worked on his high chops as well," Maclin said. "It was a very proud moment for me last year to see him up there (in Omaha) performing and just to see his growth over the years. To remember him as an eighth grader and now seeing him up there on stage, living the life, doing great things on trumpet."
Another aspect of Roosevelt that benefited Luis was the after-school sight reading sessions with assistant band director Ben Firkus. Sight reading is a skill where you see a page of music for the first time, and you can play it. It's a trait that most professional musicians need to have.
"[Firkus] played duets with me my senior year every day after school. We would just play like five to ten minutes of duets, sight-read duets, and that was pretty incredible. We went through books and books and books. We went through every trumpet book in the school and then we started reading out of the French horn book and the clarinet book - just like slight reading stuff," Luis explained. "That was some of the most in-depth sight-reading training I got, and it carried me really well through my entire career because a lot of the professional world is built off of sight reading, especially in LA. That all came from Roosevelt, from Firkus and Shane."
In that 2005 to 2009 era, Roosevelt was continually having success and striving for the next big step with their band program. Each year that Luis was in high school, Roosevelt's marching band was competing at the Bands of America Super Regional event in St. Louis. They even went to BOA Grand Nationals to compete in Luis's freshman year. The Roosevelt concert bands, jazz bands, and pep bands were also solid at that time as well.
"We strived to be good at every part of the activity that we participated in. We were trying to really set standards and really do a good job in all those facets of our program," said Macklin. "Teachers are always proud of their students, regardless of what they do in their life. There are special ones too that tend to hit these big milestones and become professional performers."
Fast forward to 2025 and Luis is in his second season with the Dallas Brass, living in LA as a professional musician, and being an educator of his own. Luis credits his wife Rachel for encouraging his musical career.
"The first season was a lot of kind of like feeling it out and seeing like "OK is this for me? Is this good? Second season, I do feel it's for me I think it's good and it's now slowly shifting the mix of what my life is like here in LA to that," Luis explained. "I don't have to juggle as much when I'm on the road or when I come back, I don't have to I have to make up as much stuff, and then I have time for my family. I think that's more than anything. That's kind of the big thing now. The career stuff has been super fun and really grateful, really lucky, but the next stage is definitely more time for my family."
Luis and his wife Rachel have two dogs, Mr. Darcy and Lizzie.
The Dallas Brass was founded in 1983, which means it's been an ensemble for more than four decades. Throughout the years, they've played for the President, other elites, and more. Their director and founder Mike Levine explained that what the Dallas Brass does is more of a show and less about being a concert.
"The masses don't appreciate classical music or the arts, so if we can bridge that gap and connect with them, leave them walking away saying "wow, that's really cool stuff." It's kind of a hidden music appreciation built into the concert," said Levine. It's a family show. We want to reach all ages and all generations."
Yes, the Dallas Brass performs in top-end settings, but one of the best things they do, and Levine echoes this, is working with current high school students in a clinic setting and then letting the kids perform with them.
"One thing that we've been doing for more than 30 years is bringing a high school band on stage, and a middle school band on stage, to play one piece with us in the concert," Levine said. "We've had over 350,000 students play with the Dallas Brass over the years. It's what keeps me going, to be honest with you."
For Luis's homecoming, the Dallas Brass will do a clinic as well with students. Luis also is hoping to make a few other stops surrounding the area.
"He's just a prince. We had auditions. Every so often there's an opening. Somebody leaves for whatever reason – usually it's because they don't want to be on the road anymore," exclaimed LeVine. "We liked what we heard and then we invited him to come out and play for us in person. He's such a pleasure to work with. He's never negative, never defensive, he's just a team player all the way."
Dallas Brass is in town early this week with the concert scheduled for Tuesday evening.
"I'm just looking forward to getting back. I haven't been back in a while and you know to give back to the community that gave me so much, I think that's what I'm most looking forward to," stated Luis. "To say 'thank you' for everything, and I wouldn't be where I'm at now without Sioux Falls. Just being such a great place to grow up and having such great music education and having people like [Macklin]. I'm excited to go back to try to give back as much as I can."
The Dallas Brass's performance at Jefferson High School will take place at 7 pm CT on Tuesday, May 6th. Tickets for the concert are $25. Click here to get more information through the Jefferson band web page.
