Mr. Cortes is excited to be starting his first year at Garcia Middle School! He is currently in his 12th year of teaching as a band director overall. He previously taught band at Rawlinson Middle School in Northside I.S.D. and Rhodes Middle School in San Antonio I.S.D. He also has experience teaching at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels, however he is extremely passionate about teaching middle school band students. His goal is to inspire his students to achieve excellence and to foster a strong sense of community with the band program.

As a musican, Mr. Cortes started learning to play the piano from the age of seven until he started middle school, where he learned trumpet and tuba at Leander Middle School. He continued to play tuba in high school at Winston Churchill High School. He studied music composition at The University of North Texas (Bachelor of Music), The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (Master of Music), and The University of Minnesota (he is currently A.B.D. in the Ph.D. program.) He also earned a post-baccalaureate certificate in music education from The University of Texas at San Antonio.

He is a member of the Texas Music Educators Association and the Texas Bandmasters Association. He served as the T.M.E.A. Region 29 Middle School Band coordinator from 2022 to 2024. Outside of teaching, his interests include music composition, music theory, recording engineering, electronic music and sound design/programming, video editing, music literacy instruction, personal finance, and he enjoys playing and watching sports.

Mr. Aguado is excited to be starting his first year at Garcia Middle School! He is currently in his.......continue bio here.