Miguel Gutierrez: 0:19

Welcome to another episode of Charros y Clásicos a Bosky Strings podcast. I'm your host, Miguel Gutiérrez, and I'm here with my good friend and co-host, Joel Ozuna.

Joel Lee Ozuna: 0:27

Hello everyone and thank you for joining us for another episode. Our next guest is no stranger to the orchestra scene here in the Rio Grande Valley. A former orchestra director at Edinburgh North High School, he's a proud member of the Valley Symphony Orchestra and currently serves as the head orchestra director at De Zavala Middle School. His passion for music and dedication to his students have made a lasting impact in our community. Please join us in welcoming the one and only Moises Llanes. Oh my God.

Moises Llanes: 0:56

Thank you guys. Thank you for having me. I appreciate the opportunity.

Miguel Gutierrez: 1:00

Hey, Mr Yanez, so you finally sit at our table. I've been trying to get a hold of you for a while and you're hard to get.

Moises Llanes: 1:08

I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Had I known it was you, I would have answered immediately.

Miguel Gutierrez: 1:14

So how's it going? What are you doing right now? Are you retired?

Moises Llanes: 1:18

Well, I did retire in the spring of what 2022, right and I laid off for a year, did some consulting, did some UIL judging, and then I get a call from Karina Aldape at La Jolla and they needed somebody to take the middle school job at Lorenzo de Zavala Middle School in La Jolla. And you know, I was kind of enjoying my retirement. I'm not going to lie, it was fun. After 37 years of teaching, it was nice to kick back a little bit and just relax. But you know, I just can't say no to helping kids understand music and I'll explain, hopefully in a little bit of detail, why that is. And I started in October, a little late. By then I didn't have an orchestra teacher, so the program kind of just dissolved into the other electives and I had to scrabble everything, scramble everything and claw as many kids back as I could. And I got a good little core of orchestra students and they're really enjoying, uh, the process of of learning music and we're having a great time. We're having a really, really good time. I'm really, uh, very, um, uh gratified that they're willing to listen and willing to learn, uh, even though they had a completely different teacher last year, you know, the the first year in a new in, well, in a new program.

Moises Llanes: 2:43

To me, a new program to the person coming in is always a little tough because they're used to a certain way of doing things. Well, I came in and totally turned all that around and they were totally open. Not everybody, but the large majority of the kids were like oh wow, this really works. So it's been fun. It's been a lot of fun. We're getting ready for our spring concert May 8th, and we're playing some fun pieces a little bit of classical, a little bit of country, we're playing El Choclo, so it's pretty varied. I'm very excited and they're very excited about all the different styles of music that we're doing.

Joel Lee Ozuna: 3:31

Just for the record, I knew, knew you were gonna come out of retirement.

Moises Llanes: 3:32

Like oh, you didn't know. No, I knew you were gonna come out. Like, oh, you do.

Joel Lee Ozuna: 3:34

You had a feeling you're not gonna last, like it was too good for you to to be retired like yeah, and I was surprised you. You retired like you were so close to what 30 years 37, 37.

Moises Llanes: 3:44

I had 37 years and that's mainly the reason it was more of a financial decision than than one that I didn't want to teach anymore. I could teach, you know, at least another 15 years, no problem. But financially I don't know if you know how the retirement system works in the in the state of texas, TRS the teacher retirement system it just wasn't cost effective to continue because I was vested at a very high percentage of what I was getting paid, which means I was essentially working for free. And so I thought you know, in the interest of my family and our financial situation, go ahead and start collecting the retirement and then keep working, consulting and judging and things like that, and make a little bit of money on top of that. And it's worked out quite well actually. But yeah, that was mostly the decision. It was not one where I was like tired of it, I don't want to do it anymore. No, absolutely not. It was just it wasn't financially. It didn't make sense financially. So that's why I did it.

Miguel Gutierrez: 4:52

Well, now that we have you at the table, now we can see who you are. Okay. So you know, because you know Joe's right Like we know who you are in the orchestral world. We've always heard Moses Yannis and your success at ECISD, but we really don't know much about who you are as a person, right? So can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Tell us about your upbringing? Where are you from?

Moises Llanes: 5:16

Yeah, so a lot of it is. I wear my hat on my sleeve most of the time and what you see is what you get pretty much. But just to start off, you know I came, my parents came from Mexico. My dad was a very wealthy businessman at the time it was in the early 60s, and he had an eighth-grade education but was tremendously successful as a businessman. I remember my brother, who was a year younger than me, had a nanny. I had a nanny. We had two cooks, two housekeepers, a chauffeur, I mean the whole bit. My sisters were going to a private American school in Tampico, mexico, in Mexico, and I remember that because I was obviously a child. But it was a pretty nice life. I'm not going to lie.

Moises Llanes: 6:17

But the thing I do remember that even though my dad didn't have much of an education, he read a lot. I would see him reading a lot, mostly the Bible, but also books on business and books on strategies for new business. He's an entrepreneur as well and in spite of his lack of education, one of the things I do remember is, very early on, I mean, I promise you I was in the crib with my baby bottle listening For some reason he would put these on the Nutcracker Suite, sleeping Beauty, the Grand Canyon Suite, all the Beethoven symphonies, all the Brahms symphonies. We didn't hear much Mozart. I don't remember Mozart very much, but I do remember the Brahms symphonies. So those were very formative memories for me and I remember, and I even think that classical music gave me a very early consciousness because, I promise you, I remember being in diapers. I remembered drinking that that bottle, that warm bottle, and listening to that music. And my sister, who's 12 years older than me, attests to that, because every time I bring it up she says how do you remember that? You weren't even a child, you were an infant. You were a baby when that was going on. So it had a giant influence on me.

Moises Llanes: 7:36

Not to say that he didn't play other music. He loved jazz. He loved pop, organ music, which was all the rage in the 60s I don't know if you know that and it was interesting. I enjoyed that. I loved the jazz. I remember listening to Caravan, one of my favorite pieces as a two-year-old.

Moises Llanes: 7:59

But for some reason classical music kind of infused me with for lack of a better explanation with peace and contentment. I felt at peace and content listening. I enjoyed the other stuff. In fact, my dad would bring a mariachi every year at five in the morning to play for my mom for her birthday and he would bring a guitar trio at five beautiful harmonies. These guys could sing up a storm. A guitar trio played Musica, romantica at five in the morning for their anniversary every year. And I love that. Don't get me wrong. I love those genres, but classical music it makes me feel at home. I just feel at home Listening and playing classical music.

Moises Llanes: 8:50

It's like this is what I'm meant to be doing, and so that's really what started the path. Your interest, yeah, yeah, there were many, many different. I want to call them like formative situations, encounters where I didn't even know they were formative until maybe a few years later on. And as an example, I want to talk about my piano teacher, my piano teacher Eloise Long, here from Edinburgh. I was in second grade when I started with her. You were like seven years old at the time. I was in second grade when I started with Mrs Long. Amazing, anybody that's from Edinburgh that's been here a while knows who I'm talking about.

Moises Llanes: 9:38

She was just an icon. She was the music teacher at Austin Elementary, forever In fact, when I started taking lessons from her at seven years old. She seemed to me like she was 146 years old because she was, you know, quite elderly, wonderful, beautiful, tremendous woman, but just really old, right, and chain smoker, because back then everybody smoked and she would smoke up a storm during our piano lessons. There was nothing wrong with it, it was normal. Everybody my principal at Austin Elementary, mr Doyle God rest his soul beautiful man always smoking down the hall at the elementary school.

Moises Llanes: 10:20

It was a crazy, crazy time, but anyway, one of the things that stuck with me for her and again, another thing that kind of guided me towards this path, towards music education, is that if my lesson was at four o'clock, I was expected to be there by 345. And while she was giving someone else a lesson, she would give me a music theory worksheet and I would fill that worksheet out and then she would spend the first five minutes of my lesson going over the music theory. I didn't realize how absolutely crazy genius that was until later on, and so I took lessons from her for several years, learning music theory, music literacy, in addition to learning to play the piano. So that was your first instrument that was my first piano.

Moises Llanes: 11:08

Yeah, and again my dad. Oh, my God, I may cry, so be ready. But my dad, eighth grade education, he made us all listen to classical music and he made us all take piano lessons as part of our education. It wasn't our choice. It's like well, si quieres, no, todos van a aprender piano, todos necesitan aprender piano. Es muy importante que sepan ustedes la música y el piano. So all four of us took piano lessons, whether we wanted to or not. Again, another formative experience. Thank you, dad, for that. Just you know. Wise parental decision to make us all learn music one way or another.

Moises Llanes: 11:50

Eventually, I picked up the violin, the trumpet, the clarinet, the guitar. My older sister picked up the guitar and the accordion. My less older sister I have two older sisters she picked up singing and she became a missionary and she would sing with a guitar trio. And my brother? God love him. He's tremendous but not a musically inclined at all. He's the only one that really didn't embrace the musicality.

Moises Llanes: 12:20

But we all went on to our different careers, very different. I just stuck with music being my priority. But so what happened is in eighth grade? No, I'm sorry, in third grade I was eight years. No, fifth grade, how old are you in fifth grade, ten years old? Ten, yeah. So I've been taking from Islam for four years.

Moises Llanes: 12:39

And then the orchestra program in Edinburgh. We were starting into fifth grade in those days, which must have been 1972, something like that a long time ago and so I started. I picked the violin, I was in the orchestra program and I just need to pause here to make sure everybody understands. I don't have anything against my orchestra teachers in those early years. They were wonderful. It was an older married couple and they loved music. They loved their students. They were always very patient with us and very gentle. I don't fault them at all for anything that they did.

Moises Llanes: 13:21

But one of the things that I noticed, having had music literacy training from day one, is that that wasn't happening in orchestra. They were teaching us how to play and the kids were doing really good at excelling at how to hold the instrument, get a good sound, put the finger down, get it in tune. All of that was happening. But the moment we started reading notes, everybody started struggling and my teachers didn't really address that very well. Even in the fifth grade Because I had taken all this earlier training I saw that it wasn't being addressed. So I was like, okay, we'll do it. No, never happened.

Moises Llanes: 14:01

I mean, you know, they showed you how to kind of read notes, but what kids would do and I would see them write the numbers, finger numbers down, because they didn't know how to read the the staff. So either either they would write the finger numbers down or they were really good, they would just memorize everything, which as a beginner is easy to do, much harder as you get to seventh and eighth grade in high school. Uh. So so we, you know, um, I, I was like wondering what, what's going on with that right and?

Moises Llanes: 14:32

And so in in fifth grade, my stamp partner, I would help him, jose luis. I'll never remember, I'll never forget jose luis uh, I'm gonna say last night, because he's probably still around, but he, um, I helped him to read and he's's like oh man. And we became best friends almost immediately because, wow, I really understand what's going on. Then, when I got to sixth grade, to middle school, the same thing they showed us how to play and that was great. But the music theory, it was kind of like secondary, it was always get ready for the next performance. However, that happened. So by the time I got to ninth grade. Long story short um, um. I realized that, um, we needed to be better to our orchestra students and we I say we because at that time I I decided I'm going to go get a good education and then come back and help these kids understand music at a deeper level, in addition to learning to play the instrument.

Miguel Gutierrez: 15:37

So you're saying that by your first year in high school, you already know what you're going to do? Yeah, I knew my path.

Moises Llanes: 15:42

By eighth grade I was pretty sure. But then I got to ninth grade and then you well, and the reason I I don't know how to say this without sounding arrogant, but but I was fifth chair as a freshman on my first audition and we had like 24 violins by the time. I was a sophomore, I was concertmaster, and to me that was a problem. It was like I don't understand what's going on. And then I figured it out. It's like we're not teaching literacy. We love the program and they were very successful teachers at the time. We were getting sweepstakes, everything was great.

Moises Llanes: 16:30

But I could see the confusion even more at the high school level and the kids would do whatever they could to figure it out. And I've seen that everywhere I teach is they try to figure it out and I tell them look, you don't have to figure it out, you just have to read it. Read what's front of you, I'll show you, show you how to do it. And once they get that and I think that's that was one of the keys to success at Edinburgh North is that literacy allowed them the freedom to explore music on their own, without their having their teacher, without having the teacher put down the finger numbers without high two, low two, high, three.

Moises Llanes: 17:09

None of that, it's whole steps and half steps. The major scale pattern and understanding how that applies to the fingerboard geography, make that connection, make that awareness and, man, they light up and they take off. They take off and I think that's one of the reasons that is attributed to the success at Edinburgh North is the ability to not just to teach literacy but to show them the importance of it in what they're doing. So there's a saying that says you know, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Well, I found that actually, you can lead a horse to water, but you have to make them thirsty. If you make them thirsty for that knowledge, then they're going to want more.

Moises Llanes: 17:55

They're going to want it, and I think that's been part of the success of the way my method, I guess, if you want to call it and it's been great. It's been a great ride. And I get to do it again in a different district and I'm seeing that. I just got observed by one of our administrators and he was just, you know, blown away by what the seventh and eighth graders are doing, you know, in the second semester of their seventh and eighth grade year.

Joel Lee Ozuna: 18:26

Question for you is this the first time you're teaching middle school? Not really.

Moises Llanes: 18:31

Yeah, I taught middle school I mean. So I started at the ninth grade and we had two classes, and so then I would go and assist at South Junior High at the time with Norma Norma Cardenas I would help her there and then with Kurt at Edinburgh High. So yeah, I taught the whole gamut from the very beginning and basically the other key is that the curriculum is adaptable to the level but it's really you can teach everything they need in one year, whether they're in sixth grade or in ninth grade or even seniors. We've had several kids start as beginners in ninth grade and tenth grade and by their 11th grade they're in varsity. Not often, not often, but when you can take a beginner and in one year they're good enough to make varsity, you know you're on the right track in terms of teaching them to be self-sufficient. And that's what it is. Is that independence of thought and self-sufficiency and the ability for them to take a piece of music, whatever it is.

Moises Llanes: 19:41

I've had countless kids be in a praise team at church and play whatever they put in front of them, and a few of them even, and they wanted me to play something in the key of B flat and they didn't have it. They had like the trumpet part or whatever, and I knew how to transpose it and I was able to play the trumpet part on the violin in the correct key in front of the praise team, things like that. Or they're in a garage band and they're like I'm writing my own music and I know what to do and I know the chords that the guitar has to play. You know I mean off they go. Yeah, go live your life with that knowledge that you have. It's tremendous, tremendous feeling.

Miguel Gutierrez: 20:27

Let's roll back a little bit. Uh, let's talk more about your experience in high school.

Moises Llanes: 20:32

So um, you're an all-stater, no, yeah, yeah, two-year-old, tell us about that. No, no lessons. I uh, we didn't have private teachers back then. I do remember if I wanted a lesson uh, miss donice, my my middle school to school, junior high teacher at the time once I got to high school in her little VW van she had a little VW van she would take me and Carlos Carlos Perales was another one we grew up together and Luis Alcocer, a cell player, to go get lessons at Delmar College. If we wanted a lesson, and I don't know who paid, I didn't pay. So I imagine player to go get lessons at Delmar College if we wanted a lesson and I don't know who paid, I didn't pay. So I imagine Mary did, or Kurt or somebody, or maybe they did, for I don't know, but money was never mentioned and I had maybe two, three lessons during the year doing that.

Moises Llanes: 21:21

But mostly it was just self-taught and you know, we didn't have YouTube or anything and so it was very tough to get recordings of the Allstate music and things like that. And I remember one of them very, very vividly. It was Shostakovich's Fifth, the finale, and it was like pop, pop, pop, pop, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. It's like what is going on with this, how do I do this? And it was just all the training that I'd had and all the exposure to music helped me understand that at a deep enough level that I made you know the top orchestra that year. So, yeah, a lot of it is just ganas like ganas. I was practicing and nobody believes me. You can ask me Well, you can't ask her now she's no longer with us but you could ask my mom. I would practice literally four hours a day every day, eight hours on weekends to get ready for state, and it didn't seem like it was that long because I just naturally would work things out over and over and over and over.

Moises Llanes: 22:31

And I get students that I tell them that story and they go and do that and the response they get from the parents sometimes is heartbreaking because the parents will say, hey, stop playing that. You've been playing that for 10 minutes nonstop, I'm tired of hearing it. And it's like, oh, that's the way you get better. You polish it and you polish it, you clean it up. And you know, I tell them the saying is don't don't learn something until you can play it right. Learn something until you can't play it wrong. And they take me to my word and they do it. But sometimes parents don't understand. They think they're going crazy because they're doing the same thing over and over. But that's really how you practice, that's really how you get better.

Moises Llanes: 23:18

And so my parents and again my dad God bless him.

Moises Llanes: 23:20

He was a businessman, entrepreneur, and he never pushed his business on me even though I was the oldest boy, and that's what you do in our culture.

Moises Llanes: 23:27

He saw my passion for music and he saw how much time I was spending on it and getting awards and being a first chair and going to Baylor Orchestra Camp and a concerto competition at West Texas State and they paid for the flight and everything. And he saw I was being successful even in high school and he supported it. And when I went to and I told him I wanted to major in music, he says you know, whatever the Lord puts in your heart that you need to be doing, and I will help you with whatever it is. And so you know, to this day I credit him for just being so open-minded, because in our culture music is not a great career. You know, a lot of times musicians in our Hispanic culture are viewed as kind of the lowest of the low. They're just gigging. They're standing in the corner at 5 in the morning looking for gigs and that's kind of our thinking Serenading people's anniversaries.

Moises Llanes: 24:25

Exactly In our society. So the fact that my dad was able to see past that and see that I had a gift and a passion for it and encouraged me to do it. Thank you, dad.

Miguel Gutierrez: 24:41

I love you, so where?

Moises Llanes: 24:43

did you go to school after high school? So I went to Southwestern University for two years on scholarship After high school. So I went to Southwestern University for two years on scholarship One of my UIL solo ensemble judges, tom Douglas. Never forget him man, he was a character. He was the violin professor at Southwestern and he came a couple of years to be our UIL judge and by my senior year he offered me a scholarship on the spot. I didn't have to audition or anything. And he says you come and we'll give you full tuition.

Miguel Gutierrez: 25:10

What did you play that year?

Moises Llanes: 25:12

I played, you've got to remember. Well, my sophomore year I played the Mozart, a major Five, number five. Yeah, I played number five. Oh, my sophomore year I played meditation and I got a one on that at State. And then my senior year, oh my God, I don't remember. There was so much that I did. What did I play? Anyway, whatever it was, he really enjoyed it.

Moises Llanes: 25:42

So this is interesting, because I had gone to Baylor camp and Clyde Roller I don't know if you guys know who that was, he's a major, uh, symphony conductor back in that day and he was conducting the, the Baylor symphony orchestra. So he got to hear me at the camp and he offered me a scholarship, oh, wow and um and. But you know, in terms of Southwestern was a bigger scholarship. So I took Southwestern and then Clyde Roller calls me back in the day before cell phones when you got the kitchen phone, and the kitchen phone rang and I pick it up, or my mom picked it up or somebody, and it was Clyde Roller, and this was in late August. You know, school was about to start. He says hey, mo, I was just wondering. We never heard back from you about the scholarship.

Moises Llanes: 26:30

And what have you decided? I said well, I decided to go to Southwestern. Southwestern, why would you go there? And I said well, sir, and you know I didn't know how to be tactical or tactful or anything, no, I just told him Well, they gave me a bigger scholarship. He says they gave you more money. That's what it was, we could have given you more money. So that was a neat phone call. He was very, very disappointed that I didn't go to Baylor and that he was willing to match whatever Southwestern was. But you know, I didn't know anything.

Moises Llanes: 27:08

And yeah, I was already done, I was already signed on the dotted line and everything. And so I started at Southwestern Tremendous music theory program. Richard Bass was a music theory teacher Tremendous, oh my God, I learned so much. And our music history professor, dr Peterson Ellsworth Peterson he's still around and he's still doing. He's listening to Bach cantatas and there's a whole club of people that log in under Zoom to hear Bach cantatas and hear him analyze and tell him all about it. He's a tremendous guy. Even to this day he's got to be 90. So I had tremendous experience. Tom Douglas, great orchestra teacher he's the one that taught me the finger patterns. By the way, major minor diminished all of that. That was him.

Moises Llanes: 27:56

But the orchestra wasn't that great. I was one of four violins. There was one viola, a couple cellos, a bass, and you know they would bring in people to play literature and it was fine. It was great, but it wasn't. You know what I was hoping for in terms of orchestral work, tremendous music theory, music history. All my professors were great. I was taking piano lessons from Richard Bass as well. He was amazing.

Moises Llanes: 28:25

But then there was a I don't remember what it was. So a bunch of friends and I went to a recital at SMU of one of our friends in the fall of 82. I was a sophomore and we went to SMU, to Dallas, to listen to one of our friends and his recital and there was a poster, auditions and the date, and we were all very competitive and so one of the things that we would always say whenever we saw something that was interesting is like competition, right. And so I saw that and my other violin friend saw it, and then our trombone friend looks like competition, and so so we signed up to audition.

Moises Llanes: 29:11

I didn't think anything of it, you know whatever, but I knew SMU had tremendous orchestra because Anshul Brusilov had just joined SMU from North Texas. He came down and started working at SMU and brought all of the talent from North Texas down with him and it was incredible orchestra. But you know whatever, okay, so I auditioned and, sure enough, in the summer I get a letter Congratulations on your audition, we'd love to have you at SMU. It's like no way.

Joel Lee Ozuna: 29:43

And so I showed my friends.

Moises Llanes: 29:45

I showed my friends like hey, guys, and what you're not going, are you? By then I knew the kind of orchestra they had. I said I can't not go, I have to go. And it was heartbreaking. And I remember the fine arts secretary at Southwestern looking at me like daggers in her eyes, like how dare you after everything we've done for you? And I said I know, I understand, I understand, but man, their orchestra, I can't say no, so anyway. So I went to SMU and finished up there and I had four years with Anshul Bhruslav.

Moises Llanes: 30:17

I mean, we played Richard Strauss, don Juan Till, euland Spiegel, death and Transfiguration, you name it. We played it. We played the Planets. We played Brahms symphonies Not my favorite, oh, that guy, I've never understood his appeal. Mahler, romantic, oh no, I love Mahler. We did Mahler, it was great. No, oh, my gosh, I forgot his name. Anyway, his symphonies just go on and on and on Bruckner, bruckner, bruckner, and they don't say anything.

Moises Llanes: 30:51

Bruckner, we played that guy. And it's like when are we getting to anything? Good, I'm sorry, tom Bruckner, I am so sorry. I just don't get you, man, I just don't get it. But no, we learned a lot of literature, man. I just don't get it. But no, we learned a lot of literature, man, it just really.

Moises Llanes: 31:08

And so a lot of literature that I programmed at my high school is because not only did I know it, because I could play it, but I watched a maestro conduct it and I knew what to do with it. It was just invaluable. It was an invaluable. I don't regret it for a second. I still have my friends from Southwestern. We're still friends even to this day. In fact, one of the horn players was my best man at my wedding and I went to his wedding and we still correspond. I mean so those friendships were rock solid and I just had a great time. I had a tremendous, tremendous, both at southwestern wonderful school for what it could give me, and it gave me invaluable stuff in terms of the music theory, the music history, the piano, uh that that I was able to take, uh lessons. So so I don't regret a moment of my of my college years because it was all amazing, just amazing.

Miguel Gutierrez: 32:08

It was like a dream come true so when you uh graduated from smu, did you come back? Yeah, so.

Moises Llanes: 32:15

So that was interesting. Um, I don't want to go off on a tangent, but just to say I was in Dallas from 82 to 86. And Dallas was extremely conservative and extremely Anglo at the time. In fact, smu, I was one of three Mexican students in the entire music program. And again, I don't want to go off on a tangent, but let me just say that if I encountered racism, I may not have realized that's what it was, because everybody was amazing, everybody was amazing to me. In fact, I had so many opportunities when I left and let me give you a couple examples I was, you know, I had to pay the rent. It was full tuition, but it didn't pay room and board, right. So I had to pay rent and so I had to do jobs.

Moises Llanes: 33:16

And one of the jobs I did was at a place called Japanese Auto Parts. Bill Denny was the owner, wonderful, wonderful human being, and his general manager, mike Looney, who looked just like the band leader from the Letterman Show. Oh, what's that guy? He looked exactly like him. It was super funny. Anyway, those two guys, I worked for them. And then, at the end of when I gave my notice because I had finished my degree and I was heading back here, they brought me into their office. Two white guys brought this little Mexican to the office and they said your work here has been amazing. You're the second highest seller because they have four different stores. You're the second highest salesman in our entire organization and we don't want to lose you. Tell us what it would take to keep you. And well, I knew what my salary was going to be. I had already done the interview and had been accepted and everything, and it was 18.5, which was in that time, 1986. A lot of money, a lot of money. I was making about $9,000 working part-time at Japanese Auto Part. So I did some quick calculations. I said so. They said what would it take to keep you? I said $11,000. Done Like. I mean $11,000. Done Like I mean. They didn't even hesitate. They didn't even hesitate, done. And what's more, we want to make you the manager of the Richardson store. So racism, I didn't see it. I saw these two guys that saw a good worker that was willing to do whatever it took to do the job and they gave me the opportunity.

Moises Llanes: 35:07

Another place I was working at was at a Montessori school. I was teaching violin at a Montessori school that was the owner and director. His name was Albanese, so he's actually Italian. Later on I found out he's like one of the founding fathers of Montessori schools in the United States. I didn't know that, and so he saw me working with those kids for two or three years, and he came and took me into his office. When I gave him my notice, he says I want you to consider this. In his Italian accent, he says I want you to consider this, I want you to consider this. In his Italian accent, he says I want you to consider this. I would like to send you to the Montessori College in Italy so you can get your Montessori certification and come work for me for five years and I'll pay for everything. So again't matter, your work will be noticed and you will be rewarded.

Moises Llanes: 36:14

My daughters are growing up. One of them is 22. The other one is 26. And I tell them the same thing, because they're you know how people are they get a little bit. I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that. No, whenever a job is offered, go for it. You never know the opportunities that are going to come from it, and so, anyway, that was a side story that I think is important, because a lot of times in our community we put ourselves down because, no, you know, people are not going to believe that we can do the work just because of the color of our skin.

Moises Llanes: 36:51

And back then Dallas was much more conservative and much more white than it is now, you know, and I found tremendous degrees of success. My college advisor, howard Dunn oh my God, that guy. He was 6'5", 350 pounds, he looked like a linebacker played bassoon, played bassoon the gentlest bear I had ever met in my life and he would counsel me and advise me and encourage me, you know. So I have a lot of people to thank for me being who I am my father, my orchestra teachers, dr Long, Mrs Long, howard Dunn, anshul Brusilov, bill Denny, mike Looney, mr Albanese. They all formed me, they all helped me see the good in life and the ability to help people. So that was interesting.

Moises Llanes: 37:48

So I finished my degree and there was a hiring freeze. I finished my degree in the spring of 86, and in Edinburgh there was a hiring freeze. There was all kinds of financial crisis going on in the country and there was a hiring freeze. So I couldn't get a job and so I interviewed in Dallas, dallas ISD is going on in the country and there was hiring freeze so I couldn't get a job and so I interviewed in Dallas, dallas ISD and another amazing man oh my gosh, he's real big in TMEA TODA. Even to this day I forgot his name. Anyway, if it comes to me I'll let you know. Anyway, he interviewed me. I got the job on a Wednesday, on a Wednesday. I got the job, well, on that next Thursday. And there's no cell phones. So I don't know how Mr Reim found out where I worked at Japanese Auto Parts. I get a call at Japanese Auto Parts. Oh, there's a call for you. Oh, it's Kurt Rehm. It's like what?

Miguel Gutierrez: 38:47

Oh no, he had his ways. Amazing yeah he had his ways. He was crafty yeah.

Moises Llanes: 38:51

And so he calls me. Hey, mo, it's like Mr Ray, how are you doing? Good? Good, you want a job? Yep, sounds like him, sounds like him, sounds like him. And I said, well, yeah, I tried to apply in Edinburgh, but there's a. Well, they lifted it and we need somebody at the ninth grade. Can you come and interview on Monday? And I had already signed with DISD. I said, well, I already signed with DISD. I'm not sure, let me make a call. So I call, oh, it was there and it went away. I called that guy and I told him the whole story.

Moises Llanes: 39:26

I said the whole point of my coming up here was to go back to Edinburgh. I think I even told him during the interview to go back to Edinburgh and give back to the town that gave me so much Right. And he says I totally understand, go do the interview and listen. You already signed, but this is important and it's important to you and I want you to go and pursue that. And if it works out, no problem, I'll just tear up your contract, but if it doesn't, we'd love to have it. Just wow, you know what I mean. The door is opening amazingly for me, and so I knew I was on the right track. So I went. I know I interviewed, of course Mr Rehm gave me the seal of approval and you know he was the only orchestra director, high school orchestra director in the Valley, so he had a lot of clout and so if he says you know he's good for the job, he's good for the job and that's why I'm here.

Miguel Gutierrez: 40:22

So you were at the ninth grade campus, at the ninth grade campus from the fall of 86 to the spring of 91.

Moises Llanes: 40:29

And then the fall of 91 is when Edinburgh North opened and I was able to apply for that position and again, kurt gave me his seal of approval, because not everybody was on board with that for reasons that we might talk about in the next podcast.

Miguel Gutierrez: 40:45

That's a real interesting story there.

Moises Llanes: 40:48

So yeah, so I was there and it didn't go well. The first year I got a three. I'm not going to lie, I got a three and a two. But by the third year I think, I got a one in concert and then I got a sweepstakes after that, and then the sweepstakes pretty much just started coming in. By the end of my 37-year career I had about 54 sweepstakes trophies. But the first few years were pretty rough because I was trying again to transition, getting kids to understand music in a very different way, and there was a lot of pushback because a lot of those kids have been under, you know, a different methodology, if you will, and they're like they weren't used to doing things the way they did. So it took a couple of years to transition fully, but then, after that man, it just took off.

Miguel Gutierrez: 41:37

So how long were you there again?

Moises Llanes: 41:40

At North until the spring of what? 22? Because it's like half a year. I don't like to do those calculations, but it's been about a year and a half, About a year and a half. And then I started in October of this last year, which was 24, at La Jolla.

Miguel Gutierrez: 42:02

So I guess my other question would be you know, besides everything that you've told us and you know from your dad's business and your early musical training, what would you say was probably the biggest adversity you faced in your entire career? Oh my gosh, that's something we ask everybody.

Moises Llanes: 42:23

That's interesting because I had in my mind and it's so funny I was a sophomore and I remember to this day telling Mr Rain my goal is to play every piece of literature written for violin ever. He just laughed. I didn't know how stupid that statement was at the time, right, but that showed my passion. I really wanted to learn everything, know everything. So I had in my mind to finish my PhD by the time I was 24. I was just going to get it all done. I graduated 13th in the class of 535, so I was pretty smart. I always finished tests way earlier than everybody did. I was really really good at understanding and retaining information. So it was my thought to be a PhD by the time I was 25.

Moises Llanes: 43:11

But then life happened right. So my dad as wealthy as he was I don't know if you probably don't, but in 1982, 83, mexican government did really stupid stuff and the peso was. The peso was devalued, yeah, tremendously. So my dad went from making about 50 000 a year, which is a lot of money back then, to making 10 in that year and that was the end of my sophomore year. And again, I got full scholarship, but it was tuition. So my dad covered everything else and he gave me a checkbook and literally said whatever you need. And I did. And to this day I regret it because I was really bad about that, I really abused that real bad.

Moises Llanes: 44:01

But then at the end of my sophomore year in the summer I'll never forget it he called in tears because he didn't have any money. He had no money. He says Mijito ya, no te puedo ayudar. I'll never forget those words Mijito ya, no te puedo ayudar. And I knew I mean I listened to the news, I knew what was going on. I said no, no, no tengo que dar. Yo voy a ver qué hago aquí. Well, you know, many people in that situation say oh, forget it, I'm never going to finish, forget it.

Moises Llanes: 44:33

And I don't know, something compelled me to get in my car and this was I was still in Georgetown, I was still in little Georgetown and I just drove. I drove down that main earth uh, I forgot the name of it, but it was a parallel to 35, the, the town road there, and I saw the very first help wanted sign that I saw was at sonic drive-in and I went in there and I applied, and, and I applied. And again, what was the guy's name Mike, mike, something. Anyway, the owner saw my application. He says you're a student at SMU. I said, yeah, when can you start? Like almost immediately.

Moises Llanes: 45:18

And so I got a job Right away. I got a job, and for $35 an hour that was the minimum wage at the time and then I got within two weeks because I would show up on time and do whatever they asked me to do, because that's the other thing my dad taught me is, if you're going to do something, you're going to do 110%. Especially if you're working for somebody else, they're paying you to do whatever they need you to be doing. And that really stuck with me and I did it. And so within two weeks I had a raise, and another raise within a month, and on and on it went.

Moises Llanes: 45:49

And so that was my introduction to working. My dad ran out of money and I had to go and make my own way. And I look back on that with some degree of pride because, yeah, it was hard but I could do it. And nobody says, you know, challenge accepted. I say to myself, challenge accepted, let's go. And that's happened many, many times in my career, where people doubt what I do, and I was like, okay, watch this, you know, and boom, that's just been my personality forever and so, yeah, I started working and just went from there.

Miguel Gutierrez: 46:29

That's awesome, so you didn't let that stop you.

Moises Llanes: 46:32

At all, not for a moment. I didn't take even a moment to like oh man, what's going to happen? No, it's like oh, I did a job, that's it, that was it.

Joel Lee Ozuna: 46:47

You know what's one piece of advice that you would have for somebody?

Moises Llanes: 46:49

who wants to pursue music. Oh man, make sure that it's something you want to do because you want to do it, not because you see somebody else doing it and enjoying it. You want to do it not because you see somebody else doing it and enjoying it. That's been. The thing that I've seen is that people see someone enjoying what they're doing and then they go and do it. It wasn't for them, it just wasn't. And so be careful.

Moises Llanes: 47:18

That's my advice to folks is if you're not going to do it 100% especially teaching especially you're not going to do it 100%, don't do it at all. That's not fair to the kids that are relying on you to lead the way, and I've had some amazing teachers that that I've mentored and former students that are teaching now, and I've had some that haven't been so successful also. So that's why it hurts me to see that, because of the impact that they're having where they are. So that would be my biggest piece of advice is be careful, know what you're getting into and make sure that you want to do it 110%, because it's not fair to you, you're going to be miserable, it's not fair to the kids, they're going to be miserable and you're doing something else.

Miguel Gutierrez: 48:14

Well, thank you, mr Giannis, for being here. Of course it was a nice talk and we hope to hear from you soon again, of course.

Moises Llanes: 48:21

Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. It was fun digging up all those old memories. I'm probably going to dream about my dad tonight. Thanks a lot guys.

Joel Lee Ozuna: 48:30

Thank you, Mr.

Miguel Gutierrez: 48:31

Giannis, thanks for listening. Thank you.