- Lead Tenor
May 14, 2006 Ricardo G. Valdez, born and raised in Laredo, Texas. He has been playing professionally since 1952. His main instruments are the tenor sax, alto sax, clarinete, and flute. Ricardo and his brothers formed a musical band known as the Valdez Brothers. Ricardo was the musical director for this family band until 1996. This musical group toured extensively throughout the United States and also as individuals participated with other musical latin groups as well. Ricardo has a Bachelor of Music degree from University of Texas at San Antonio and is also pursuing his graduate work in music education at UTSA. He has earned several awards as outstanding jazz musician while at UT.S.A. Ricardo was selected to the all state Junior College band and jazz band for two consecutive years and participated as lead tenor sax during his second year in the jazz ensemble. Ricardo teaches private lessons to elementary, middle, and high school students. He participates in judging for all city high school honor band auditions for SAISD. Ricardo is a professional studio musician and prior to establishing himself here in San Antonio, he was a member of the Laredo Community College Civic Symphony for fifteen years as a woodwind player. Most recently Ricardo was named as Tiger Legend for his Alma Mater in recognition of outstanding accomplishments and achievements exemplifying the ideals and traditions of this school.

Our lead alto player earned his B.S. in Music Education in 1985 from Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA, where he was the Band President and Instrumentalist of the Year 1985, Summa Cum Laude. Talk about musical horsepower! He came barreling out of Lynchburg armed with his new sheepskin and went directly to work as a music educator par excellence. Dave started and developed the band program at Hilltop Christian Academy during the decade between 1985 and 1994. His program grew to a 40-member ensemble in a school with total enrollment on only 350 kids. Many of Dave's students earned All District and Regional Honors in the Texas Music Educator Association. Two of them earned All state honors in the Association of Texas Small School Bands. Pretty impressive work for a brand new music major! The astounded leadership of the Hiltop Christian Academy was so impressed they yanked Dave out of the band and put him in charge of the whole shootin' match as Superintendent of the Academy in 1996. Two years later the San Antonio Christian Academy made Dave an offer he couldn't refuse, and he went back to building yet another music empire. This time, though, his new employers discovered that in addition to being a consummate musician and educator, Dave was also one of those rare breeds that can actually make sense out of computers and networks and the Internet and all that jazz. So they gave him a raise and bumped him upstairs to the lofty position of Computer Network Administrator, where he has since become the single most indispensable figure on the entire campus. Fortunately for the Lamplighters (and several other local musical groups), Dave continues playing his alto sax and keeping his musical skills honed at top form.

Ed Cain- Second Tenor

No bio information available.

Pete Ortiz- Second Alto

No bio information available.

Murph Davis-Baritone

Murph is a retired Air Force doc and hails from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He's an Osteopathic Physician with a residency on OBS-GYN and is now the Director of Hyperbaric Medicine/Wound Care Center at University Hospital. He's also an Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio. Talk about a busy guy!... but he considers his regular Monday night Lamplighters rehearsals and our gigs as the best tranquilizer going. And here's a guy who knows tranquilizers. He probably administers a little jazz to all his patients just before surgery.