About The Band
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The Palm Springs High School Band Program consists of over a half dozen ensembles that are committed to musical excellence, community, and service above all. The band is internationally recognized, having performed in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, France, England, Wales, Scotland, Croatia, China, Taiwan, South Africa, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, and Slovenia. In 2015, the “The Spirit of the Sands” was named a GRAMMY FOUNDATION® Signature School Community Award Winner selected from more that 2000 school across the country. In 2013, the “Spirit of the Sands” Band and Visual Corps was selected from more than 2800 applications to represent the State of California at the 57th Inaugural Parade in Washington D.C. performing in front of hundreds of thousands live and the President and Vice President. They also performed at the 2004 CMEA (California Music Educator’s Association) State Music Conference. This group also performs at countless charity and community events close to home and have performed for celebrities from Presidents to Hollywood’s elite including Barry Manilow, Max Weinberg, have appeared on film with Chris Botti and television on ABC, CBS, NBC, Huell Howser ‘s California Gold, TMZ, Entertainment Tonight, the BBC, CCTV, and many others.
Matt Ingelson, Director of Bands
Matt was born in Calgary, Alberta and was raised in Palm Springs, California. He graduated from Palm Springs High School in 2010, VanderCook College of Music where he earned a Bachelor's degree in Music Education Cum Laude in 2014, and Berklee College of Music where he earned his Master's Degree in Music Production in 2020. After graduating from his undergraduate studies, Matt worked as a musician for Royal Caribbean, but found himself longing to be in a classroom. As a result, he worked as director of bands at Desert Hot Springs High School from 2015 to 2022 before moving into his current position at Palm Springs High School.
In addition to his work in the high school music classroom, Matt has worked as the applied trumpet instructor at College of the Desert since 2016 and as a continuing education professor for VanderCook College of Music's MECA program since 2020.
Matt educates by day and is an active musician and producer by night. His trumpet playing can be heard on a number of independent releases and he performs regularly as a freelance musician throughout Southern California.
2023/24 Director of Visual Corps
Color Guard director, Palm Springs High School
Additional Band Staff
Tommy Jurado, Assistant Guard Instructor
Johnny Ortiz Jr, Drum Caption Head