Feliciano Montoya is entering his third year as percussion director at Klein Forest High School. He started playing guitar at 10 years old. His music career would really start once he joined the band at Waltrip High School, where he played guitar in the jazz band. He started playing percussion at this time as well.

Feliciano went to Blinn College in Brenham, where he studied with Dr. Sarah Burke and Todd Quinlan and graduated with an associate’s degree in music. He chose percussion as his focus, but played guitar in the school’s jazz band and bass in the combo. Feliciano was then chosen to direct a second jazz combo at the school after interest rose to the point of having too many students for one combo. It was also during college that Feliciano would start performing around Houston in a jazz combo with his friends, and working with percussion students at various schools during marching season.

After graduating from Blinn, Feliciano started teaching private lessons and working as the percussion instructor for Waltrip High School. Eventually, Feliciano started working at St. Jerome Catholic School, where he would work for 5 years teaching steel drum band during the school day and teaching lessons privately after school.

In addition to percussion, Feliciano teaches guitar, bass, and jazz improvisation to any students who are interested in playing in a jazz band at Klein Forest. Feliciano also took audio production and live sound courses at HCC, and helps students from other Klein Forest fine arts programs learn to run live sound.

Feliciano is currently enrolled in classes at UHD to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts.