The Bucios, Ernie and Karen
Ernie Bucio, whose short life ended in 2011, was very influential with the many students he had in private lessons and band classes. He was inspirational to them, young and old and also to the musicians in his professional groups. He expected a lot from everyone and usually everyone rose to his expectations. He was not gentle when they did not. He was a very demanding task master and although he made life hard at times, he was respected by most. Ernie was raised in the Ceres-Modesto area and lived here his entire life. He was never tempted to go to the ‘big city’ as many thought he should. He kept very busy with his bands and freelancing locally. He was much sought after for freelance gigs. He never felt a reason to leave the area and was so very happy with his life. He brought many national and actually globally well known artists into the Modesto area to play with his bands…with the financial backing of C.K. Gottschalk.
In the late 80’s he joined forces with Karen, musically and domestically as well and they married in 1990. Karen hailed from Indiana where she attended Indiana University, graduating later from CSUS. When they moved to Ceres they formed the Gottschalk Music Center Concert Band, initially known as the Ceres Municipal Band. Ernie already had the Little Big Band and the Central Valley Brass going at that time and Karen had the Camaraderie Quintet. This union came to an unforeseen end in 2011 when Ernie suffered a massive stroke and passed away at age 53. Karen now leads the Central Valley Brass, in addition to Camaraderie and now the Elegant Ladies of Jazz also. She manages the Little Big Band with the expert help of Ulices Chavez and David Dow. She also manages the Gottschalk Music Center Concert Band which is conducted by Matthew Cover and Ulices Chavez.