HEREABOUTS sandra baer
Never have words taken on more meaning for Bellbrook High School band director, Chris Foster, than May 25 when he found himself cornered in the tornado shelter hall at the high school while baseball-sized hail stones rained down on the roof. He had just introduced the spring theme, Cornered, during the BHS Band Boosters annual Ice Breaker.
“We were 45 minutes into our program when one of the parents took me aside to tell me about the tornado warning,” said Foster, who along with assistant band director Barb Siler, was coordinating the annual meet and greet for 120 band students and their parents. “It was a crazy night, but the student band leaders were great. They directed the other students and took care of things, so the adults could monitor the weather situation. Unfortunately, we were unveiling the new semi-truck that the band boosters had painted and made new shelves for. It was damaged by the hail, along with most of our cars in the parking lot.”
Foster became the Bellbrook High School band director in 2008, and said he is proud to be working with one of the top-ranked bands in the state. Membership in the band is at 18 percent of the student population compared to 10 percent in most schools.
Foster was born in Lima, Ohio, but moved to the Youngstown suburb of Poland at the age of 8. He played trumpet in the marching band, the concert band and the jazz band at Poland Seminary High School, a public school that had been an all-male school at one time.
“My father worked for Sears and was transferred to Chicago six months into my senior year, but I stayed and graduated in Poland in 1993,” said Foster, who also chose to attend Youngstown State University in Ohio where he earned a degree music education in 1998.
“Almost every musician has an aesthetic experience where you get goose bumps because something really affected you. With me it was playing with 60 other students in the concert band. We worked incredibly hard on something, and as we played it I just got a feeling and knew without a doubt that I was going to study music.”
While in college, Foster met his wife, Amy, who is currently a web designer working for The Berry Company. The two remained in contact and eventually wed in 2004. Meanwhile, Foster became the band director at Crestview High School in Columbiana, Ohio, for four years before moving to a larger band program at Warren High School in Marietta, where he remained for six years.
“I already knew about Bellbrook High School when I was in college,” said Foster, who is completing an online master’s degree in music education from Kent State University. “Bellbrook is one of the top programs in the state and that’s thanks to Barb Siler, Karen Pompeii at the middle school and all of the great students and parents. I was proud of all of them when we were cornered in the high school during the storm. It was a little scary, but the kids were great.”
Contact this columnist at (937) 432-9054 or jjbaer@aol.com.
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