After former head band director Ben Werne resigned, the band was on the hunt for new potential band directors. After an extensive interview process, Cory Chapman was chosen to be the Pride of Paoli’s new leader.
Chapman grew up in Evansville and attended Evansville Bosse High School. After high school, he attended Ball State University and spent five years in the marines before he was discharged. During his stint in the military, he worked in the intelligence and communications field as a special intelligence communicator and was deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Him and his wife got married in January 2009, a couple of months after he returned from his deployment to Iraq.
They have been married for over ten years and have two children together.
“I always knew I wanted to teach, and the military helped me to grow up a bit and mature in order to reach that goal. The lessons I learned in the Marines helped me become a strong leader with self-discipline and compassion for others. Those qualities really helped me to develop my skills as a teacher and musician, and the money the military provided for my schooling helped me to achieve my goals,” said Chapman.
Before coming to Paoli, Chapman had five years of teaching experience including jazz bad, marching band and concert band. His previous job was directing the band at West Lafayette High School.
“I have a deep sense of respect for this program and this school. I’ve had the desire to be apart of the community down here because I really like small towns and working at small schools where I can know each student overtime. I hope to get to know each kid a little bit better and find somewhere where I can raise my family that’s also nice to live,” said Chapman.
Story Angie Ceja