LOCALS
Mr. Forgione’s OPUS A Cary band teacher inspires admiration—and talent by ADDIE LADNER photography by BOB KARP
“N
o conducting, just listen to each other,” Chris Forgione says, standing over his class of percussion students. On the wall behind him, a plaque reads: “Mr. Forgione’s Way or the Highway.” It nods to his teaching style: firm, but fun. Forgione has been
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the Band Director at Davis Drive Middle School for 23 years. There, students, parents and administrators agree, he’s done more than just teach kids how to play the flute or the drums. The constant clatter in his classroom doesn’t come from just instruments; it comes from laughter, chants the students recite to learn scales and the running, open discussion
between Forgione and his charges. “I don't know how he's been doing this job for this long with the noise,” Assistant Principal Jason Ganoe says—especially because 90 percent of the kids that enter his classroom haven’t picked up an instrument before that first day. “To see these kids go from zero to possibly making it a career, their life? He has this
