Forney High School Staff

Mark Poole, originally from Mesquite, Texas, is in his sixth year as director of bands at Forney High School.  Under his tenure, the Forney band has had great success.  The marching band has recieved all first divisions at all marching contests.  The band has been a finalist at the 2007 Area C marching contest in 2007 and was a UIL State Marching Contest finalists in 2009.  The band was awarded Best in Class at the Mesquite Marching Festival three consecutive years (2008, 2009, & 2010) as well as being named the Grand Champion at the 23rd annual Desoto Marching Classic.  The Wind Ensemble has been awarded consistent Sweepstakes and was named a two-time National Windband Honor receipent.

 
Prior to his appointment at Forney, Mr. Poole was the director of bands at Nimitz High School in Irving, Texas from 2003-2006, director of bands for the Jasper Independent School district from 2000-2003 and at Southwood High in school in Shreveport, Louisiana from 1998-2000.   His bands received numerous sweepstakes awards and enjoyed great success at both the region and state levels (Texas and Louisiana).  In Spring of 2005, the band won most Outstanding School as the Festival of Music in New Orleans, Louisiana, sweeping all captions in: Varsity band (Wind Ensemble), non-varsity band (Symphonic Band), Percussion, and winterguard. The Southwood band was selected to represent Louisiana in the National Festival of States in Washington, D.C. in April of 2000.  In the fall of 2000, the Japer High School Band was awarded best overall band at the Northwestern State University marching contest. In 2003, the Symphonic band was awarded the OPS (Outstanding Performance Series) award from ATSSB. 

Mr. Poole received a degree in music education and saxophone performance from the University of North Texas in Denton.  While there, he performed with many top performing organizations in both the classical and jazz idioms, serving as a principal player and section leader in many of those groups.  He was under the tutelage of fine instructors such as: Robert Winslow, Dennis Fisher, Tim Ishi, Jim Riggs, and Eric Nestler.  While obtaining his undergraduate, Mr. Poole taught private saxophone and clarinet in the D/FW area where his students had much success as both the regional and state level.  After completing his undergraduate, Mr. Poole graduated summa cum laude from Northwestern State University the following year, receiving his Master’s degree in conducting.  As graduate assistant he was director of the Symphony Band, jazz band, basketball pep-band, marching band assistant, director emeritus of the Wind Symphony.  He also served as a private instructor and arranger for the Spirit of Northwestern Marching Band.  

In addition to his teaching, Mr. Poole has performed professionally with groups such as:  Texas Wind Symphony, Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, Natchitoches Symphony Orchestra, Roy Clark, Ben Vereen, Bill Causey Big Band, Pete Peterson Big Band, Just Friends Big Band, and many other groups in the D/FW area.  Mr. Poole also serves as a clinician/adjudicator in both Texas and Louisiana including guest conducting the NSU summer Honors Wind Camp (a group that consists of both Louisiana and Texas All-State musicians).

Mr. Poole is a member of TMEA, TBA, and TMAA.  He currently resides in Crandall with his wife Brandi and children Tanner, Taylor, Jake, Alexis, Avery.

Forney High School Staff

 

Mario Luna

Percussion

Instructor

Mark Poole

Director of Bands

Stuart Shulman

Asst. Director

Mark Poole, originally from Mesquite, Texas, is in his fifth year as director of Bands at Forney High School in Forney, Texas.  Under his direction, the Forney Band has had great success.  The band has received consistent Sweepstakes awards, 1st divisions at all marching contests including being named a finalist at the 2007 Area C marching Contest in 2007, and was most recently recognized as a National Award winner by the National Wind Band Honors recording project.  In 2008 the FHS band was named “Most Outstanding Band” in class 4A at the Mesquite Marching Festival as well as placing 2nd at the DeSoto Marching Classic.  This is also the 3rd year for the Winterguard (Casey Snead, director) and indoor percussion ensemble (Mario Luna, director).  Both have placed 1st in most of their contests this year.  The winterguard has been promoted 3 times having won at all three contests attended.

 

Prior to his appointment at Forney, Mr. Poole was the director of bands at Nimitz High School in Irving, Texas from 2003-2006, director of bands for the Jasper Independent School district from 2000-2003 and at Southwood High in school in Shreveport, Louisiana from 1998-2000.   His bands received numerous sweepstakes awards and enjoyed great success at both the region and state levels (Texas and Louisiana).  Under his direction at Nimitz, the band was named 5A Division champions at the 1st annual USSBA marching competition in fall 2005, receiving awards for most outstanding percussion, colorguard, music, and general effect.  In Spring of 2005, the band won most Outstanding School as the Festival of Music in New Orleans, Louisiana, sweeping all captions in: Varsity band (Wind Ensemble), non-varsity band (Symphonic Band), Percussion, and winterguard. The Southwood band was selected to represent Louisiana in the National Festival of States in Washington, D.C. in April of 2000.  In the fall of 2000, the Japer High School Band was awarded best overall band at the Northwestern State University marching contest. In 2003, the Symphonic band was awarded the OPS (Outstanding Performance Series) award from ATSSB. 

Mr. Poole received a degree in music education and saxophone performance from the University of North Texas in Denton.  While there, he performed with many top performing organizations in both the classical and jazz idioms, serving as a principal player and section leader in many of those groups.  He was under the tutelage of fine instructors such as: Robert Winslow, Dennis Fisher, Tim Ishi, Jim Riggs, and Eric Nestler.  While obtaining his undergraduate, Mr. Poole taught private saxophone and clarinet in the D/FW area where his students had much success as both the regional and state level.  After completing his undergraduate, Mr. Poole graduated summa cum laude from Northwestern State University the following year, receiving his Master’s degree in conducting.  As graduate assistant he was director of the Symphony Band, jazz band, basketball pep-band, marching band assistant, director emeritus of the Wind Symphony.  He also served as a private instructor and arranger for the Spirit of Northwestern Marching Band.  

In addition to his teaching, Mr. Poole has performed professionally with groups such as:  Texas Wind Symphony, Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, Natchitoches Symphony Orchestra, Roy Clark, Ben Vereen, Bill Causey Big Band, Pete Peterson Big Band, Just Friends Big Band, and many other groups in the D/FW area.  Mr. Poole also serves as a clinician/adjudicator in both Texas and Louisiana including guest conducting the NSU summer Honors Wind Camp (a group that consists of both Louisiana and Texas All-State musicians).

Mr. Poole is a member of TMEA, TBA, and TMAA.  He currently resides in Crandall with his wife Brandi and children Tanner, Taylor, Jake, and Alexis.

Stuart Shulman, born in Las Vegas, Nevada, grew up and went to school in Arizona. He is very excited to be joining the Forney Band Family and is excited to be living in Texas.

 

Mr. Shulman is an active clinician, adjudicator, and designer across the country. Prior to teaching at Forney H.S., Mr Shulman was an Adjunct Faculty member at Mesa Community College in Mesa, Arizona, where he taught Rock and Roll Music History and Culture and was the Assistant Conductor of the Concert and Community Bands. He has also been the Visual Caption head for the Arizona State University Sun Devil Marching Band. and the Assistant Director and Program Coordinator for Paragon Competitive Arts’ PIO Drum Line. Mr. Shulman is also Founder and Head Designer for Integrated Effects, LLC, a Marching Band Show Design company.

 

Mr. Shulman has been involved in Drum Corps and the marching arts for over fifteen years as both a performer and staff member. He began his drum corps career with the Santa Clara Vanguard where he marched for five years, four of them as Drum Major. After aging out in 2005, he went on to be a member of the visual staff for the The Academy (’05-’06), Phantom Regiment (’06), and is now back home with SCV as a member of the brass staff (’08-’09). Mr. Shulman currently writes drill and coordinates show design for H.S. bands across the country and conducts multiple leadership and Drum Major clinics.

 

Mr. Shulman is a graduate of Ottawa University in Phoenix, Arizona, where he studied Music Education and Tuba Performance. He has studied Tuba with Kelly Thomas, Patrick Sheridan, Christian Carichner and Tom Lukowicz.

Mr. Luna is a 1998 Texas Scholar graduate of Harlingen South High School. He is an alumist of Coakley Middle School band program in Harlingen that has been named Texas State Middle School Honor Band twice.  While in high school he was a member of the award winning concert band, symphonic band, jazz band, and the Harlingen South Percussion ensemble under the direction of Mr. Dennis Lester. The percussion ensemble under his senior leadership received the Best in class trophy in Breckenridge, Colorado in 1998. He marched two years as corps commander and center snare for the Legend of Texas Drum & Bugle Corps from Lubbock, Texas and spent one summer with Southwind Drum and Bugle corps as a support staff member.  He was the percussion consultant for Elliott Grant, Baker, and Tom Browne Middle Schools as well as director of percussion studies at Carroll High School in Corpus Christi for four years.  Many of the percussionists at these schools received numerous awards including four years of first divisions with the Carroll HS Percussion Ensemble at the region level and advancing to the state level all four years.   The Carroll HS Percussion Ensemble was awarded Most Outstanding Percussion Ensemble at the first annual Drum Fest in Victoria, Texas in May 2004.  The Carroll Percussion Ensemble gave a showcase percussion concert on the same stage with the University of Texas Percussion Ensemble.  He graduated in May of 2004 from Texas A&M University Corpus Christi with a degree in music education.  He has performed and played with the Del Mar College Jazz band II, lead drumset player for the Del Mar College MWF Jazz band, Del Mar College Percussion Ensemble, TAMUCC Percussion Ensemble, TAMUCC basketball band, section leader for the TAMUCC Concert band, Corpus Christi Wind Symphony, Corpus Christi Municipal Band, and currently performs with the Metropolitan Winds of Dallas/Forth Worth. He is a member of the Texas Bandmasters Association, Texas Music Educators Association, Percussive Arts Society, and a member of the world's largest music fraternity, Phi Mu Alpha, where he has held the office of secretary and treasurer for the school year of 2000 and 2001. He has studied with Dr. James Rennier, principal timpanist for the Corpus Christi Symphony, Mr. Paul Bowman, Mr. Gustavo Aguilar, Mr. Dennis Lester and learned many great things from Dr. Paul Bissell.

 

In September of 2001, he was awarded the REMO scholarship to attend the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. Only eight scholarships were given to society members around the world.  In September of 2003, he was awarded the Texas A&M University Corpus Christi Student Spotlight Award for his contribution and success at TAMUCC.

 

Mr. Luna is currently the assistant band director at Forney High School.  His previous position was at Bowie Middle School in Irving, Texas and percussion coordinator for the Nimitz High School cluster.  He has  served as private lesson teacher and consultant for De Zavala and Lamar Middle School.  He is an active adjudicator in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and also was a NTCA Indoor percussion judge for the 04-05 season.  In 2005, Mr. Luna started the Victor C. Gonzalez Percussive Arts Society scholarship in honor of his best friend awarded through the Texas Chapter of PAS to be given out to a percussion student in the state of Texas to attend the annual PASIC convention.  

 

Mr. Luna is an educational artist for Innovative Percussion sticks and mallets.  He is currently pursuing  a Masters in Music Education degree from Texas A&M University Commerce.  Mr. Luna was voted as one of five teachers from Forney High School to be nominated as Teacher of the Year for 2009 and 2010. 

 

 

Christopher Adler is entering his first year as an Assistant Band Director
at Forney High School.  He comes to Forney after two years as a full-time
Graduate Student in Conducting and Trumpet Performance at Sam Houston State
University, studying conducting with Matthew McInturf and trumpet with Randy
Adams and Steve Warkentin.  Mr. Adler also served as a Graduate Conducting
Associate, assisting with all aspects of the band department at Sam Houston State, including team-teaching the Bearkat Marching Band, Wind Ensemble, and Symphonic Band, and also managing and conducting the Concert Band.  He also led the Angry Orange Brass Band, SHSU’s basketball ensemble, helping support
the Bearkats to two playoff appearances and a conference title.  During this time, Mr. Adler served as principal trumpet in both the Wind Ensemble and the Symphony Orchestra, fulfilling obligations for both lines of study in his rigorous Graduate degree.

Before pursuing Graduate study, Mr. Adler was an Associate Band Director at Berkner High School in Richardson, TX, where he worked with Mike Brashear and Frank Troyka.  His duties there included teaching the Concert Band II, team-teaching all performing bands as well as the marching band, and
teaching beginner classes throughout the Berkner Area.

Mr. Adler also earned his Bachelor of Music at Sam Houston State, graduating in December of 2004.  He played in the Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, and the Jazz Ensemble, as well as numerous musical and opera productions.

Mr. Adler also spent six summers touring with the Glassmen Drum and Bugle Corps from Toledo, Ohio, serving as brassline member, Drum Major, and visual tech.   He has worked with numerous marching bands in the Houston area, including The Woodlands High School, Spring High School, and Dekaney High
School.

Mr. Adler’s professional affiliations include Texas Bandmasters Association and Texas Music Educators Association.

Mario Luna is a 1998 Texas Scholar graduate of Harlingen South High School. While in high school he was a member of the award winning concert band, symphonic band, jazz band, and the Harlingen South percussion ensemble under the direction of Mr. Dennis Lester. The percussion ensemble under his senior leadership received the Best in class trophy in Breckenridge, Colorado in 1998. He marched two years as corps commander and center snare for the Legend of Texas Drum & Bugle Corps from Lubbock, Texas and spent one summer with Southwind Drum and Bugle corps as a support staff member.  He was the percussion consultant for Grant, Baker, and Browne Middle Schools as well as director of percussion studies at Carroll High School in Corpus Christi for four years.  Many of the percussionists at these schools received numerous awards including four years of first divisions with the Carroll HS Percussion Ensemble at the region level and advancing to the state level all four years.   The Carroll HS Percussion Ensemble was awarded Most Outstanding Percussion Ensemble at the first annual Drum Fest in Victoria, Texas in May 2004 as well as giving a showcase percussion concert on the same stage with the University of Texas Percussion Ensemble.  He graduated in May of 2004 from Texas A&M University Corpus Christi with a degree in music education.  He has performed and played with the Del Mar College Jazz band II, lead drumset player for the Del Mar College MWF Jazz band, Del Mar College Percussion Ensemble, TAMUCC Percussion Ensemble, TAMUCC basketball band, section leader for the TAMUCC Concert band, Corpus Christi Wind Symphony, Corpus Christi Municipal Band, and with the Metropolitan Winds of Dallas/Forth Worth. He is a member of the Texas Bandmasters Association, Texas Music Educators Association, Percussive Arts Society, and a member of the world's largest music fraternity, Phi Mu Alpha, where he has held the office of secretary and treasurer for the school year of 2000 and 2001. He has studied with Dr. James Rennier, principal timpanist for the Corpus Christi Symphony, Mr. Paul Bowman, Mr. Gustavo Aguilar, Mr. Dennis Lester and learned many great things from Dr. Paul Bissell.

In September of 2001, he was awarded the REMO scholarship to attend the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. Only eight scholarships were given to society members around the world.  In September of 2003, he was awarded the Texas A&M University Corpus Christi Student Spotlight Award for his contribution and success at TAMUCC.

Mr. Luna is currently in his sixth year as the percussion coordinator at Forney High School and oversees the programs at Warren Middle School and Johnson Elementary.  His previous position was at Bowie Middle School in Irving, Texas and percussion coordinator for the Nimitz High School cluster.  He has  served as private lesson teacher and consultant for De Zavala and Lamar Middle School.  He is an active adjudicator in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and also was a NTCA Indoor percussion judge for the 04-05 season.  In 2005, Mr. Luna started the Victor C. Gonzalez Percussive Arts Society scholarship in honor of his best friend awarded through the Texas Chapter of PAS to be given out to a percussion student in the state of Texas to attend the annual PASIC convention.  

The FHS percussion ensemble has performed at the Texas State Capitol for the Texas Fine Arts Day as well as being named the first annual winner of the Black Swamp Percussion Ensemble Festival.

Mr. Luna is an educational artist for Innovative Percussion sticks and mallets.  He is currently pursuing  a Masters in Music Education degree from Texas A&M University Commerce.  Mr. Luna was voted as one of five teachers from Forney High School to be nominated as Teacher of the Year for 2009 and 2010.  He also serves as advisor for the FOCUS photography club at Forney High School.  Mr. Luna was a Star Teacher in 2011 recognized by the class of 2011 and percussionist Kevin Wright.

Casey Snead has been the Color Guard Director for Forney High School from the Fall of 2007 to present. With full support from the band program, he is quickly making the color guard a state recognized competitor on and off the field.

Having taught for some incredible programs in the DFW area, Mr. Snead considers Color Guard a lifelong passion. He attends college working towards his BA in Education and spends countless hours designing, choreographing, and dancing to further his skills.

Mr. Snead's performing experience includes Ars Nova Winterguard, Black Gold Winterguard, the Bluecoats, and the Cavaliers.

Shannon Jacobs graduated from Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth, Texas in 2004.  He is currently a student at The University of Texas at Arlington where he plans to receive his B.A in Music Education.  At U.T.A. Mr. Jacobs has been a member of the arching band, concert band, 2006 PASIC drumline, wind ensemble, African ensemble, Brazilian samba band, marimba ensemble and percussion ensemble where he has performed with world renowned artist such as John Riley, Orlando Cotto and Ney Rosauro. He has also performed with the Syracuse Brigadiers Drum and Bugle Corps, and Surround Sound Percussion. Mr. Jacobs has been a marching percussion technician, clinician and arranger for Arlington Heights High School, Nimitz High School, Richland High School, and Forney High School. Mr. Jacobs has taught private lessons for the past four years and is dedicated to providing useful information to students that empower them to reach their highest musical goals.  Shannon teaches privately at Forney High School as well as assisting with the percussion program.

Morgan Moore graduated in 2009 from Nimitz High School in Irving, Texas. He is now a sophomore at Southern Methodist University pursuing a degree in Psychology with minors in Political Science and German Language. After graduation, he plans to attend law school at SMU to pursue a career in International Litigation. 

Meghan Huber originally hails from southern New Jersey and lives in Addison, TX.  She graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in biomedical engineering, and she is currently a graduate student in the bioengineering department at University of Texas at Dallas.

Meghan began her marching career at the age of 14 at Jersey Surf drum and bugle corps, where she marched baritone for four years from 2002-2005. She then went on to march Crossmen where she played baritone for two years (2006-2007) and was drum major her last two years (2008-2009). In 2008, she was awarded the Jim Jones Leadership Award for Outstanding Drum Major in World Class by the DCI Hall of Fame. She was also a performing member of the Rutgers Symphony Band and the Rutgers Performing Dance Company in 2008.

She has served as a marching and music technician for the Birdville High School, East Brunswick High School, and Old Bridge High School, as well as a cymbal technician for the Old Bridge High School Indoor Percussion program.

Bio Coming Soon!!