Christian Yost will be the new face of the vocal department at Hastings High starting this fall. Before taking the job in Hastings, Yost was a long term substitute at Mayberry Cultural and Fine Arts Magnet Middle School in Wichita, Kansas. After he started working there, he was interrupted by Co-vid 19, and his class had to move online.
“It really wasn’t teaching, we were online for the whole thing. So part of me says I’ve had teaching experience before I walked in here, but the other half of me says it wasn’t really even teaching,” Yost said.
He finished his degree in Music Education at Wichita State University, and he was looking for a job in Wichita right around the middle of the Covid-19 quarantine. This was particularly bad timing because at the time Wichita had talked about a budget freeze. Nobody was looking to hire, so it put him in a rough spot after leaving Mayberry. Yost needed a job, and when the opportunity came up in Nebraska he was more than happy to give it a shot.
“I was not anticipating coming to Nebraska, but I am very thankful to be here. It’s funny actually, I was looking for jobs in Wichita when my mom texted me and asked if I saw that they were looking for a choir director in Hastings, Nebraska,” Yost said
Yost knew that he wanted to be a music teacher from his first few years in high school. His mom and dad were both teachers, and his Grandpa was a music teacher around where he lived. He was exposed to music and how it affects personality, culture and life at a young age.
“We always turn to music. Whether it be before a game, after a breakup, or even just cleaning around the house, music is one of the best tools in life to express what we can’t say,” said Yost.
He mainly wants to have a connection with students and show them how to use music in their everyday life.
“What comes first is my love for kids, and to walk through life with students. The best way to do that is through music, so the fact that I can pair both of these together and during the day i get to walk through life with students, but at the same time I get to give them the tools to use in order to do that,” Yost said.
Co-vid 19 may be hard to cooperate with, and make it hard to form those connections with students in the choir rooms. Having to comply with the stipulations of the Directed Health Measure, students in all classrooms have to wear masks and socially distance themselves by 6 feet whenever possible. This affects vocal performance with intonation, and sections of singers’ ability to harmonize with each other because they will now have a muffled quieter voice.
“There are a couple different things we try to do to tackle that. I try my best to limit our time singing in the choir room. We have been blessed to have an auditorium that we can use. It helps us spread out really well, using three chairs and two rows in-between each student,” Yost said.
Yost expressed that the most important thing to him is to give his kids a place to feel welcome. He wants to have a very open and inviting room, hoping to give students a place where they not only feel welcomed, but a place where they can find different ways to express themselves.
“My first priority is not to have the best sounding choir in the United States of America. My first priority is to have students who are taken care of and have a place where they can come and do music, and then out of that we are going to have really good musicians,” said Yost.
Yost’s final thought is that there is always room for any student who wants to join and that they will all be welcome with open arms.
