Ron Foltz

Ron Foltz was raised in the Southern Illinois foothills of the Ozark Mountains. His first taste of performing came at the age of 3 when, according to his mother, he stood in a church pew to conduct and sing with the choir at the First Baptist Church in Tamms, Illinois. When his parents realized Ron was musically inclined, they enrolled him in piano lessons, which lasted a few months until he saw a concert in Branson, Missouri and knew he was going to sing and play drums. From that inspiration gained as a child, Ron's first love as an entertainer has always been playing the drums. Ron's dedication to musical performance ultimately earned him the John Phillip Sousa Band Award, the pinnacle of achievement for high school band students. The award recognizes superior musicianship, dependability, loyalty, and cooperation, and is only presented to one member of the senior class each year. Ron continued playing music at Southern Illinois University, where he was a snare drum player in the renowned SIU Marching Salukis, wearing the distinctive plaid tuxedo of the band's percussion section. Ron's drive for originality led him to experiment with a slightly different snare drum rhythm during the school's fight song, "Go, Southern, Go!", and the change was implemented and can be heard in the recording of the song greeting visitors to the Marching Salukis' website. Since college, Ron has performed with or led bands that opened for, or backed, Nashville artists such as Lee Greenwood, The Bellamy Brothers, Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban, Mark Wills, Neal McCoy, Rodney Atkins, Travis Tritt, Trent Tomlinson, The Nashville Star Tour, Eric Church, Ray Scott and many others. Most recently, Ron has devoted much of his time to developing his skill as an actor in a variety of media, and has ventured into writing and producing along with music supervision. As a music supervisor, Ron uses his experience in the music and legal industries to research and negotiate fees for the licenses necessary to allow filmmakers to use recorded music in their projects. Ron's first music placement in film was for the Future Legend Productions short, The Last Dance, written and directed by Marcus Stricklin. In addition to obtaining licenses for the film's songs, Ron and arranger/composer Richard Palalay collaborated on a new arrangement and recording of the popular Fats Waller classic, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, which features prominently in the film's dance hall scenes. The new arrangement includes two new verses written by Ron specifically for the film. Ron's acting experience is diverse and includes commercials for Discount Cab and Allstate Self-Storage; an ongoing role in The Dinner Detective Interactive Murder Mystery Show; leading, supporting and featured roles in several independent feature and short films; a supporting role in an upcoming web series, Fallout: The Waste, derived from the popular video game Fallout; and the narrator of a Readers Theater presentation of the original play, If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want To Be Right...), written and directed by Ioannis Skiotes. Ron resides in Phoenix with his wife Julie. He serves on the Advisory Council of the Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame and is a member of Independent Feature Project (IFP) Phoenix. He is currently writing an original short film and working to option the rights to a novel for a feature film script.