Music Curriculum
The music department features two symphony orchestras, five choirs, four string ensembles, two concert bands, two jazz bands, a chamber group, a show choir, an opera company with pit orchestra and an experimental composition class in new music. Music students take on the upward of three hours of music classes a day, between performing ensembles, electives (in areas such as music technology and popular songwriting) and traditional music theory and history. The department has done featured work with composers and organizations such as Eric Whitacre, Josh Groban, Arturo O'Farrill, Béla Fleck and NPR's Radiolab.
In the Instrumental department, there are the Junior (The LaGuardia Philharmonia) and Senior (The LaGuardia Symphony Orchestra) Orchestras. The Senior Orchestra accepts students through an audition process. There are two pit orchestras for the opera company and all-school musical respectively that require auditions.
In the Vocal Music department, there are several choirs. Elementary Chorus is a required, first year (or second year if there are incoming sophomores)course. Girls Chorus is offered to female vocal majors in the tenth or eleventh grade (if the eleventh graders were incoming sophomores. Mixed Chorus consists of second, third, and fourth year male vocal majors, and third and fourth year female vocal majors. Women's Chorus is an all-female group that is open to third and fourth year voice students. It is audition based. Senior Chorus is an elective class that is highly difficult to get into. Only juniors and seniors are eligible to audition, and must take a complicated audition in which skills in sight singing, music theory, and vocal technique are tested. Senior Chorus performs a capella, and were in the past selected to perform for the American Choral Directors Association. Gospel Chorus is an elective course as well, open to all students. Show Choir is also an elective course that accepts students from any studio. The Opera Workshop is open to third and fourth year vocal majors through audition, where operatic works are analyzed and studied.
There is a program entitled New Music Ensemble in which music composition and music theory are the focus of the course. Students are able to compose their own original songs and perform them during school productions. The ensemble grants admission through auditions, in which the student must prepare an original song.
In 2011, the Broadway musical team of Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin announced a musical with LaGuardia's Opera Workshop and Pit Orchestra. The musical, entitled Life of the Party, is a comedy based on Stalinist movie musicals of the Soviet Union. The work was set to premiere at LaGuardia in May 2012, and ran from May 3 through May 6.
Read more about this topic: Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School
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