Music

Middle School music classes meet in an hour-long class each week in grade groupings and closely integrate with classroom themes. There is a Middle School chorus, which includes all students and meets twice weekly. Students work on theme-related long-term projects that are often connected to an upcoming chorus performance.

Students work on topics of study derived from the classroom or all-school theme. For example, during a study of the Middle Ages, the Middle School studied the 14th-Century motet and wrote their own polytexual motets. Instruction includes work with music theory, sight singing, movement, and a variety of creative activities. (Because the students possess a wide range of musical backgrounds, they often work in a self-paced environment.) GarageBand is used for creative applications of such concepts as pitch class, melody, ground bass, ostinato, melodic and harmonic intervals, 12-bar blues, and antecedent-consequent phrases. Finale is used to arrange student songs for the a cappella ensemble.

Classrooms are enriched by visits from local professional performers, including the Alokli Dance Drumming Ensemble, Charlotte Blake Alston, and Piffaro the Renaissance Band.

Several students are members of our vocal and intrumental music ensembles, which perform not only for the school community but at a variety of other venues, most recently a local assisted living center, the Fitler Square Fair, and the Liberty Place atrium.