Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School


Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts is a public magnet, high school specializing in teaching visual arts and performing arts, located near Lincoln Center in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of the Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City, in the U.S. state of New York. Located at 100 Amsterdam Avenue between West 64th and 65th Streets, the school is operated by the New York City Department of Education, and resulted from the merger of the High School of Music & Art and the School of Performing Arts. The school has a dual mission of arts and academics, preparing students for a career in the arts or conservatory study as well as a pursuit of higher education.
Informally known as LaGuardia Arts, LaG, School of the Arts, or LaGuardia High School, the school is the only one among the nine specialized high schools in New York City that receives special funding from the New York State legislature through the Hecht Calandra Act, as well as the only specialized high school that does not use the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test as admissions criteria.
The school in 2019–2020 has 3,011 students and 163 staff members, with a teacher–student ratio of 1:20.

History

was founded by Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia in 1936. He wanted to establish a public school in which students could hone their talents in music, art and the performing arts. In 1948, a similar institution – the School of Performing Arts – was created in an effort to harness students’ talents in dance. The schools merged on paper in 1961 and were to be combined in one building. However, this took many years.
It was not until 1984 that they moved to a new concrete building, designed by Eduardo Catalano and adjacent to Lincoln Center. The Board of Education honored Mayor LaGuardia posthumously by naming the new building after him. Prior to the building's completion in 1985, Music & Art - colloquially known as "The Castle on the Hill" - was located in Manhattan at Convent Avenue and 135th Street in what has since become part of City College of New York's South Campus; the building is home to A. Philip Randolph Campus High School. Performing Arts was located in Midtown Manhattan on 46th Street. Mayor La Guardia regarded Music & Art as the "most hopeful accomplishment" of his long administration as mayor.
Alumni from LaGuardia and its two legacy schools, High School of Music and Art and School of Performing Arts, are active in supporting the students and the school through scholarships and support for special programs, school events, and reunions held at the school and throughout the world. The school's alumni organization has a full-time executive director and offices at the school. It functions as an independent charitable organization organized under the laws of New York.
The school has inspired similar institutions. After development and fundraising, musician Paul McCartney and entrepreneur Mark Weatherstone-Witty in 1996 founded the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, a performing arts college in Liverpool, England.

Academic curriculum

Students at LaGuardia take a full academic course load while participating in conservatory-style arts concentration. Each student majors in one studio, choosing from among Dance, Drama, Art, Vocal Music, Instrumental Music, and Technical Theater.
Many graduates from LaGuardia continue their studies in universities or conservatories after graduation.
LaGuardia had offered an honors track to students entering after 2006, known as the DaVinci Program. DaVinci Scholars took more difficult classes in math and science and participated in a supplementary after-school enrichment program. This program no longer exists, but students can take honors classes by choice or programming. LaGuardia also offers several Advanced Placement courses.

Studio curriculum

The school presents an annual musical. The Musical Theater class, an elective school-wide course, is offered through the collaboration of faculty members from Music, Drama, Dance, and the Tech Theater Studios, culminating in a major musical theater performance. Recent productions have included Gypsy, Les Misérables, West Side Story, Hair, Ragtime, Hairspray, Guys and Dolls, Sweet Charity, Grease, In the Heights, Beauty and the Beast, ''The Sound of Music”, and Cinderella.

Art

For the first two years of education, the art department stresses traditional artistic skills and discipline. Students work on drawing from observation, learning color theory, and the principles of design. Following this, students elect vocationally oriented courses in the fine arts such as Digital Media, Architecture, Painting, Sculpture, and Photography. In their senior year, art majors can submit portfolios to the department for consideration for a place in the senior galleries, which are a series of shows organized and constructed by the chosen students and a student curator.

Music

The music department features two symphony orchestras, five choirs, four string ensembles, two concert bands, two jazz bands, a chamber group, a gospel choir, a show choir, and an opera company with a pit orchestra. Vocal and instrumental students study in a conservatory curriculum featuring three hours of music per day, including performing ensembles, electives, 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.

Instrumental programs

Every student in the instrumental department must join a performing ensemble as well as a class specific to their instrument's musicological classification. After completing their first year with an ensemble, students may fulfill the remainder of performance credits with electives.
Every student in the vocal department must perform with Elementary Chorus within their first or second year. At the secondary level, students must perform with either Mixed Chorus or Girls' Chorus. Third-year vocal music majors must complete an additional year of chorus, performing either with Mixed Chorus, Women's Chorus, or Senior Chorus.
Every music student must pass an elementary sight singing course as well as a year of music theory and history in order to graduate.
The Drama studio at LaGuardia is highly competitive. The students do not get a chance to perform publicly until their junior year with musical theater, or senior year during the Spring Drama Festival. The exceptions for drama students' ability to perform are the annual school musical, in which any second-, third-, or fourth-year student may audition for any number of roles, and the Rising Stars talent show, where any group of students can prepare an act.
There are several guest teachers in the drama department, who are featured particularly in the junior and senior courses. Many actors such as Jake Gyllenhaal, Alan Rickman, Darren Criss have spoken to students, while recent graduates Timothée Chalamet and Ansel Elgort visit to share their experiences. Rap superstar Nicki Minaj also attended this department. Acclaimed staff teachers including AP Sandy Faison, Harry Shifman, Lee Lobenhoffer and Robert Krausz are credited with the extraordinary curriculum that produces gifted young performers.

Dance

The Dance Department is based strictly on pre-conservatory-based training in the field of dance. Students spend the first two years training solely in classical ballet and the combined modern techniques of Graham and Horton. In their junior year they are given the opportunity to take musical theater and tap classes. Beyond that, the junior class performs for the first time junior year. The second semester of junior year they take a choreography class in which they create pieces of their own to perform. Senior year, the dancers take career management classes to support their success and take part in two performances: the Winter Showcase and the Graduation Dance Concert of the spring.
Alumni of the program include Desmond Richardson and Suzanne Vega.

Technical theater

The Technical Theater Studio is a professional training program that provides students with the skills and techniques necessary to pursue a career in technical theater. Concepts and aesthetics are taught using contemporary teaching methods that utilize state-of-the-art equipment. Professionally produced events in the concert hall, thrust-stage theater, and black-box theater provide students with practical hands-on work experiences.

Applications

Students are accepted after a rigorous audition process in and portfolios review. Their academic and attendance records are also carefully scrutinized, with most incoming students having an A average in middle school and scoring at least a "3" out of "4" on their seventh grade NYS standardized exams. Auditions are held typically late October.

Transportation access

The New York City Subway's 66th Street–Lincoln Center and 59th Street–Columbus Circle stations are located nearby. Additionally, New York City Bus's routes stop near LaGuardia High School. Students residing more than a certain distance from the school are provided full-fare or half-fare student MetroCards for public transportation.

Sports

LaGuardia offers 21 different sports on the Varsity level. It is one of 8 schools in New York City which still runs the Gymnastics Program. LaGuardia competes with the Public School Athletic League. Fall season sports include bowling, swimming, volleyball, cross country, fencing, soccer, and cross country. Winter season sports include basketball, gymnastics, and indoor track. In the spring, the school offers baseball, outdoor track, tennis, volleyball, handball, softball and tennis.

Representation in other media

The 1980 dramatic film Fame was based on student life at the School of Performing Arts prior to its merger into LaGuardia High School. A television series based on the film, Fame, was launched in 1982. It was adapted again as a stage musical, which premiered in 1988. A loose remake of the film was released in 2009.