Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12 Students

Arts Programs

{Network logo} Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12 is a member of the Arts Schools Network, a non-profit professional association founded in 1981, dedicated to serving arts  The network is dedicated to providing the leadership and resources necessary to inspire and maintain excellence in arts education by supporting, serving and creating network opportunites for leaders of specialized arts schools and complimenary arts educaiton organizations across the country.

Pittsburgh CAPA offers intensive arts instruction in six departments; Dance, Instrumental Music, Literary Arts, Theatre, Visual Arts and Vocal Music.   Students, who are admitted following successful completion of the magnet application process, participate in daily classes in their chosen arts major.    Sixth grade students take two periods of arts class, 7th & 8th graders take 3 arts classes daily while students in grades 9-12 have arts classes all four periods each afternoon.  These large blocks of time dedicated to arts instruction allow for in depth instruction, extended rehearsals and frequent field experiences and performances.

Dance

The Dance Department at Pittsburgh CAPA offers instruction in ballet, pointe, modern, jazz, tap, and choreography. The program is enriched by visiting artists, who present master classes and extended projects. Master classes have been conducted by dancers from The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, The Paul Taylor Dance Company, and The Murray Lewis Company. Students participate annually in The National and Regional High School Dance Festival. Pittsburgh CAPA shares a partnership in education with The Dance Alloy and The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, an alliance that has opened doors for more students to attend performances and meet working artists.

Instrumental Music

The Instrumental Music Department at Pittsburgh CAPA is one of the region’s major sources of college preparatory and professionally trained musicians. Through its constituent divisions, the music school, and the community-based Centers for the Musically Talented, Pittsburgh CAPA trains musicians at every level from dedicated participants to winners of regional solo and scholarship competitions. Long-standing relationships with The Pittsburgh Symphony, The Pittsburgh Opera, The River City Brass Band, The New Music Ensemble, The Jazz Society and local universities bring a richness and diversity to the learning environment. The department boasts a preeminent faculty, and a nurturing and collaborative learning environment.

Each year, the Pittsburgh CAPA instrumental music department stages more than 100 musical performances in and around the city of Pittsburgh-a testament to the students’ hard work and dedication. Department graduates can be heard in recording studios, concert halls, and major conservatories throughout the country.

Literary Arts

The Literary Arts Program at Pittsburgh CAPA is an intensive course of study in creative writing, one of only a dozen nationwide. Students at Pittsburgh CAPA, students with a love of writing and a commitment to achievement have opportunities to pursue their passion that are unavailable virtually anyplace else. Our young writers explore every literary genre: poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama. Each year, working with specialists in every genre, they take increasingly advanced courses, as they work to create a broad and sophisticated writing portfolio.

Pittsburgh CAPA literary artists don’t simply write. They edit; they publish; they perform. They use their writing to connect themselves to the larger world, the world beyond our new school’s walls. In their classes and in special collaborative projects, Literary Arts majors explore mythology, literature, history, and many other art forms. They also connect themselves to one another, forming a community of writers that encourages and sustains their imaginative work.

Pittsburgh CAPA’s literary arts program prepares students to achieve in many fields. Alumni of our program are currently studying writing, anthropology, film, history, education, and other disciplines at Carnegie Mellon University, The University of Michigan, Vassar University, Trinity College in Dublin, Beloit College, Antioch College, Carlow College, The University of Pittsburgh, and other fine schools.

Our writers are recognized nationally and throughout the region. Over the years,
Pittsburgh CAPA writers have been awarded prizes, including the $5,000 portfolio award, in the national Scholastic Magazines Writing Awards. The winners of Carnegie Mellon University Martin Luther King, Jr. Writing Awards, the City Theatre Young Playwrights Festival, the Heinz Endowments High School Writing Awards, and the Presidential Scholar in the Arts Award have all been Pittsburgh CAPA Literary Arts majors.

Theatre

The Theatre Department at Pittsburgh CAPA offers a rigorous curriculum that includes introductory, intermediate and advanced instruction in acting, voice and speech, theatre history, movement for the actor, costume design (9- 12 students only) and technical theatre. In addition to the above curriculum, Musical Theatre offers the student private voice lessons, dance classes, and musical theory. The teachers in the department are active, working professionals and offer the student a variety of experiences ranging from the artistic to the business end of the theatre world.

Throughout the year, professional companies such as The Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Civic Light Opera and The Pittsburgh Musical Theatre expose the students to area performances. Students may also qualify for internships with professional theatres, exposing them to international actors, directors, and designers.

Visual Arts

The Visual Arts Department at Pittsburgh CAPA offers a wide variety of courses designed for serious art students, directed towards building a portfolio for entrance into major art schools across the country. Studio courses consist of drawing, art history, painting, design, textiles, printmaking, photography, sculpture, computer technology, media arts, and ceramics. The focus is to develop visual literacy, as well as to encourage growth in artistic perception. Students are introduced to a variety of ideas, techniques, and materials in all areas. Students develop an appreciation of the complexity of the creative process and learn to develop their personal aesthetics. Investigating the difference between wet and dry materials, additive and subtractive processes, relationships between ideas and materials are the daily encounters with formal concerns, such as line, shape, color, form, value, texture, scale and composition, as students explore and push materials and ideas.

Vocal Music

The Vocal Music Department at Pittsburgh CAPA offers students unique and rewarding educational experiences through its sequential four-year curriculum, through collaboratives with professional music organizations, and through a variety of performance opportunities and master classes. Students progress through the vocal department’s rigorous curriculum which includes: a weekly private voice lesson, large and small ensembles, opera workshop, music theory, piano lab, music history, solfeggio, eurhythmics, and the creative music technology class.

The staff actively performs with local and national professional music organizations. The voice department has ongoing partnerships with The Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh, The Pittsburgh Opera, and The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Vocal majors annually perform an operetta and excerpts of an opera as a collaborative with The Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh, and they participate as supernumeraries with The Pittsburgh Opera. Exciting opportunities also exist to perform and travel with the CAPA Concert Choir and The Jazz Vocal Ensemble. The CAPA Choir has performed numerous times with The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, The River City Brass Band, and at choral festivals in various states. The choir has also performed with popular recording artist, Josh Groban, and opened for the Harlem Gospel Ensemble.