About Us

Many of the vocal music students have represented the department in various competitions and have become members of the region and all-state honor ensembles. They are winners in such competitions as NATS, UIL State Solo and Ensemble contest, Arts Recognition and Talent Search (a national competition which has resulted in several music students being selected as Presidential Scholars in the Arts), and Young Artists competition. In 2000 the department was recognized as a GRAMMY 2000 Signature Gold School and the department received its first GRAMMY and a $5000 cash award. It received its second such award and a $5000 cash award in May, 2003.

The two-time GRAMMY Signature Gold Award-Winning Music Department has 342 students who are given the opportunity to perform classical, jazz, mariachi and popular music in both large and small ensembles. The students also are instructed in music theory, composition and improvisation, music history, form and analysis, vocal production, sightsinging and ear training, instrumental technique classes, class piano and chamber music.

Guest artists in the department have included Arthur Fiedler, Shirley Ceasar, Moses Hogan, Lloyd Pfautsch, Richard Paul Fink, Denyce Graves, Suzanne Mentzer, Stella Zambalis, Fisher an Charlotte Tull, Rob Landers, Ed Gerlach, Nancy Weems, Marvin Stamm, Pamela York, Ed Lojeski, Paris Rutherford, William Westney, Joe Bonamassa, James Lent and Bill Mayes. The HSPVA Chorale has performed with the Houston Symphony, and ensembles from the department have traveled to Scotland, Norway, Japan, Taiwan, England, France, China, New Orleans, Dallas, San Antonio, Albuquerque, Nashville, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Phoenix, Monterrey, New York City, Washington D.C., and Kansas City.

The High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) of the Houston Independent School District evolved in 1971 from a realization that gifted young artists need highly specialized and rigorous training in the arts to be prepared for the intense competition they will meet in colleges, conservatories, and the professional arts world. The creation of HSPVA represented the first attempt by any public high school in the nation to correlate an academic program with concentrated training in the arts. Also, it was one of only three public schools in the nation to offer programs in both the visual and performing arts, and the first such institution in the Southwest. For HISD, the formation of HSPVA represented a dramatic departure from traditional comprehensive programs. Ultimately the school became the pilot school for today's magnet school concept.

HSPVA is fully accredited and offers the same academic curriculum and graduation requirements as all HISD high schools; the major difference in the academic program is that we offer the added ingredient of correlating the arts with academics, rather than treating either as isolated disciplines. All students spend three hours per day in their art areas, and the remainder of the time in academics or electives. The arts offered for in-depth study are: Dance, Instrumental and Vocal Music, Theatre Arts, and Visual Arts. In addition, HSPVA is committed to its role as a college preparatory school, making students aware of the variety of opportunities they have for future training at colleges or universities, advanced art institutes, and conservatories.

The High School for the Performing & Visual Arts recognizes and values student individuality. It nurtures, without exception, the values of individual accomplishment and independence. Since individual creativity is integral to the production of art, our faculty and staff work with students on an individualized, human level that stimulates intellectual, artistic, and technical originality. By providing such an environment, we strive to graduate people who can work independently and creatively.

At the same time, HSPVA places high value on group responsibility, loyalty, and sense of community. In a country that is sustained by a democratic process, a sense of individual worth, coupled with a sense of responsibility to a society, is invaluable. It is to these ends that HSPVA devotes its energies.