John Bapst Memorial High School
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Arts
The state of Maine requires one fine arts credit for a high school diploma. More than half of John Bapst Memorial High School's seniors will graduate with two or more. The fine arts are not a curriculum add-on at John Bapst; they are part of the lifeblood of the school, nourishing and enriching its spirit. Nearly half of the John Bapst students participate in instrumental or choral music; another hundred take classes in the visual arts; forty more take creative writing, and a few dozen pick up fine arts credits in speech, drama, and journalism.
Credits, however, tell only a small part of the story. At Bapst, the arts mean performance. Every year the bands (the Concert Band, the Jazz Band, the Jazz Combo, the Chamber Ensemble) and the Chorale (full Chorale and Concert Choir) give two formal concerts--the Winter Holiday and the Spring concerts--but they perform at least a half dozen spontaneous gigs; and the pep groups (Instrumental Peppers, Percussion Peppers, and Vocal Peppers) play at nearly every home football and basketball game and even at hockey games, field hockey games, and swim meets. Perhaps most interesting to the musicians and singers artistically, however, are the solo and ensemble nights--student-orchestrated events where individual students and self-selected groups of students perform music of their choice and often of their own composition.
Please visit eboard.com for the latest upcoming events, Fine Arts Boosters' information, calendars for each group and more.
At the two annual art shows, as many as one hundred artists show their sculptures, paintings, drawings, and other works in the visual arts. Over one hundred students participate in the annual stage productions; in the last few years, the John Bapst Players have presented to a full house The Music Man, Our Town, My Fair Lady, Bye Bye Birdie, Romeo and Juliet, Hello Dolly, and The King and I.
Bapst's fine arts program, of course, is rooted in its academic program. Arts courses are inspiring, and the seriousness with which they are taken is greatly responsible for their remarkable growth over the last few years, and that remarkable growth in turn has given a greater soul to the school. If a student's interest is the arts, Bapst can fulfill it and give in the bargain a first rate college preparatory education in every other discipline as well. At Bapst, the arts are a way of life, of everybody's life.
