Elizabeth Abbott '26 enthusiastically describes the joy of playing violin, sharing, "I love that we get to play during COVID times, and that I get to play an instrument I love, and have a passion for. Playing the violin is meaningful to me. The most challenging thing that I have learned when playing my violin is The Pirates of the Caribbean. It was both challenging and rewarding when it came together.  What I look forward to learning in this program is how to play harder songs where we have to change strings faster, and especially for 8th and 16th notes." 

Elizabeth is one of the Middle School musicians in the strings ensemble program. Colin Benn, Middle School Strings Faculty, "loves the process of taking something that is complex and breaking it down into manageable steps that, if practiced consistently, will yield positive results. This is my favorite element of teaching students how to learn a new instrument or piece."  Mr. Benn began co-teaching with Performing Arts Faculty Garrett Mendez during the 2019-2020 school year. This fall, Mr. Benn is sharing his musical expertise in string ensemble with Grade 6 and Grade 7 students and is excited that King has expanded the string ensemble program to include Grade 6 students.  

King School students in the Grade 7 and 8 middle school band recently created holiday remix recordings using Soundtrap, a digital audio workstation software program.  We invite you to listen to some of the creative remixes here.

John Russell '22 reflects on the Upper School Band Rock & Roll unit, sharing, "Our focus in Band this quarter was 1950's rock and roll. We analyzed the music's form and composition; we also studied the history behind the music. This dual approach gave us a rich understanding of and appreciation for the artists of the time." Read the full story and enjoy listening to the students' album!

Middle and Upper School's talented artists are collaborating this Fall to perform Bridges, a collection of powerful Readings centered on communication, connection, and identity.  These themes are highly relevant to adolescents and young adults and certainly resonate during this pandemic as we all try to understand how meaningfully to communicate and connect. 

Students are working on the Acapella App, where they can multi-video track themselves. Students can record up to nine tracks and then share and collaborate with others.

Hear from Sarah and Nico on how Performing Arts at King has inspired them to follow their passions and develop self-confidence, perseverance, imagination, reflective thinking, and intuition. Watch them in action in the US Musical 'The Addams Family'