The fine arts are an important way for students to enjoy the gifts of music and art and build a community. The Denver Christian Arts Department is committed to providing all students with a place to explore their creativity, excel in their artistic endeavors and grow in their faith. Our fine arts faculty go above and beyond in creating an environment where students can develop their leadership skills as they grow throughout high school.
Student Leadership and Innovation in Band
In elementary school students build a foundation in music education, and students can build on that foundation by participating in band or choir in their middle school and high school years.
In high school, our students take on additional leadership roles and enjoy more ownership with their experience. Our high school band council members from each grade meet monthly and discuss music literature selections, travel opportunities, and ways to improve the program. These leadership experiences provide students with a different perspective on the fine arts programming at Denver Christian. According to the sophomore representative, “Band council helps your understanding of how a band operates, and it makes you appreciate it more.”
“It demystifies the whole process of choosing songs and is helpful because we can speak for our classmates. We get to see behind the scenes.”
Benny Weber, Band Council Member
Denver Christian’s new drumline program is predominantly student led, providing another leadership development opportunity for our high school students. The drumline student captain has led the group’s performance during football games, basketball games, pep rallies and the Homecoming parade.
Our symphonic band students have begun to compose their own music. Using music writing software, they are creating original music compositions inspired by lyrics, a Bible verse or poem. Last spring, one of our students wanted sheet music for a song. The only problem was that it hadn’t been transcribed yet. He not only transcribed the song, but conducted the band in their performance of the song.
Learning to give back to the community
Students also help lead in choir and the performing arts. This year, the high school choir has two student leaders. These students assist the director in leading choir practice and have even led practices unassisted while one of our choir students has also filled in as an accompanist on the piano. The student leaders also organize our yearly Singing Valentines to help raise funds for the fine arts program. In every theater production, students play an essential role behind the scenes as well as on stage and a high school assistant director helps manage the K-8 theater production.
Denver Christian’s fine arts faculty, like our other faculty in their own subject areas, invest in developing the whole child. In the fine arts this involves mentoring, coaching, and creating opportunities for student leaders to make contributions and decisions.
Upcoming Fine Arts Events
As the winter term comes to an end, we have several exciting events in the fine arts:
February 7th: 6-12th Grade Band Concert
On February 10th, our Jazz band will be performing at the Mile High Jazz Festival! (Both the Symphonic and Jazz Bands will be performing and competing in the Blossom Music Festival in May.)
On February 14th, our DC Singers will perform their end of term concert!