Music

The Greenwich High School Band Program is recognized as one of the finest high school programs in the tri-state area. This program serves almost two hundred students in three concert bands and a percussion ensemble. The GHS Wind Ensemble, the organization’s premier group, has performed at the Connecticut Music Educator’s Convention and MENC Eastern Division Conference. In addition, all three GHS concert groups, which include Symphony Band and Concert Band, have performed exchange concerts with ensembles in China, Cuba, England and Greece. These performing ensembles have participated in numerous local, regional and national festivals and have consistently received top ratings and awards. Annually, many members of the band program can regularly be found in the Connecticut Western Region and All-State Bands and Orchestras. Most recently, the GHS Wind Ensemble was selected as one of the regional and national winners of the National Band Association’s Programs of Excellence Blue Ribbon Award.

The Greenwich High School Choral Department is comprised of four ensembles involving nearly 250 students. Concert Choir (9th-12th grade boys and girls) is the main choral ensemble with over 135 members. After singing in Concert Choir for one year, students may choose to continue in Concert Choir or may elect to audition for one of three Select Choirs -- Madrigals (36 female voices), Witchmen (24 male voices), and Chamber Singers (28 mixed voices). If scheduling permits, Select Choir members may also enroll in Concert Choir. All five GHS choirs are full-credit, year-long classes meeting during the school day for fifty-eight minutes, four times a week.

Teaching music with the use of keyboards and computers is the trend in contemporary music pedagogy. Students learn by creating their own music via a hands-on experience. Music is played on a keyboard and it is automatically entered into the computer where students can manipulate it and create their own pieces. This isn't your old Music Appreciation class!!!! Greenwich High School provides the cutting edge in music education opportunities for its students regardless of previous experience with music or computers with top-of-the-line equipment and the newest programs. In fact, it was GHS retired teacher Anne Modugno who started one of the first music technology classes in the US back in the late 1960's!

Please see the recommend pathway for students who are interested in the Electronic Music classes at GHS.

Students interested in researching colleges with music programs should also read Dr. Freedman's List of Music Colleges.

The Jazz program is a popular extension of the Concert Band program at Greenwich High School. Among the band program’s almost two hundred students, those interested in jazz audition for membership in one of two jazz performance organizations. Both ensembles, Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Lab Band, participate annually in school concerts, a number of Fairfield County area jazz competitions and regional and national festivals. In addition, they perform for many community groups and special events such as the Rotary Club, YMCA of Greenwich, Jazz for AIDS, Greenwich Library, Enchanted Forest, Art to the Avenue, and many more.

The Jazz Ensemble is the premiere group and it has received numerous honors throughout its long history. These include performances in the Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall and Frederick P. Rose Hall as a finalist of the Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington Jazz Competition and for the Connecticut Music Educator’s Association Convention as a featured ensemble.

Greenwich High School offers an introductory guitar class, an introductory music theory class, and AP Music Theory. Please see the Course of Study Guide for more details.