Tag Archives: HSPVA

52 HISD students named National Merit semifinalists

Fifty-two seniors from six Houston Independent School District high schools qualified as semifinalists this week in the 62nd annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

The HISD students are among 16,000 from across the country to earn the semifinalist designation, allowing them the opportunity to continue in the academic competition and vie for nearly $33 million in scholarships that will be awarded next year.

The students attend Bellaire, Booker T. Washington, Carnegie Vanguard, and Lamar high schools, DeBakey High School for Health Professions, and the High School for the Performing & Visual Arts. Continue reading →

HISD teacher writes and performs in original play at Manhattan theater  

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Crystal Rae is known to her second-grade students at Kelso Elementary as Ms. Rae, but to the theater world, she is just Crystal. Her new play, “Lamariya,” is having its world premiere at Jewel Box Theatre, part of the Midtown International Theatre Festival in New York City from July 19 to 24, 2016. She is the first Houstonian to have a play produced there.

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HSPVA construction project goes underground

hspva

Construction on the new High School for the Performing and Visual Arts is well underway in downtown Houston, as workers have already excavated 25 feet into the Earth and hauled away roughly 55,000 cubic yards of dirt to make way for the building’s two-level, underground parking garage.

“When the weather was cooperating with us, we were running 40 trucks per day, averaging close to 400 loads per day out of the hole,” said Wesley Moncrief, senior project manager with McCarthy Building Companies, the construction manager at risk on the project. “Dirt removal will be finished in the next few weeks and then we’ll install two large tower cranes.”

Other activities happening this summer are installation of spread footings, the perimeter basement walls, and subsurface drainage. Barring any major impact to the schedule, Moncrief said he expects concrete to be poured for both levels of below-ground parking as well as the main ground floor of the building by the end of 2016.

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Carnegie Vanguard ranked 10th best high school in nation

Carnegie Vanguard High School has been ranked as the 10th best high school in the country, according to the U.S. News & World Report’s 2016 Best High Schools rankings.

Three additional Houston Independent School District schools were ranked in the top 100 — DeBakey High School for Health Professions, which was ranked 29th, Eastwood Academy, which came in at the 50th spot, and Challenge Early College High School, which was ranked 78th. Continue reading →

HSPVA one of two schools nationwide selected for national jazz tour 

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Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts was one of only two schools nationwide selected by the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz to participate in a national “Peer-to-Peer Education” tour. HSPVA opened in Savannah, Ga., on April 11 and continued on to Charleston, Ga., performing in public schools all week.

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I am HISD: Meet renowned pianist and ‘Selma’ composer who developed a love of music in HISD schools 

Jason Moran works with a dance class at Gregory-Lincoln Education Center where he went to school as well.

Jason Moran works with a dance class at Gregory-Lincoln Education Center.

In this week’s I Am HISD, which features district students, graduates, employees, and other team members, HISD alumnus and renowned pianist, composer, and bandleader Jason Moran talks about giving back to the HISD schools he attended and receiving a McArthur “genius” grant. He attended McGregor Elementary School, Gregory Lincoln Education Center, and High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. During a recent visit to Houston to engage with students at all three schools, he took time out from his busy schedule to talk to HISD. For more background information see these links: African-American alumni give back and HISD alumni bringing Black History month to life. 

You are in year two of a three-year homecoming residency sponsored by Da Camera with the three schools you attended at HISD. What inspired you to give back to students in those schools?

Many of the thought patterns that I continue to use as a mature artist were learned at those schools. Macgregor Elementary is the place where an instrument was first placed in my hands [a violin], and that prompted my parents to buy a piano for all of us boys to practice on. That piano is still in my living room In New York City, and it’s probably the one I play the most. Though they seem fleeting, these ideas that are planted early on in children’s minds are very important. Continue reading →

55 HISD students from seven schools named National Merit finalists

Fifty-five seniors from seven Houston Independent School District high schools have qualified as finalists in the 61st annual National Merit Scholarship Program and will now vie for more than $32 million in college scholarships.

The students are among about 15,000 from across the country to advance to the finalist level, allowing them the opportunity to continue in the academic competition. Continue reading →

HSPVA ensemble becomes first from HISD to be named ‘Madrigal Festival Honor Choir’

HSPVA_MadrigalCostu_2016_800A group of singers from The High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA) has just become the very first from an HISD campus to win a coveted state title.

The HSPVA Madrigal Singers were recently named the winner of the 2016 Madrigal and Chamber Choir Festival and the 2017 Honor Choir by the San Antonio Madrigal & Chamber Choir Festival (SAMCCF). They competed against 41 other choirs from across the state on March 5, and as the winners of this year’s competition, they will return to the festival next year and perform the Honor Choir Concert.

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HSPVA gets go-ahead to proceed on new building

Bond community meeting at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, October 14, 2014. (Dave Einsel / Houston ISD)

The new HSPVA will be located downtown near Houston’s renowned Theater District.

The High School for the Performing and Visual Arts’ new building project received a long-awaited Notice to Proceed from HISD last week, which gives the construction manager at risk (CMAR) the needed go-ahead to mobilize on the site and starts the clock ticking on the 31-month construction timeline.

This is music to the ears of HSPVA stakeholders, as the project has been delayed for about a year while the project team worked through a variety of issues to bring the project within its allotted budget.

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Many African American artists among HISD’s distinguished alumni give back

Editor’s Note: Black History Month runs from Monday, Feb. 1, through Monday, Feb. 29, this year, and HISD is celebrating with a series of weekly stories recognizing distinguished African Americans who graduated from district high schools. This third article focuses on alumni who went on to have successful careers in the fine arts. The first and second articles spotlighted professional athletes, and lawmakers/politicians (respectively). Others will feature educators and those with careers in radio, TV, and film.

HISD has a wealth of African-American alumni with talent in the performing and visual arts — and many of these distinguished graduates have chosen to share their gifts with later generations of students.

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