Sibelius is a key element of
award-winning cultural arts program

The Cultural Arts program at Bay Shore High School, part of Long Island, New York’s Bay Shore Union Free School District, is not your father’s high school music department.

Dedicated to providing its students with opportunities in both musical and visual arts, the school not only offers courses in instrumental music and theater, but also interdisciplinary courses in computer-based visual arts and multimedia (DVD and video) creation, with state-of-the art facilities that include a recently-renovated music suite and a 24-station music lab. The results speak for themselves: Bay Shore has been named a GRAMMY® Signature School, has been recognized as one of the 100 Best Communities for Music Education by the American Music Conference, and has been featured on the website of the George Lucas Educational Foundation for its commitment to innovative music education.

Despite its forward-thinking atmosphere, Bay Shore’s Cultural Arts program does not ignore traditional music classes, but strives for ways to improve and update them. So when it was time to update the music theory curriculum, the staff turned to Sibelius.

“We felt that our methods of teaching the rudiments of composition, harmony, ear training and counterpoint were a bit dry,” explains Cultural Arts program Director Terry Nigrelli. “We also wanted to shift the focus to composition-based projects. However, if you have 22 students in a class and they’re all using acoustic pianos, it would be ineffective, for obvious reasons, so we went in the direction of using computer- and software synth-based production. And, while the notation software we were using was adequate, it was difficult to learn to use. What Sibelius has been able to do is get the software learning curve out of the way so we can teach the students to compose music.”

Programs in use include Sibelius, Compass and Auralia.

"Once we switched over," adds Nigrelli, "the learning curve became a non-issue. It became very easy for the students to get in and start writing melodies, learn about chord tones, intervals, etc. They’re now able to save their projects, print them out and have them played by orchestras and bands. Now, almost the entire district is using Sibelius, including our high school wind ensemble director, who uses the program to create the arrangements and generate parts for the high school band. There’s really no disconnection with the program. Sibelius is as close to using a pencil and manuscript paper as a piece of software can come."

Each station in the new music lab includes a Mac Dual 2.5 GH G5 computer with a 17-in. cinema display and a Korg USB Controller. In addition to Sibelius, the students have access to Garageband, LOGIC Express, LOGIC Pro (for more advanced projects), plus Final Cut Pro and DVD Pro for video and DVD production. The lab is used for three levels of Music Theory and Multimedia classes, and is also used to create the high school website.

“At Bay Shore, we believe that it’s very important for young people to be involved in creative activities,” adds Nigrelli. “It’s not only good for cognitive development, but studies have also shown that when you involve students in artistic endeavors at an early age, they carry those with them for the rest of their lives.”

For more information, visit http://www.bayshore.k12.ny.us.