Performing Arts

The Shalom Christian Academy band curriculum fosters an environment where students can express themselves collaboratively through music and advance their skillset. Starting in 4th grade, students have the opportunity to connect across grade levels during peer mentoring, joint rehearsals, and local musical festivals. As students progress in their technical and musical ability, they can play with various ensembles that will challenge and encourage them to develop their skills to perform in co-curricular concerts at Christmas and Spring. These small groups also allow students to analyze the meaning, cultural origins, and spiritual dimensions of the music they play. Students also have the opportunity to network with band members from other schools during festivals such as County Band, ACSI Fine Arts, and MSC Bandfest. Classes include: Beginning Band, Advanced Band, and Drumline

At Shalom, drama is a creative elective for students to become confident, artistic children of God in our ever changing world. The high school and middle school drama curriculum allows students to develop their natural talent, strengthen technique and learn new useful skills that are transferable to other industries.  We focus on character development, improvisation, storytelling, memorization, speaking skills, the artistic design process, and collaboration in order to hone their acting skills and confidence for cocurricular theater productions.  Classroom activities are designed to stimulate the students’ imagination, teach empathy to the human condition, enhance speaking and listening skills, and encourage critical thinking and problem solving skills.

Since drama is a performing art and provides real life experiences to apply what they learn in the classroom, high school drama students perform two plays a year with one typically being a musical in the spring, while middle school drama students perform one play a year with the option of participating in the high school productions as the number of roles allow. We offer an option for students who want to participate in the productions as an extracurricular but not take drama class by going through the auditioning process. Field trips to see local, regional and/or national plays help to encourage and challenge the students to continue to work on their craft as well as get a better understanding of the industry. Courses include: Middle School Drama, High School Drama 

At Shalom, the choral program provides a space for students to utilize their vocal talents and provides a solid musical foundation by teaching basic skills such as note and rhythm reading and progressing to more advanced techniques as students mature in their musical abilities that will last them their whole lives.

As students learn the melodies and harmonies for the music presented before them, they grow in confidence and ability. These programs bring people together from diverse backgrounds and help them to appreciate new types of music, which develops compassion toward others. Students learn to appreciate performing music and the impact their sound can have on the human soul, as well as boost students’ achievement and innovative thinking, regardless of where their natural talents lie.

Music instills self-confidence in students and helps them understand how and why they are made. Further, students come to realize that their individual gifts fit within a larger context of their ensembles and how all of these individual gifts are coordinated for the success of the ensemble. At Shalom, music classes culminate in cocurricular concerts at Christmas and Spring. 

Courses include: Elementary Chorus, Elementary Select Chorus, Middle School Chorus, General Music, Music Appreciation Class, Music Theory, High School Chorale, High School Ensemble.