A three-time “Grammy Signature School,” selected seventeen years as a NAMM “Best Community for Music Education” in America, and boasting more wins than any other school on Long Island in the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society’s “Young Musicians Program” chamber music competition, Great Neck South’s Performing Arts Department has achieved marked accolades and prestige. From its various performing groups to the brilliant, fully-staged opera and musical productions every year, music has been an integral part of South High since the beginnings of the department in 1954.
Succeeding Clifford Ormsby (1954-1966), Stuart Joseph (1992-1996), and Diane Martindale (1967-1992), Mr. Michael Schwartz is the current Performing Arts Department Head and Director of Instrumental (Bands and Orchestras). Mr. Schwartz started as a Band Director when he first came to South High in 1992, teaching for only one period and spending the rest of the day at North Middle School. “My job was to build the program,” Mr. Schwartz explained. “I was brought here to Great Neck to build a national music program—that was what Dr. Shine asked me to do.”
Construction of the Music Suite
An important piece of South High’s musical history is the process of constructing the music suite as we know it today. “Over the years, the band program grew and grew and grew, and at the time our music room was just like what South Middle has,” Mr. Schwartz described. “Ultimately, my largest band was 138 students, and we literally didn’t have space.”
“Dr. Shine came to me and said, ‘We’re going to be doing a bond issue for the district, and each school is going to put in their priorities,’” Mr. Schwartz said. “I said we could use a new curtain, because it was falling apart, and Dr. Shine replied, ‘No—think bigger’. And so I said we would love a music suite, with a larger instrumental music room, practice rooms, a keyboard lab, a library, etc. They floated a bond issue and it passed, and they put me in touch with Spectorgroup, the architect, to design this new music suite.”
Performing Groups and Productions
The program has expanded to include new ensembles and courses in various areas of music. “Over the years as the program built, we grew from one band, to a concert band, then symphonic band, and then ultimately a symphonic band and wind ensemble,” Mr. Schwartz said. “I became department head and became full-time at South High School, taking over the orchestra program as well. The band program had now been built up, and we just continued to grow. We added the guitar program, we added music theory, we added music technology, we added a lot of classes for our choral teacher, and later on, when Mr. Alan Lehrman retired, they combined drama and music, and I became department head of performing arts, music and drama.”
Throughout the growth of the program, groups and students have performed on numerous occasions for different events, including in the Great Neck Memorial Day Parade, winter and spring concerts, and state and national ensembles.
The department also puts on multiple productions annually, having presented musicals and opera productions for 53 years, fully staged with orchestra, costumes, professional opera drops, sung in the original language, and presented with English supertitles.
A Musical Community
From its humble beginnings, the Performing Arts Department has grown into a community of talented students and inspiring faculty, together creating music, widespread and beautiful, at South High. “People that come in here and just see what we have now don’t know where we were way back,” says Mr. Schwartz. “It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come, with the program, chamber music program, and instrumental and vocal groups being what they are. There’s a lot to be proud of.”
“But, we could not do it without our students,” Mr. Schwartz emphasized. “It’s always been about the students, and the greatest pride that I have is the fact that we have continued this program as a community.”
More information on the GNSHS Performing Arts Department can be found on their website.
