The performing arts teach more than an appreciation of performances, it teaches creative thinking skills that can be used in every aspect of life. The arts give students an opportunity to work in groups while also providing opportunities for students to express themselves as individuals, explore their creativity, and develop important work ethic skills.

Classes like music, art, theater, and chorus provide students to discover new ways of communicating and developing their imagination. The arts promote collaboration, group work, and an appreciation for cultural diversity. The Hillsboro Fine Arts department has classes and performance events that offer students the opportunity to not only showcase their work, but also prepare and fine tune their craft in order to showcase their talents. The Fine Arts department is integral at curriculum HHS which contributes to Burro and Green Hills community.

Hillsboro offers exciting events where student work product is celebrated. They welcome the greater Nashville community to attend exhibitions, symphonic performance, spectacular theatrical plays, vocal performances, and much more. These events are the perfect opportunity to appreciate the work of talented people and submerge in the world of art.

Here is an overview of the Hillsboro Fine Arts program.

Visual Arts Department

Ms. Sarah Hyatt  and Ms. Lisa Jones are the arts teachers at Hillsboro.  Hyatt is the Fine Arts Department Chair who helps coordinate all the different events that students can participate in after school and in the classroom. Visual art students participate in preparing and creating art works for exhibitions, such as the Sevier Park Community Centre.

At this exhibition, IB seniors showcase digital art and photography. Hillsboro offers classes for the beginner level all the way up to the college level IB class. Select students participate in art adjudications in order to  prepare themselves for real life and college level competitions like “Classic Arts Awards” and “The Middle Tennessee Regionals Student Art Exhibition.”

In the spring, the Visual Arts Department presents an arts showcase event that highlights a variety mediums. This event is held in the evening and the Visual Arts Department transforms the arts wing of the school into a art gallery, displaying works from the different levels art classes. The Visual Arts students plan and execute the event and it is a favorite of families and the community.

This event is a chance to see new parents and rising 8th graders to take in an evening of art. Students curate the exhibitions by determining what works are suitable for a gallery exhibition, and for many this is a component of their IB assessment. Senior IB students decide the theme of their exhibition which includes works created over a  two year period. Hyatt explains the importance of all departments working on projects both in and out of the classroom. “Preparation is an important step for completing these events in school. Art students spend a lot of time outside of school, practicing and preparing for their performances.”

The Arts Showcase is a free event.

Hillsboro Theater Arts Department

Kristin Butler is the theater arts teacher and director of the Hillsboro Players and has had students regularly nominated for local and regional awards for top theater performances. The Tennessee Performing Arts Center is the Spotlight Awards sponsor which provides students who are selected for these highly competitive awards a chance to network with professional actors and students from area schools. Schools who are a member of TPAC’s The Broadway League, allows the two Spotlight Award Outstanding Lead Performer winners to attend The Jimmy Awards®, a national celebration of outstanding student achievement, recognizing individual artistry in vocal, dance, and acting performance and elevating the importance of theatre arts education in schools.

A signature of many dramas performed by the Hillsboro Players are a reflection of the core curriculum being taught such as this year’s performance of The Great Gatsby. They have fun , too. The spring performance for 2024 is the musical ” Mean Girls”. From tech staff to actors and musicians in the  pit orchestra, students are responsible for planning and creating successful performances.

Hillsboro Music Department

Marching band and concerts bands are typically the largest single organization that performs on a high school campus. Both marching band and concert orchestras are directed by Keely Rogers. Marching band and orchestras are competitive groups that participate in adjudications where the performances are scored on their musicality, difficulty of music and their creativeness on the field.

The year begins mid-July for marching band students who come weeks before school starts to learn the music and drill that will be performed at Friday night games and at various contests held on Saturdays in the fall. Musicians compete against other bands from Middle Tennessee, North Alabama and Southern Kentucky. In these contests, the marching band strives to be musically sound whole also performing intricate moving drill on a football field.

Concert orchestras perform in the winter, and spring and are just as competitive as marching band. Students play the most rigorous music selections that a specific group can handle and are judged at the concert performance assessment held in late spring.

Past scores for both marching and concert bands that are directed by Rogers consistently earn superiors grades which is the highest score given. Students who play concert instruments are encouraged to participate in the state individual assessment programs Mid-State and All-State. Musicians from across the state, both in public and private schools audition the honor ensembles. These audition-only orchestras are sponsored by Tennessee Music Educators Association and gives students  Ensembles at Hillsboro include Advanced Wind Ensemble, Concert Band, Jazz Band, Marching Band, String Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra.

• Multiple. 1^st t overall band awards.
• Multiple 1^st overall percussion and color guard awards.
• Superior and Excellent ratings at CPA spring 2023.
• 10 of 13 musicians who auditioned, made and performed in one of the Mid-State orchestras
• 3 Musicians auditioned, made and performed in the All-State Orchestra

Hillsboro Choral Department

The Hillsboro vocal music groups had to take a year off from performing last year to enable a new, highly qualified teacher to be hired to continue the tradition of earning superior marks. While Hillsboro searched for the perfect teacher to lead our groups students continued to perform with Hillsboro Players when they staged musicals.   After the hiatus, Hillsboro hired a familiar face for many students, Gillian Garnowski, who formerly was the choral teacher at J. T. Moore Middle School. Currently, choral arts also meets as an extracurricular after school to rehearsal with the Hillsboro Players productions of Mean Girls. 

Recently, The Hillsboro Choral groups also participates in a high stakes performance assessments and recently earned a superior grades at the Vocal Concert Performance Assessment. Other highlights from their year include a Winter Choir Concert this past December, learning a wide variety of new repertoire, and touring the feeder middle schools to recruit vocalists for their program. Hillsboro students, parents and teacher also look forward to a spring concert to be held May 9, 2024. Like all other performance groups at HHS, the greater Nashville community is welcome to attend.