8/31/26 Fine Arts Department News

Show your support for the Scots and the Highlander Band at the October 9 Home Game against RL Turner with your 2026 Blue Out shirt! Blue Out shirts are available for purchase through the following link: https://www.hphsband.com/form/m/400207

HPMS 8th Grade Theatre student, Zoe Vergos, was honored by the Board as the winner of the District Birthday Card Competition! Zoe's art, "Celebrating Scots" will be featured on the birthday card sent to all HPISD faculty this year. Congratulations Zoe!

The Highlander Band has opened the 2026–2027 school year with energy, pride, and tremendous momentum. After several weeks of Summer Band, students gave families and supporters an exciting first look at their work on this year’s production, “Beyond Boundaries: The Lines That Shape Us”, during Parent Preview. This preparation carried into their first game day performance of the season at the Ford Center.

This year’s Highlander Band is already showing the qualities that make fine arts such an important part of the Highland Park experience. Students are learning how to perform at a high level while also building discipline, teamwork, leadership, confidence, and connection. The growth happening in rehearsals goes far beyond music and marching. It is the kind of daily work that helps students become stronger performers, better teammates, and more capable young people.

The program also saw incredible community support through a successful Band Together fundraiser with 98% student participation. That support directly strengthens the student experience through instruction, equipment, travel, technology, and opportunities that help the band continue to grow. This year the band is looking forward to a performance opportunity in New Yor City at Carnegie Hall in April 2027. We are proud of the way these students represent Highland Park. Their work, commitment, and spirit are already making this a special year for the Highlander Band.

We kicked off the school year with our annual Lads & Lassies Retreat, complete with a Mardi Gras theme to celebrate and build excitement for our performance workshop at LSU and tour to New Orleans in January! The retreat was an opportunity for students to reconnect, welcome new members, and begin building the culture and identity of this year’s Lads & Lassies.

We were excited to welcome Ryan Forkner, Director of Choirs at North Mesquite High School, as our guest clinician. Throughout the day, students explored what it means to sing with bravery and confidence while beginning to develop the unique sound and musical identity of this year’s ensemble.

Of course, the retreat was not all singing! Students spent time getting to know one another through games, section bonding activities, dodgeball, pizza, and plenty of fun. It was a fantastic way to start the year, strengthen relationships, and set the tone for an exciting year ahead!

To celebrate the completion of the first week of school, our Choir Boosters surprised all choir students with a special craft soda bar! It was a fun way to celebrate a successful first week! A huge thank you to our incredible Choir Boosters for providing this special treat for our students!

Our team kicked off the season strong at the Plano Clark TFA swing tournament. Phoenix
Lazebnik and James Zhong competed in LD Debate and Anoushka Ghai competed in Original Oratory. Anoushka (pictured here) delivered standout performances in Oratory, placing 4th in one division and 5th in the other. A fantastic way to start the year — congrats, to Anoushka and good luck to the rest of the team!

AP Art Students are back at it! The AP Drawing class revised current projects, emphasizing College Board skills: Mark-Making, line, surface, space, light and shade, and composition.

The Band had a pool party to welcome all members back to school. Everyone had a blast at the pool party! Thanks so much to the amazing boosters for setting it up!

The MIS/HPMS Scots Choirs have been having a blast "kicking off" the school year! Our room theme is FIFA, and we've been learning each other's names, singing rounds, remembering solfege, and having fun playing music and singing games together. We are so happy to add Ms. Watkins to our team this year! We love her already, and she fits right in!

The art room at Hyer is off to a great start this year! In first grade our Husky Artists tapped into their creativity after reading the book "Beautiful Oops" by Barney Saltzberg. When they make a mistake, they know they can turn it into something beautiful! Our pre-K artists are also off to a great start learning about the color RED and learning different types of LINES they can use in their art!

Hyer Elementary second grade students enjoyed exploring sounds on the xylophone and metallophone along with rhymes in music class during the first weeks of school!