Music
Elementary General Music
Your student's musical journey begins in elementary school. We believe music is a universal language and inspires acceptance, community, and creativity. Starting in Kindergarten, students learn about rhythm, beat, and tone through singing and playing instruments each class. Students explore different types of music from all over the world. We strive to meet our students' developmental level and encourage a love for all aspects of music. As students' progress, they learn to read music and create simple compositions of their own. In 4th grade, students learn the recorder. This is great preparation for beginning band in 5th grade. They also learn to experience the beauty of performing music with others. Performance opportunities are spread throughout the school year with various concerts and singing programs for each grade level.
Middle School General Music
While in middle school, students will continue to build upon the skills they learned during the elementary school years. We work on building music appreciators that experience a wide variety of international music including genres leading to the pop songs of today. Students research various musical genres and share their learnings with their classmates.
High School Music
High School students have the opportunity to study music through performance in Band, Chorus and Theater.
Chorus
At CIS, we offer musical performance opportunities beginning in third grade through graduating seniors. Our choruses perform two concerts per year, one at our Fine Arts Night (Winter Concert) and then at our Spring Concert. Our choruses have performed around the community, such as the Carowinds Festival of Music and the National Anthem at various events. Our Elementary chorus focuses on learning vocal techniques of beginning singers through unison and two part songs. In middle school, we work on building upon those skills and widening our vocal repertoire experiences. During High School Chorus we work to build singers for life, these students will hopefully go on to sing in community choruses beyond CIS.
Band
The band program at CIS begins in fifth grade and goes through senior year. The bands have two concerts each year, our Fine Arts Night (Winter Concert) and Spring Concert. The older groups also perform at assemblies and graduation. Our band has performed at the Carowinds Festival of Music and some of our students have participated in the Charlotte Metro Area Charter (CMAC) Honor Band. CIS offers Pep Band and Jazz Band as extracurricular activities. Those students that show strong leadership within chorus and band often join Tri-M in high school. Tri-M is a National Music Honor Society in which CIS students are accepted based on demonstrating leadership, excellence, and service in the band or chorus programs. CIS band students are taught to be well-rounded musicians and global citizens and are encouraged to use their talents to enhance our community.