Neshaminy named “Best Community for Music Education” for fifth year

Neshaminy School District has once again been hon­ored with the Best Communities for Music Education des­ig­na­tion from The NAMM Foundation for its out­stand­ing com­mit­ment to music edu­ca­tion. This des­ig­na­tion is award­ed to dis­tricts that demon­strate out­stand­ing achieve­ment in efforts to pro­vide music access and edu­ca­tion to all stu­dents. Neshaminy has received this award each year since 2017.

To qual­i­fy for the Best Communities des­ig­na­tion, the Neshaminy District music staff answered detailed ques­tions about fund­ing, grad­u­a­tion require­ments, music class par­tic­i­pa­tion, instruc­tion time, facil­i­ties, sup­port for the music pro­gram and com­mu­ni­ty music-making programs. 

Neshaminy HS musi­cians announce the good news about the NAMM designation

Neshaminy offers a com­pre­hen­sive music pro­gram for grades K‑12. All stu­dents in grades K‑8 receive General Music Instruction, which includes singing, class­room instru­ment play­ing and musi­cal listening.

Beginning in grade 3, stu­dents may choose to learn an orches­tral string instru­ment. In grade 4 stu­dents may begin learn­ing wood­wind, brass or per­cus­sion instru­ments. The Instrumental Program involves a week­ly group les­son at school, as well as, a week­ly large ensem­ble rehearsal — in many instances this is a School Orchestra or Concert Band. The Instrumental les­son pro­gram con­tin­ues in the Middle Schools.

For stu­dents who are inter­est­ed in singing, each school offers choral oppor­tu­ni­ties. Most schools put togeth­er a win­ter and spring per­for­mance for their par­ents and the com­mu­ni­ty. At the sec­ondary lev­el an annu­al high­light is the school musi­cal per­for­mance. Students build skills in act­ing, singing and dance through the musical.

Once stu­dents enter the High School, there are a vari­ety of musi­cal choic­es rang­ing from Symphonic & Marching Band, Jazz Band, Orchestra, Concert Choir, Select Choir and oth­ers. Students may also begin stud­ies in Music Theory and Harmony or explore inter­ests in music tech­nol­o­gy, piano key­board­ing or guitar.

Neshaminy is proud that many of our musi­cians have achieved recog­ni­tion at the region­al, state and nation­al lev­el. This year, five stu­dent musi­cians were select­ed for the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association All-State Music Festival (which was held vir­tu­al­ly). Ryan Scott was named to the 2021 PMEA All-State Vocal Jazz Ensemble. Kaylee Zimmerman and Micah Miles were named to the 2021 PMEA All-State Concert Band. Kate Bilenko and Cody Lewandowski were named to the 2021 PMEA All-State Chorus Roster.