The Future of NSA – Interviews with a Few of our Conservatory Directors

The students at NSA have been looking ahead, wondering what the approaching years may hold for our school. So we took it upon ourselves to interview a few of the conservatory heads, asking them about their perspective on the future of our school. We asked them a multitude of questions about the past, present, and future ideas and workings of their conservatories. Not yet featured, but will in the next issue: our beloved Mr. Rosson, Band and Orchestra, and Ms. Ferguson, Theater Arts.

Dance - Ms. Gilstrap

Ms. Gilstrap is one of the newest members of NSA; therefore, this year she is mostly learning and listening, but she really admires the supportive environment. To her, it is crucial that her dancers know that their voices are important. As she mentioned in the interview, “My goal is preparing the dancers to be professional in the performing world, whether it is an actual choreographer, or dancer, or sound designer, etc. Just letting them know that their voice is important, and they need to be heard, not only here at NSA but across the world.” She provides them with the tools to make that happen. One of her goals is to make students confident that they can pursue any and all of their dreams. Some things she would like is more time for her dance classes; for example, distributing it between 1hr 30 of technique classes and 1h 30 to 2h to dance history or crossover classes like music theory. In her class, dancers have the opportunity to connect with the iconic history of dance and have first-hand exposure, using kinesthetic methods instead of traditional means.

Piano - Ms. Graening

Ms. Graening would be interested in increasing the number of students who are invested in studying and playing piano. She likes the way she is running her conservatory; some of the strategies she implements are teaching the students now to play cords and sit down and read lead sheets. Some of the new details she would like to see are a couple more classes offered in her conservatory, one of them being an accompaniment class. One of her dreams is to develop a district-wide piano competition, like the other conservatories. As she explains, “I would like to start small, and then kind of expand it. Because the other ensembles like choir, band or orchestra all have a specific and all-state kind of competition, but piano doesn't really have one, and schools like to compete against each other.”

Guitar - Mr. Murphy

Mr. Murphy values a heavy focus on songwriting, and he hopes that eventually he will “have as many singer/songwriters as I do guitarists,” which will help to grow the numbers of his conservatory. He hopes to later add a studio engineering class that will “help to facilitate the original songwriting.” He then spoke further about the growth of interest in songwriting among the other conservatories. He explained that he is allowed full freedom in how he runs his conservatory and that the only thing he would change is how we add different classes for intermediate players. Mr. Murphy told us that the previous conservatory director, Dr. James Satterwhite, was a really good friend of his, who “was one of the first people to push commercial music in schools.” Mr. Murphy went on to detail a few of the accomplishments of Dr. Satterwhite, and how he wants to continue teaching in a similar fashion, “carrying on the legacy,” with the addition of songwriting.

Choir - Mr. Jacobs

Mr. Jacobs is a teacher that effectively combines his high expectations towards his students and the sense of unity he keeps between the choir family. We could observe this when he expressed, “I would love to see us get more serious about our art and also more serious about who we accept to come here to the school.” Mr. Jacobs aims to continue watching growth in students’ passion for music and singing and pushes them to strive to be a better singer or musician every day. At the same time, he is very appreciative of the choir community and encourages social activities outside school. An appealing project for the choir conservatory taking place next school year is a trip to Europe. Ever since Mr. Jacobs began working at NSA, he completely transformed his conservatory: he doubled and renamed the ensembles, changed the uniforms, challenged his students, and improved their music reading skills. According to Mr. Jacobs, some improvements the music department could have in a new building are better soundproofing and more functional practice rooms. 

Literary Arts - Ms. DuBois

Ms. DuBois noted various original ideas that could be implemented in the future. One of them includes collaboration between arts classes. For example, literary artists could write pieces in response to art that visual artists would provide. As she described, “This could be facilitated with a shared space or aligned planning periods between teachers.” Ms. DuBois is a firm advocate of student voice. She thinks every voice needs to be heard. This is reflected in another creative dynamic she would apply: running classes in workshop style, in a way where the whole can give feedback to each person, focusing on their pieces individually. The only reason why this is not yet a reality is the number of students, since this teaching style would require a more reduced group of people. A possible solution could be a separate workshop class. 

Visual Arts - Ms. S and Ms. Profitt

Ms. Schnetzer, more aptly known as Ms. S, indicated a want for more spaces, “more creative spaces,” when she spoke about art studios for her conservatory and branched out to speak about what could be nice to see for the other conservatories as well. She wished to grow numbers across all conservatories and hoped for a rise in auditions. In a new building she hoped for things like “a ceramics studio… and studios dedicated specifically to practice.” Ms. S told us that not too much has changed from when the previous conservatory director taught. She explained that the methods in which the students are taught might change due to the different teachers being different people, but that “the heart of our program hasn’t changed and probably will never change.”

Ms. Profitt spoke in detail about how she wanted NSA to evolve: “I would like NSA to evolve...into an art-centric school, rather than an arts school.” She went on to differentiate these two types of schools, explaining that an art-centric school is open to all, even the people who are not “a ‘proven’ artist, or have ‘talent.’ I’m doing air quotes,” she stated. She imagines a school focused on “delving into learning, being, and questioning with a continuous center for the arts.” Ms. Profitt, when asked what she might have wanted in a new building, said, “more meaningful space,” talking about wanting “students to have individual studio space, whether they share that with a couple other students.” She explained further, “Something more permanent that they could leave things there.” She told us that she implements many strategies to run her conservatory, and she guides her students to take risks, not settle at a false perfection, and to be comfortable in the process of your art. 

Coming soon! Media Arts – Interview with Dr. Staggs

We also interviewed Dr. Staggs, one of our two assistant principals, about the new Media Arts conservatory being introduced next year in 2025.

Dr. Staggs revealed some interesting details we can expect next year with the establishment of the Media Arts conservatory. This conservatory will focus on the technological aspects of the arts we already provide. Some of the classes offered will be filmmaking, computer editing, digital arts, audio editing, and podcasts. The requirements to apply to the conservatory are a portfolio that shows current skills in audio editing, film, computer editing, and digital art, as well as an interview, like most conservatories. More information about the requirements will be available soon on NSA’s website.

Regarding the structure of the media arts conservatory, the students will take Media Arts 1 through 4, and during their first year, freshmen will be required to take either filmmaking with Mr. Stinson or digital art with Ms. Graening. Later, they will be able to choose another related class of their choice depending on interests or potential area of expertise. The strategy allows students to experiment with different types of arts to go more in detail into those different areas as the conservatory grows. Dr. Staggs plans to incorporate other classes as well. She and her team are currently working with National State Community College, which will send a teacher next year to direct a dual enrollment photography class that would be also offered as an elective. Other classes she intends to add are animation and video game design; this is why she is in search of teachers willing to participate in this new project. During our 8th grader Arts Night, Dr. Staggs was excited to see many future freshmen interested in the conservatory; she expects around 20 to 50 freshmen to join. 

After interviewing all these educators, we can observe all the innovative visions they have and expect them to become true within a short period of time. Looking back at the interviews, we can also recognize that our teachers care a lot about their students and about allowing them to express themselves. They all seem to be very supportive and expect the best for the students. We look forward to seeing how NSA progresses in the future with them at the helm.

Stay tuned for interviews with Mr. Rosson and Ms. Ferguson!