Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts 6–12 (CAPA) is a

magnet school In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities (usually school boards) as school ...

located in the Cultural District of

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. CAPA is one of four 6th to 12th grade schools in the

Pittsburgh Public Schools Pittsburgh Public Schools is the public school district serving the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (except for two small parts served by the Baldwin-Whitehall School District) and adjacent Mount Oliver. As of the 2021–2022 school year, the ...

. It was formed from a merger between CAPA High School and

Rogers CAPA Middle School Rogers Middle School for the Creative and Performing Arts (Rogers CAPA) was an arts magnet school located in Garfield, near East Liberty, and Highland Park neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Rogers CAPA offers students nine Arts majors: ...

. CAPA offers students seven art majors:

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts al ...

literary arts Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include o ...

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

production technology Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

instrumental music An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

vocal music Vocal music is a type of singing performed by one or more singers, either with musical instruments, instrumental accompaniment, or without instrumental accompaniment (a cappella), in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which ...

, and

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

. The theater major includes traditional theater and

musical theater Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...

. The Instrumental department is composed of Instrumental and Piano Majors. Arts classes are taught by adjunct faculty who are working

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

s in their fields. Admission is by

portfolio Portfolio may refer to: Objects * Portfolio (briefcase), a type of briefcase Collections * Portfolio (finance), a collection of assets held by an institution or a private individual * Artist's portfolio, a sample of an artist's work or a ...

audition An audition is a sample performance by an actor, singer, musician, dancer or other performer. It typically involves the performer displaying their talent through a previously memorized and rehearsed solo piece or by performing a work or piece giv ...

. The school offers academic studies including Pittsburgh Scholars Program (PSP) and Centers for Advanced Study (CAS), along with activities like the

National Honor Society The National Honor Society (NHS) is a nationwide organization for high school students in the United States and outlying territories, which consists of many chapters in high schools. Selection is based on four criteria: scholarship (academic achi ...

Tri-M Music Honor Society Tri-M Music Honor Society, formerly known as Modern Music Masters, is an American high school and middle school music honor society. A program of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), it is designed to recognize students for their ...

National Art Honor Society The National Art Honor Society was established in 1978 in the United States by the National Art Education Association for high school students grades 9-12 from the National Art Honor Society. The NAEA also offers a National Junior Art Honor Soci ...

yearbook A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a type of a book published annually. One use is to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school. The term also refers to a book of statistics or facts published annually. A yearbook often ...

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

student council A student council (also known as a student union, associated student body or student parliament) is an administrative organization of students in different educational institutes ranging from elementary schools to universities and research or ...

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

Model United Nations Model United Nations, also known as Model UN or MUN, is an educational simulation in which students can learn about diplomacy, international relations, and the United Nations. At a MUN conference, students work as the representative of a count ...

, the

American Mathematics Competitions The American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) are the first of a series of competitions in secondary school mathematics that determine the United States team for the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). The selection process takes place over the ...

and

North American Computational Linguistics Open competition The North American Computational Linguistics Open competition (NACLO), formerly called the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad before January 1, 2020, is a computational linguistics competition for high school students in the United ...

, and ski club. CAPA opened in September 1979 with 35 students, housed in Baxter Elementary School in the Homewood neighborhood. While in Homewood, CAPA only housed grades 9-12, while arts students in grades 6-8 were at Rogers Middle School. The school moved into its current space at Ninth Street and

Fort Duquesne Fort Duquesne (, ; originally called ''Fort Du Quesne'') was a fort established by the French in 1754, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. It was later taken over by the British, and later the Americans, and developed a ...

Boulevard at the beginning of the 2003–2004 school year. The 11-story, includes a 400-seat

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...

, a

black box theater A black box theater is a simple performance space, typically a square room with black walls and a flat floor. The simplicity of the space allows it to be used to create a variety of configurations of stage and audience interaction. The black ...

, a

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...

theater, an

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...

, media arts center,

television studio A television studio, also called a television production studio, is an installation room in which video productions take place, either for the production of live television and its recording onto video tape or other media such as SSDs, or for t ...

fitness center A health club (also known as a fitness club, fitness center, health spa, and commonly referred to as a gym) is a place that houses exercise equipment for the purpose of physical exercise. In recent years, the number of fitness and health ser ...

computer lab A computer lab is a space where computer services are provided to a defined community. These are typically public libraries and academic institutions. Generally, users must follow a certain user policy to retain access to the computers. This usu ...

s, and rehearsal spaces for the departments. This location allows students to study their craft in the hub of Pittsburgh's cultural center and to collaborate with artists from all over. Pittsburgh CAPA has become one of four 6–12 schools in Downtown Pittsburgh.

Enrollment

As of October 1, 2018:

Literary arts

The literary arts program at CAPA is a seven-year course of study in creative writing — one of only a dozen nationwide. Student activities include the national Poetry Out Loud competition, and the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.

Visual arts

Students in the Visual Arts Department learn painting, drawing, sculpting, ceramics, printmaking,

digital media Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. ' ...

, art history, and fiber arts. Student work is displayed around the school as well as on the Astrovision (Jumbo-Tron). The Astrovision display has since broken, and has not been repaired.

Dance

Michelle Obama, Carla Bruni, Marisa Leticia Lula da Silva

The mission of the Dance Department is to provide a comprehensive and quality dance education in an environment that nurtures the talent of each individual dancer. Emphasis is placed on refining and enhancing dance technique while simulating creativity.

Theatre

Straight Theatre/Musical Theatre. The theatre department provides a four-year structured course in musical and straight theatre. Every year the musical theatre students perform two recitals and the All School Musical.

Instrumental music

Classes available to instrumental music majors include orchestra, wind ensemble, string orchestra, chamber music ensembles, various jazz bands, music/jazz theory, music history, piano lab, and solfege. Each student normally receives a private lesson once every two weeks with a faculty member specializing on his/her instrument.

Piano

Piano students learn techniques, piano history, new genres of music, play in ensembles, have private piano lessons, and are classically trained. They have a piano recital every year along with other performances in collaboration with the Instrumental department.

Production Technology

The Pro-Tech major gives students the opportunity to learn engineering techniques and the fundamentals of building sets for theatre shows. They act as crew for recitals, performances, and musicals.

Vocal music

The Voice Department offers students education through its sequential four-year curriculum, through collaborative work with professional music organizations, and through performance opportunities and Master Classes. Students in grades 9–12 receive a private voice lesson every other week. Students will perform in Concert Choir, Jazz Choir, and Chamber Ensemble. Students participate in the Opera Workshop class and perform in the yearly Opera. Other classes include: music theory, piano lab, music history, solfeggio, eurhythmics, Studio Class, and the creative music technology class. Each Friday, students perform in a recital for their peers studying vocal music. They showcase songs that they work on in private lessons with the staff.

Athletics

In addition to the Ultimate Frisbee team, CAPA students may play on the University Prep football team and the Obama Academy teams in other sports. The 6–8 students do have sports teams. They have a boys and girls

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

, girls

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

and boys

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

. The girls soccer team was an undefeated section champion in 2004. The CAPA 6–8 sports teams mascot is the

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years o ...

changed from the

phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

in 2012, changed from the

in 2011.

Notable alumni

* Billy Porter (Tony Award winner for his role as Lola in the Broadway show Kinky Boots) (Emmy award winner for his role as Pray Tell in the television show Pose) * Reba Meyers (lead guitarist of the hardcore punk band Code Orange and rock band

Adventures An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme sp ...

) *

Margot Bingham Margot Bingham is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She is best known for her role as jazz singer Daughter Maitland in the HBO period drama series, ''Boardwalk Empire''. In 2015, Bingham began starring as one of lead characters in the AB ...

(actor in television show

Boardwalk Empire ''Boardwalk Empire'' is an American period crime drama television series created by Terence Winter and broadcast on the premium cable channel HBO. The series is set chiefly in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the Prohibition era of the 1920s and ...

) *

Leo Pellegrino Leonardo Pellegrino, also known as Leo P, is a baritone saxophonist based in New York City. He was born June 3, 1991, in the city of Pittsburgh. He is the youngest son of accordionist and composer Stephen Pellegrino. Education Pellegrino gradu ...

(baritone saxophonist and member of

Too Many Zooz Too Many Zooz is an American music group based in New York City, consisting of Leo Pellegrino ( baritone saxophone), Matt "Doe" Muirhead (trumpet) and David "King of Sludge" Parks ( drums). Formation and viral fame Pellegrino and Muirhead met a ...

) *

Noa Denmon Noa Denmon (born 1995 or 1996) is an American illustrator. She received a Caldecott Honor in 2021 for illustrating the picture book ''A Place Inside of Me'', written by Zetta Elliott. Early life and education Denmon was born in Greenfield (Pitts ...

(illustrator and winner of

Caldecott Honor The Randolph Caldecott Medal, frequently shortened to just the Caldecott, annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It is awarded to the illustrator by the Association for Library Service ...

in 2021)

References

External links

Pittsburgh CAPA 6–12 website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pittsburgh High School For The Creative And Performing Arts Educational institutions established in 1979 High schools in Pittsburgh Magnet schools in Pennsylvania Schools of the performing arts in the United States Public high schools in Pennsylvania Public middle schools in Pennsylvania 1979 establishments in Pennsylvania