The San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts, known as SDSCPA, is an audition-only public arts

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 ...

in southeastern

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, US. The San Diego SCPA is a non-tuition, public, dedicated magnet school in the

San Diego Unified School District San Diego Unified School District (formerly known as San Diego City Schools) is the school district based in San Diego, California, United States. It was founded in 1854. As of 2005 it represents over 200 institutions and has over 15,800 employee ...

serving families throughout San Diego County. The San Diego SCPA provides pre-professional training in the arts alongside a college preparatory curriculum. All students audition and complete a required series of specialized arts training in

Theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually 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 perform ...

Music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

, Dance, Visual and Cinematic Arts, or Creative Writing. Upon graduation, most SDSCPA students continue to universities or conservatories for further study in the arts and academics. Recent acceptances include the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

, Cornish, Art Institute of Chicago,

Curtis Curtis or Curtiss is a common English given name and surname of Anglo-Norman origin from the Old French ''curteis'' ( Modern French ''courtois'') which derived from the Spanish Cortés (of which Cortez is a variation) and the Portuguese and Ga ...

, New England Conservatory,

Oberlin Conservatory The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is a private music conservatory in Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. It was founded in 1865 and is the second oldest conservatory and oldest continually operating conservatory in the United States. It is one of ...

, Manhattan School of Music,

Boston Conservatory Boston Conservatory at Berklee (formerly The Boston Conservatory) is a private performing arts conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in dance, music, and theater. Boston Conservatory was founded ...

Peabody Institute The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University is a private conservatory and preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1857 and opened in 1866 by merchant/financier and philanthropist George Peabody (1795–1869) ...

, and

CalArts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...

Enrollment

Middle school

Middle school applicants must complete the San Diego Unified School District Open Enrollment application and then contact artistic director, Richard Trujillo, to set up an audition. Auditions usually take place in the Fall. Acceptance is via audition only.

High school

All students must first complete the San Diego Unified School District Open Enrollment Application. Prospective high school students must audition for a specific program in one of five majors: Creative Writing, Dance, Dramatic Arts, Music, and Visual and Media Arts. Students may audition and be accepted into several programs, but must choose which one they will pursue while at SDSCPA. Each program has its own audition panel.

Productions

Mainstages

Each spring the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts releases their upcoming performance season. Shows are typically staged in one of two main locations - the Florence Johnson Grand Theater or the Ole Kittleson Little Theater.

Arts

Music

Students can choose from four main forms of music: Band, Jazz, Orchestra, and Voice. The advanced musical groups go on annual tours to compete against other schools from around the nation. These tours can be to places as close as Anaheim and

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, or as far as

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

. The most notable tour was in 2016 to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, featuring the school's Jazz Band at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Competition.

Dance

Several dance classes are available. These classes, ranging from beginning to advanced levels, are not limited to only one or two types of dance. Classes include Theater Dance,

Ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

, Modern, and jazz tap. A professional strand dance class is two periods long. These are meant for more serious dancers who want to get the best of their training.

Visual and Cinematic Arts

Students in the Visual and Cinematic Arts programs take courses in

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employe ...

, drawing and

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

video production Video production is the process of producing video content for video. It is the equivalent of filmmaking, but with video recorded either as analog signals on videotape, digitally in video tape or as computer files stored on optical discs, hard dri ...

, and yearbook. In 2015, the SDSCPA opened a new multimillion dollar film studio, launching the Cinematic Arts program.

Theatre

Students majoring in Theatre complete courses in Acting, Musical Theatre, or Technical Theatre.

Creative Writing

Students majoring in Creative Writing take courses in Creative Writing and Journalism. Students may also elect to take courses in Broadcast Journalism.

Notable students

Andra Day Andra may refer to: People * Andra (singer) (born 1986), Romanian singer * Andra (musician), Zimbabwean-American musician * Andra Karpin (born 1979), Estonian footballer * Andra Neiburga (1957–2019), Latvian writer * Andra Day (born 1984), Am ...

, Golden Globe Winner and singer *

Hans Fjellestad Hans Fjellestad (born 1968) is a pianist, music composer and documentary filmmaker based in Los Angeles, California. Biography Early life Hans Jorgen Fjellestad was born on May 2, 1968. He studied music composition and improvisation at University ...

, filmmaker and musician * Jane Granby, artist *

Christian Hoff Christian Hoff (born April 21, 1968) is an American actor. Biography Hoff was born in San Francisco, California, and later moved with his family to San Diego. At eight years old he began acting at the San Diego Junior Theater, and not long after ...

, 2006 Tony Award winner *

Ananda Lewis Ananda Lewis (born March 21, 1973) is an American television host, carpenter, former model, and social activist. She was an MTV veejay from the late 1990s until 2001, when she left the network to host her own broadcast syndicated television tal ...

, television personality * James Maslow, actor *

Sara Ramirez Sara Elena Ramírez (; born August 31, 1975) is a Mexican-American actor and singer. Born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Ramírez moved to the United States at eight years old, eventually graduating with a fine arts degree from the Juilliard School. ...

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

-winning actress * Giovonnie Samuels, actress *

Brian Justin Crum Brian Justin Crum (born May 28, 1988) is an American singer and actor from San Diego, California. In 2016, he came to national attention competing on the America's Got Talent (season 11), eleventh season of the NBC TV competition ''America's Got ...

, singer * Salem Mitchell, model *

Lou Romano Lou Romano (born April 15, 1972) is an American animator and voice actor. He did design work on '' Monsters, Inc.'' and ''The Incredibles'', and he provided the voices of Bernie Kropp in ''The Incredibles'', Snot Rod in ''Cars'' and Alfredo Ling ...

, animator and voice actor * Mallori Johnson, actress * Charl Brown, Broadway Actor, Tony Award Nominee * Jeremy McQueen, dancer *

Jeffrey Gerodias Jeffrey may refer to: * Jeffrey (name), including a list of people with the name * ''Jeffrey'' (1995 film), a 1995 film by Paul Rudnick, based on Rudnick's play of the same name * ''Jeffrey'' (2016 film), a 2016 Dominican Republic documentary film ...

, dancer * Kimberly King , television personality *

, dancer * Brad Bradley, Broadway Actor * Shondra Profit, Broadway Actor

References

External links

Official SCPA website
{{DEFAULTSORT:San Diego School Of Creative And Performing Arts Magnet schools in California Public middle schools in California Schools of the performing arts in the United States High schools in San Diego Public high schools in California Educational institutions established in 1978 1978 establishments in California