A Brief History of The High School of Music & Art

By Bernie Bierman - Class of Spring 1951 
(As seen on Facebook, Graduates of the High School of Music and Art in New York City, August 27, 2015)
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As is well-known to all of you, the High School of Music & Art was established in 1937 through the initiative of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. At the time of its establishment, it was one of the so-called “special” high schools of New York City, the others being Bronx High School of Science, Brooklyn Technical High School and Stuyvesant High School. All four schools required the passing of an entrance examination plus a higher-than-average elementary school or junior high school academic record.

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Music & Art was different from its three sister “special” high schools because it provided specialized education in music and the fine arts. However, it was very much like its three sister “special” high schools because of its emphasis on academics and academic achievement. Music & Art was considered and was called an “academic high school”, to differentiate it from the institutions called “vocational high schools”. It is noteworthy that the diploma issued to M&A graduates read, “Academic Diploma with (Music)(Art) Major”. No other New York City high school of the time issued a diploma with such language.

In 1947, the High School of Performing Arts was established. Unlike the High School of Music & Art, the High School of Performing Arts was a VOCATIONAL institution, conceived, designed and established to provide training in several aspects of the performing arts, namely theater, dance and music (instrumental and vocal). Like most vocational high schools of the era, its academic curriculum was basic, or rudimentary, if one prefers; the emphasis was on training the student for proficiency in a trade. The High School of Performing Arts, unlike Music & Art, did not have a fine or even an applied arts curriculum. Even in the area of music, it did not provide the intensive instruction in theory and harmony and music history, or conducting and composition that was part of M&A’s music curriculum. (Indeed, at M&A, every instrumentalist and vocalist had to have basic knowledge of the piano before being permitted to play in an orchestra or band or sing in a choral group.) At PA, the emphasis was on drama and dance.

​During my four years at M&A (1947-51), there was always an air of condescension when speaking about PA. I recall the phrase, “English for Idiots” as an expression of mockery about PA’s academic standards. Dance, which was an important and integral part of PA’s curriculum and which did not exist at all at M&A during my tenure, was at least a decade away from achieving the recognition and prestige that the art form has today.

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In 1961, the two high schools were merged. While it was a legal and administrative merger, it was in reality a merger on paper only. The old jealousies and condescension did not evaporate overnight. According to various historical accounts, there was resistance to this merger from various quarters. In fact, some accounts suggest that the merger was driven more by budgetary exigencies than anything else. Which account is more accurate is something we may never learn. However, notwithstanding paper merger, talk of actual physical merge began in the mid-1960’s and intensified in the 1970’s, an intensification that included the appointment of a single Principal for both schools (now sometimes called “campuses”), culminating in 1985 with the physical merger of both schools at their new home near Lincoln Center in Manhattan, appropriately named for the man who inspired the founding of the High School of Music & Art, Fiorello LaGuardia.

With the opening of the new LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and the Performing Arts, the old High School of Music & Art, which existed for some 49 years in an imposing Gothic-style building on St. Nicholas Heights, and through which some 115,000-125,000 students passed, was no more. To paraphrase Ben Hecht, “Look for it only in the history books, for it is a place that is now but a memory”. And the same can be said of the High School of Performing Arts.

(To be continued if interest warrants.)

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