The Arts at NOCA
At NOCA, music, theatre, and visual art are not electives. They are part of the education. A school that takes the whole person seriously takes the ear, the hand, and the voice seriously — and a child who has sung a psalm, drawn a vase from observation, or stood on stage in front of a full house is a different kind of student by the time they open their book.
Why this matters
A classical education assumes a truth that modern schools sometimes forget: a child is not a brain in a jar. They are a body and a voice and a pair of eyes, and the way you teach them to hear a phrase of music, hold a pencil, or stand still on a stage will shape the way they later read a line of Homer or argue a point in class.
The liberal arts began with music — the root of the word musae is where we get "museum." To be educated is to be someone on whom the beautiful does not go unnoticed.
What we offer
K–6 · every week
Every Lower School student sings — real songs, real pitch, real notation. Your kindergartener learns to clap a rhythm. Your fifth-grader reads a line of music before they read the next chapter of their novel. The ear is a muscle; we train it early.
7–12 · every year
Upper School students join choir or band and perform twice a year. Repertoire leans classical and sacred — Haydn, Handel, Vaughan Williams — alongside American folk, spirituals, and the occasional Sousa march. Students learn the discipline of an ensemble: listen, then play.
Twice a year
NOCA produces two full theatrical productions a year — a fall straight play and a spring musical. Students audition, rehearse after school, build sets with their own hands, and step onto a stage in front of their families.
K–12 · studio and seminar
Drawing from observation. The grammar of line, shape, and value. A careful look at the history of Western art — from cave paintings through the Hudson River School. Lower School art is weekly; Upper School art is elective studio with a portfolio expectation.
Hear it for yourself
Fall and spring productions are open to the public. Choir and band concerts happen twice a year and are free. If you want to hear what we sound like before you apply, tell us on your tour — we'll tell you what's on the calendar this week.
