Your students are lining up to choose classes for next year. The time to recruit students for your music program continues. How about sharing with your school community a list of famous people who participated in school music programs? Maybe you’ll light an artistic fire in a celebrity of the future!
- Blake Lively – The Gossip Girl showed off her singing and dancing skills in Show Choir at Tarzana High School.
- Brad Pitt – Sang in his high school choir in Springfield, Missouri
- Steven Spielberg – Clarinetist – You’ll hear him featured with a high school orchestra in the movie “Jaws.”
- The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, wanted to play the flute, but was assigned the tuba in school.
- Anne Hathaway performed with her award-winning high school choir at the All-Eastern U.S. High School Honors Chorus at Carnegie Hall.
- President Barack Obama, known for being a notable public speaker was a member of his high school’s choir in 1977.
- Who knew that Gwen Stefani was also a flutist at Loara High School?
- Tina Fey was a member of her school choir and played the flute at Upper Darby High.
- Race car driver Danica Patrick also sang in her high school choir and played flute in the band.
- Barbra Streisand went to high school with Neil Diamond. Both sang in the school choir.
- Samuel L. Jackson, French Horn and Trumpet, marched in his high school band and played in the orchestra.
- Joe Montana – NFL Hall of Fame Quarterback had another lesser known talent off the football field – singing in his high school choir.
- Fergie – Lead singer of The Black Eyed Peas, sang in choir at Mesa Robles Middle School and Wilson High School.
- Halle Berry – Flute player at her high school in Ohio.
- Ewan McGregor – Turns out Obi Wan Kenobi is a pretty good French Horn player having studied seriously in his native Scotland.
- Jennifer Garner – A self-confessed band geek, Jennifer Garner serenaded Reese Witherspoon on Instagram for her birthday – full marching uniform and saxophone.
- Pharrell Williams played the snare drum and keyboards and met his best friend in summer band camp.
- Emily Blunt played the cello in high school and showed off her skills in her early movie role, “My Summer of Love.”
- NBA Star, Vince Carter, and actress, Eva Longoria, both served their high school marching bands as drum major.
Can your students find any other famous folks who got their creative energy by performing in high school music programs?