2017-2018 Year In Review
During the 2017-2018 school year...
- The Governor's School had a front-row seat to the total solar eclipse and celebrated Totality 2017 with educational sessions on eclipse-related topics and a viewing party in the parking lot.
- The 2017 Share the Music tour had the biggest reach yet, with Music students performing at 17 schools in six counties across South Carolina.
- The inaugural Presidential Guest Artist Series featured Pulitzer Prize recipient and former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove and critically-acclaimed, multi-media artist Laurie Anderson.
- Students participated in over 100 performances, master classes and events.
- The Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra won second place and received a Superior rating in the American String Teachers Association's (ASTA) National Orchestra Festival in Atlanta.
- The Governor's School broke ground on a new 10,000 square foot music building.
- Students in the Visual Arts department joined students from Kingstree Senior High School to participate in the national One Thousand Horses project.
- The Dance Department, in collaboration with the Office of Outreach, launched the Lowcountry Youth Dance Academy in Summerville to provide a tuition-free, pre-professional dance experience for 7th-10th-grade students.
- Creative Writing alumna Temnete Sebhatu received the 2018 President's Alumni Award.
- The 66 Connecting Arts Through Service Club (CATS) members completed over 1,025 service hours in our community and served 25 Upstate organizations.
- Studio 4 (senior) Drama students performed mainstage productions of The Winter's Tale and Buried Child, and created special outreach performances of each for hundreds of area middle and high school students.
- Students were highly recognized in local and national arts and academic competitions. View a summary of these honors and departmental achievements here.
- The Governor's School's beloved founder, Virginia Uldrick, passed away in November 2017. The school honored her life and work during a Govie community program in November and a public celebration of her 89th birthday in January. This school's 2017-2018 yearbook was also dedicated in memory of Dr. Uldrick.
The Class of 2018...
- included 106 students representing 27 South Carolina counties
- received over $32 million in scholarship offers
- included four 2018 YoungArts finalists and a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts
- included a Youth America Grand Prix finalist, one of 1400 student dancers worldwide, and a male dancer, one of 12 worldwide, accepted into the Juilliard School
- saw five Drama students called back in a single day of auditions to the Juilliard Drama Division, a record for a department that has seen over a dozen actors accepted since 2003.
- had forty-six students inducted into the National Honor Society
- included five National Merit finalists, two Palmetto Boys State Delegates, and two Palmetto Girls State Delegates
Students learned from critically-acclaimed guest artists, including...
- Hanif Abdurraqib, poet and essayist
- Laurie Anderson, avant garde, multi-media artist
- Jennifer Archibald, professional dancer
- Aspen String Trio
- Kenneth J. Cox, flutist
- Margaret Curtis, visual artist
- Christopher Davenport, visual artist
- Tom Dimond and Terry Jarrard-Dimond, visual artists
- Rita Dove, Pulitzer Prize recipient and former U.S. Poet Laureate
- Mark Gallagher, clarinetist
- Jean Grosser, visual artist
- Howard Kim, pianist
- Michael Lowenstern, clarinetist
- Teri Forscher-Milter, flutist, & Marina Alexandra, guitarist
- Teyonah Parris, series regular on Starz's Survivor's Remorse and recurring guest on Fox's Empire; 2005 Drama Alum.
- Christopher Philpotts, English horn player and oboist
- Joe Price, program director for the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA Actor Training Program
- Susan Shields, director of the George Mason University School of Dance
- Yekwon Sunwoo, pianist, Gold Medal Winner of the Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
- Adam Tate, filmmaker and 2002 Drama alum.
- UNC Greensboro faculty—Erika Boysen, flutist, Mary Ashley Barret, oboist, Abigail Pack, horn player, James Douglass, pianist
- Enid Williams, visual artist
- Jeremy Wilson, trombonist