When you learn from the 30 full-time and adjunct faculty members of our Music Department, you receive instruction not just from seasoned teachers, but from some of the leading musicians in the Washington, D.C., area. These musicians, who offer private lessons to band and strings players, have played with the likes of Aretha Franklin and the Temptations and continue to hone their craft on stages near (D.C.’s Kennedy Center) and far (the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland).

You can earn academic credit for Advanced Placement (AP) music theory, as well as a number of performance groups: the Chamber Singers, the Denizens (freshman Chamber Singers who are interested in part-singing and close-harmony in small groups), the Bearitones (upperclassmen who specialize in a cappella performances), Handbells, Symphonic Band, Jazz Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble and Strings Ensemble. In addition to entertaining the Landon community, these groups travel to festivals across the country.

If you elect a studio arts track in the Upper School, you will begin with a required course in drawing that leads to electives in painting, architecture, ceramics, digital art, advanced drawing, sculpture, and photojournalism.

Our teachers are celebrated artists in their own right and help students cultivate their passions and refine their skills to produce masterpieces that can be displayed in solo shows in Landon’s galleries and excel in competitions both regional and national. In 2018, 15 Upper and Middle School Bears earned a total of 25 regional honors in the prestigious Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, while, for the first time ever, two Landon students earned Silver Keys in the national competition (which draws some 30,000 entries nationally).

Landon's Landow Gallery, located on campus, features artwork completed by Lower, Middle, and Upper School students. The gallery also displays pieces from various art shows, like the Association of Independent Maryland and DC Schools art show.

You can also participate in either of our arts magazines, Prometheus Unbound or Virtute.

As part of our theatrical arts program, you will have the opportunity to study the craft of acting, hone your skills on the stage of our Mondzac Performing Arts Center, and help out behind the scenes with sets or as part of the tech crew.

As the curtain rose on Distance Learning in the spring of 2020, Landon's performances continued on a high note. Landon and Holton-Arms students teamed up for a virtual production that was streamed live for their audience. 

At Landon, you can take a theatrical arts class, join the Improv Club, and/or appear in two joint Landon/Holton-Arms productions (typically one musical and one non-musical) staged each year. In addition to these full-length plays — recent examples of which include One Man, Two Guvnors, The Crucible, the musicals Newsies, The Wiz and Damn Yankees, and Shakespeare's Twelfth Night — you can also take the reins as the writer and director of a short play as part of our annual Director’s Workshop.