Stevens High School (South Dakota) - Arts

Arts

The campus includes an 800-seat theater with state-of-the-art computerized lighting and sound equipment, and a college-class gym complex with multiple basketball courts, dedicated wrestling and weight-training facilities. The Carold Heier Gymnasium seating 5,000+ spectators has hosted a national ESPN broadcast, as well as speakers such as George McGovern, Pat Nixon and President Bill Clinton. Stevens is among a handful of high schools anywhere possessing a large concert organ, a three-manual, 88-stop instrument in the Milo Winter Fine Arts Auditorium.

The marching and concert bands received the John Philip Sousa Foundation's Sudler Flag of Honor, an international award recognizing high school concert bands, in 1985. The "Raider Fight Song", written by band composer Paul Yoder, was premiered by the Rapid City High School Band at nearby Mount Rushmore prior to the schools opening with the composer in attendance. The band has performed concerts in several European countries, as well as at the Rose Parade in Pasadena and at Mile High Stadium for the Denver Broncos.

The 120-member Stevens Symphonic Orchestra has qualified the most participants in the South Dakota All-State Orchestra for 31 of the past 34 years, placing 53 members in the 2001 All-State Orchestra. The Stevens Chamber Orchestra won the Gold Medal at the Young Manhattan Music Festival in 1985, receiving a standing ovation from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Samuel Adler, who served as head judge. In May 2007, the Jay Sharp Memorial Concert Organ of 100 digital ranks was dedicated in a performance of Saint-Saëns' Organ Symphony #3 featuring organist Justin Matters.