Ensembles
Towson High School music ensembles perform in the Winter and Spring concerts as well as the BCPS Assessment performances in March and the graduation performance in May/June. Students enrolled in an ensemble class are encouraged to audition for the Baltimore County All-Honors Chorus/Band/Orchestra, All-State, the BSO Side-by-Side Orchestra, and to participate in the BCPS Solo and Ensemble Festival. Additional school and community performances are announced throughout the school year. These courses satisfy the Maryland State requirement of one (1) fine arts credit for graduation from high school.
Wind Ensemble
Towson High School follows the modern American wind band tradition set forth by the composers Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Percy Grainger and John Philip Sousa. Specifically, Sousa’s band of 75 wind, brass and percussion players established sonority and performance practice that can be heard in the great halls where ever the Towson band plays.
Chorus
All choral ensembles perform in our Winter and Spring Concerts. The GT Chamber Choir also performs at the BCPS Orchestra Assessments in March. Many students are invited to perform at the THS Commencement Ceremony.
String Orchestra
Orchestra at Towson High School consists of violin, viola, cello and string bass musicians. All String players perform in our Winter and Spring Concerts. The GT Chamber Orchestra also performs at the BCPS Orchestra Assessments in March. Students in string orchestra
Jazz Ensemble
Jazz Ensemble is a select performance group by audition only. Intermediate through advanced literatures are rehearsed and performed. The focus is on developing specific techniques of jazz performance and improvisation across a wide variety of styles within the idiom.
Student drummers and percussionists should enroll in this ensemble instead of band. Percussion Ensemble studies and performs a wide variety of Western and non-Western music literature on a wide range of percussion instruments. This ensemble cultivates individual sticking technique, mallet technique, hand drumming, along with learning complex rhythms and ensemble balance. A large emphasis is placed on personal responsibility, instrument care and maintenance, and musicianship.