Visiting Artists
Master Classes

With an average enrollment of 90 students, the instrumental music program is the largest of the six GSA departments. The program offers professional training and a wide variety of performance experience to classical and jazz performers including those interested in conducting, composition and audio engineering.

After spending the morning in classes at their area public high school, instrumental music students are given three hours of intensive training each weekday afternoon in many facets of music including private lessons, chamber music / jazz combos, sight singing, ear training, eurhythmics, keyboard skills, literature, improvisation, theory, composition, classes in the latest computer technology related to music, audio recording (Pro Tools), sectionals, music business, audition preparation, performance classes and ensembles such as the Big Band, Renaissance Music Ensemble, Old Dominion University Wind Ensemble (by audition) Orchestra da Camera (by audition) and the Symphony Orchestra. All classes take place within the flourishing musical and academic environment of the Old Dominion University campus.

Governor's School instructors are some of the area's finest performers and educators including members of the Virginia Symphony, faculty of Old Dominion University, administrators of the Virginia Arts Festival and a collection of experience from all facets of musical life in Hampton Roads and beyond.

Graduates of the Instrumental Music Department that choose music as their profession have continued their studies at some of the top music universities and conservatories in the world including the Eastman School of Music, Rice University, William Patterson University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, New England Conservatory, Indiana University, Berklee College of Music, Mannes College of Music and Manhattan School of Music. Students of GSA have spent their summers studying at the most prestigious music festivals such as Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood, Interlochen, ENCORE School for Strings, National Repertory Orchestra and the National Orchestral Institute.

Graduates occupy positions throughout the music world including positions with leading orchestras such as the Boston Symphony and Saint Louis Symphony, seats in the orchestras of Broadway shows, recording contracts with the thriving record industry in Nashville and New York as performers and engineers and teaching positions at universities and arts schools all over the United States.

The GSA Music Department at The Roman Colosseum, 1997

GSA Instrumental Music Dept. Students and Faculty at the Chopin Monument, Warsaw, Poland, May 2003

GSA Chamber Orchestra in the Czech Republic Kaiserstein Palace, Prague, May 2003

GSA Students at the Olympic Park and Biodome, Montreal, Canada
April, 2005

Throughout the year students in the Instrumental Music Department present concerts in the community.  Here, GSA students meet with famed pianist Van Cliburn after performing string quartets for a Virginia Symphony Pre-Show Concert at Chrysler Hall.

GSA Chamber Orchestra, Heritage Music Festival, Montreal, Canada, April 2005
Gold Medal Winners and recipient of Adjudicators Award for highest total score ever received by an orchestra in 25 years.