The Revere High School (RHS) music directors have created an honors music program to encourage and acknowledge students’ musical passions outside the classroom.

Over the past few years, the music teachers at RHS began discussing the benefits of an honors music program for students who spend time outside of school playing and practicing with their instruments or voices. Several students in the bands, the orchestra and the choirs spent extra time each week on private lessons, participating in performance groups unrelated to Revere, performing in solo events among other extra music-related activities. Revere’s new program aims to reward students who partake in out-of-school music events, and it encourages other students to do the same.

Another benefit to establishing an honors music program stems from the academic needs of

Revere students. Several high schoolers in the music program participate in honors or Advanced Placement (AP) courses, and for some, taking a music class brings down their grade point averages (GPA). Choirs Director Sierra Pabon joined the RHS staff four years ago, and she had a conversation regarding students’ academic goals.

“Our students are really academically driven and a lot of students had been kind of frustrated with the fact that if they took band, orchestra or choir, that their GPA would lower just because [they took a music] course. . . . We wanted to be able to give an opportunity to those really high achieving academic students; we didn’t want there to be any reason why they couldn’t take our course,” Pabon said.

As a result, the music directors began making arrangements to create an honors program within the music department. Once Band Director Tom Chiera began his career at Revere, the honors band program truly began developing.

“This really was Mr. Chiera’s baby, the honors program. We refin[ed] it all together, but this [program] really is his brainchild,” Pabon said.

Several directors including Assistant Band Director Montana Fassnacht conversed with neighboring Ohio schools to better understand how their honors music programs worked. Then, taking inspiration from the other schools, the Revere music directors spoke with one another about the layout of the new Revere honors program.

“I was able to take a little bit of a role of helping to gather some information: reaching out to a handful of our friends in some other districts that are directors, gathering some information on how they run their honor programs, coming back and compiling it. [The Revere directors had] some discussions as to what really would benefit our students the most from there,” Fassnacht said.

Revere music students can opt into the honors program at the beginning of the year. To maintain their honors grades and honors status throughout the year, the directors came up with a “menu” or a list of items that students can complete to receive points. Chiera described the menu and how it came to be.

“[Music students] have an opportunity to apply. Then, there’s a . . . menu of items that they have to choose from throughout the semester to complete to earn [at least twelve] points, thus qualifying them for that [honors] weight in their grade. The program is truly open to anyone in grades nine through twelve that is an active member in those classes,” Chiera said.

Unlike other honors classes at Revere, honors music students continue to perform with students who did not opt into the honors program. Instead, honors music students must complete out-of-school music activities based on their director’s menu to achieve their weighted grades. Orchestra Director Joshua Bowman described the program’s requirements and detailed some honors options on the orchestra menu.

“[Orchestra and honors orchestra are] the same class, and [students] do all the same things [in class]. Honors orchestra students then do additional work with additional requirements outside of class. They’re taking their music education and then they’re going above and beyond to do extra things—whether that’s playing in other groups, whether that’s taking private lessons, whether that’s attending concerts, writing critiques, special projects, things like that,” Bowman said.

The music directors introduced the program to students during the first week of the 2025-2026 school year. From there, students had time to consider their options and declare whether or not they would participate in the honors music program. Students commit to the new program for the entire year, and in each semester, students must acquire at least twelve points based on the music menus to receive their honors credit.

“We announced the honors program in the first week of school. We gave students about two weeks to sort through the [honors music] information and declare whether or not they would like to be honor-status,” Pabon said.

Junior Mori Kovach plays and sings in the band, orchestra and symphonic choir at RHS. An active member of music both inside and outside of school, Kovach enlisted in the honors band program this year as he already participated in various band-related activities and programs that would earn him the required twelve points needed for the credit.

“I do so much for the band already, and [I thought], ‘Might as well get honors credits for it.’ . . . I calculated up all my [after school band] stuff, and I was at fifteen points—you only need twelve—by just doing stuff that I already do. I’m in an indoor drumline, I take private lessons for marimba and percussion and I also do piano lessons. I volunteer at [band] stuff a lot too. . . . I’m also doing the Tri-M Program, which is kind of similar to [the] National Honor Society but for music,” Kovach said.

Kovach plans on furthering his music career in college, which encouraged him to participate in the honors band program this year.

“I get a lot of experience [from the honors program] that’s going to help me in college a lot. I plan to go into college for music education, so [this program] will definitely get me up there,” Kovach said.

Senior Max Richardson plays viola in the RHS orchestra. His reasons for opting into the honors program somewhat differs from Kovach’s as he does not plan on pursuing music professionally.

“All of my other classes are all honors classes, and so I wanted orchestra to be an honors class so it wouldn’t weigh down my GPA. . . . I’m involved in a lot of other outside-of-school music programs, so it’s not super hard for me to get a lot of points,” Richardson said.

This year, the bands have twenty-two honors students, the orchestra has nine honors orchestra students and the choirs have ten honors choirs students. Despite the program’s age, several students within each of the three music courses opted into the honors program. Chiera accurately predicted the percentage of students interested in the advanced program, and the student turnout excited him. For Chiera, the turnout demonstrates a passion among students to advance their musical journeys and challenge themselves musically.

“I’m excited for the interest in the students. Our goal in the band program itself [was around] twenty percent, . . . and we’re just over that. . . . I’m super excited for [the students] and proud that they’re willing to take this journey with us and challenge themselves. [The program] is not intended to be easy–it is an honors credit, and there’s some rigor to it. But many of them naturally are the types of students that want to excel, that want to grow. . . . [I’m] just proud that they’re willing to take this journey with us and help the program and help the school,” Chiera said.

For now, the music directors have no plans to implement the honors music system into the other Revere buildings. The directors first wish to see how RHS students adjust to the program before furthering the push for the program among younger students.