Arts

LaSalle offers a variety of opportunities for students to challenge themselves and to grow through the arts. In addition to STEAM class, which students take every other day, all year long, for grades five through, eight, we offer the following extracurricular and co-curricular activities in the arts.

Cocurricular activities are graded classes that have components outside of the school day. These include 5th Grade Band, 6th Grade Band, and Advanced Band (for 7th and 8th grade). Students in Band also receive lessons to help them progress on their instruments. As part of band, students perform in LaSalle’s yearly Christmas and Spring concerts, and students in 6th Grade Band and Advanced Band perform at the Xavier Band Festival. All students in band participate in some capacity in the City Music Contest hosted by the Cedar Rapids Community School District.

LaSalle Choir is open to students in 7th and 8th grade. Students in Choir learn skills related to sight-singing and solfege, and explore varied choral literature. They perform at both the Christmas and Spring concerts, as well as a tthe Xavier Choir Festival.

Students in K-6 General Music also have performance opportunities through the year, with K-4 students participating in the Christmas Concert, and students in 5th and 6th grade participating in both the Christmas and Spring Concerts. 

All students K-8 have opportunities to cantor as part of midweek mass.

Extracurricular activities are offered outside of the school day. They include Jazz Band, Musical, Speech, Show Choir

Jazz Band is an instrumental ensemble open to students in 6–8th grade. Students in LaSalle’s Jazz Band can play their regular band instrument, even if it is not a typical voice within a Jazz Band. Jazz Band is an opportunity for students to explore the idioms of Latin, Rock, and Swing, as well as engage in improvisation and delve into the basics of jazz-related music theory. Student in Jazz Band perform at the Xavier Jazz Festival and at the Spring Concert. The Jazz Band season starts after returning from Christmas break.

The fall musical involves a large portion of our 6–8th grade students. Most of these students are on stage, but there are opportunities for students to participate in backstage crew as well. Our past performance history includes a mix of contemporary and classic musicals, including Madagascar, The Music Man, Shrek, The Sound of Music, Beauty and the Beast, Annie, and many more. Our musical always occurs the week following Thanksgiving at Xavier High School on a great stage!

The speech team is a short season, but one of great value. This, too, is open to grades 6–8. Events include solo acting, duet acting, group acting, duet improv, and group improv. Students perform at least once and usually twice. Their performances all receive feedback from judges for continued growth.

Centerstage is the show choir in conjunction with students and support from St. Joseph’s in Marion.. Practices begin in the fall but become more frequent and more involved when competition season begins in February. Students learn to sing and dance in sync with a variety of songs according to the theme for the year. The team competes locally for most shows but attends one or two competitions beyond the Cedar Rapids area.. Like the Speech program, these competitions provide great feedback from outside sources. There is also a combo band that accompanies the show choir, joining them in rehearsals, and rehearsing on their own to master the fairly difficult charts.

LaSalle Catholic enjoys a proud history with strong preparation in the arts, and we encourage all of our students to try their hand at these wonderful fun learning opportunities!