General Information

As part of the Strategic Plan 2022 and with respect to the establishment of the academic departments as one of the original "clusters” of the school, a formal “Academic Conservatory” was established to underscore the importance of our academic departments in the development of our scholar artists.

The word “conservatory” is derived from the Latin word conservare, which means “to preserve”.  While an accepted definition of a conservatory is a school that gives instruction in one or more of the fine or dramatic arts, it is important to remember that all academic subjects are critical to a well-rounded, liberal arts education.

The Boston Conservatory acknowledges this importance as follows:

The conservatory’s liberal arts courses are custom-crafted to the conservatory’s unique arts environment, using film, museum visits, and life experience to develop analytical thinking and cross-cultural, inter-disciplinary awareness.

As part of our mission to build a bridge to the post-secondary and professional world, it is critical to create a direct conduit between arts and the academic disciplines at BTWHSPVA.  To that end, the Academic Conservatory was created to represent the unique interests of our academic departments and to find common ground in the pursuit of providing intensive, integrated training for all of our students.