The Las Vegas Academy of the Arts is a nationally-recognized, award-winning magnet high school, serving approximately 1,700 students in Clark County, Nevada.

Located in the center of the Las Vegas High School Historical District, the Las Vegas Academy serves students from throughout the district in grades 9 through 12. Las Vegas Academy provides students the opportunity to pursue a conservatory in the areas of dance, music, theater, or visual arts within which majors are available in band, vocal music, dance, guitar, international studies, mariachi, orchestra, photography, piano, studio art, technical theatre, theatre, visual design, and World Jazz studies. The four conservatories, previously considered majors, were updated in 2017 as an effort to emphasize the academy’s focus on the arts. All students must meet a certain criteria for acceptance: completing an application, auditioning in their chosen performing major, preparing a portfolio, and/or taking an aptitude test.

Academically Challenging

The Academy offers students an intellectually challenging learning experience and empowers them with the skills and knowledge to compete successfully in the international workplace. Since opening, the school has placed at the top of the Clark County School District's academic programs with standardized test scores maintained at the 75th or better percentiles. Sixty percent of its graduating seniors enroll in four-year universities each year and another 10 percent enter junior colleges for a grand total of 70 percent enrollment at the university level.

Nationally Recognized

The Academy has received national, state, and local accolades, including those from the White House; Senators Reid, Bryan, and Ensign; former Governor Bob Miller and former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones. The Academy has received ten Grammy Signature School awards for excellence in music programs and has been recognized by the International Network of Performing and Visual Arts schools as a STAR school.

In 2000, the U.S. Department of Education recognized the Academy as a New American High School. In 2002, the U.S. Department of Education honored the Academy as a U.S. Blue Ribbon School, making it one out of only 17 high schools in the country to have received both prestigious awards.

In 2013, Las Vegas Academy of Arts received the Outstanding Arts School Award from the Arts Schools Network (ASN), the nation's largest professional membership organization of specialized arts schools. This award is presented to an Arts Schools Network member school with an outstanding record of overall excellence in the categories of faculty and student achievement, community recognition and involvement, arts and academics integration, curriculum innovations, continuing growth and development, and state and national recognition. The Academy was also desginated as a 2013 Magnet School of America School of Distinction.

Las Vegas Academy of the Arts Band Program Accolades

Accolades include having been recognized as a Blue Ribbon Program of Excellence award winner by the National Band Association, as well as a Mark of Excellence winner in the National Wind Band Honors Project. Recent performances outside of Nevada for the program include the Las Vegas Academy Wind Ensemble performing as an invited guest at the Pacific Basin Music Festival (2016), Western International Band Clinic (2017), a gala performance at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria (2019), the 76th Annual Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic (2022), Western International Band Clinic (2023), and performing at and hosting the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) W/NW Division Conference (2024). Past performances include the Music for All National Concert Band Festival, multiple UNLV Wind Orchestra concerts, as well as the Auditorio de Zaragoza in Zaragoza, Spain. 

Guest artists have included performers such as Timothy McAllister, Epoch Percussion Quartet, Joe Alessi (New York Philharmonic, principal trombone), Chris Castellanos, the Boston Brass, ~Nois Saxophone Quartet, Kodachrome Saxophone Quartet, Bethany Mennemeyer, and numerous others.

In additional to the guest artists listed, masterclasses have also been given to LVA students by artists including Anthony McGill (Juilliard), Richie Hawley (Rice University), Jeremy Wilson (Vanderbuilt), and many others.

Notable guest conductors/clinicians that have been on campus to work with the Wind Ensemble include Mallory Thompson, Timothy Rhea, Leonard Slatkin, Alfred Watkins, James Keene, Thomas G. Leslie, Reed Chamberlin, and many more.

Guest composers that have been on campus to work with the Wind Ensemble include Kimberly Archer, Viet Cuong, Michael Torke, Shuying Li, and Michael Daugherty, among others.