Music

Making music the Mid-Pen Way gives you two life-long skills.

The first is to be able to make music with the people you encounter after leaving Mid-Pen. Whether playing in a dorm-room jam session or with a gigging band, you'll be able to make important human connections. The second is to have a large enough block of musical vocabulary and material to sculpt your own personal style.

Combined, these two skills help our music students feel confident that they can pick up and play with others when the opportunity presents itself. It also provides an outlet for self-expression—the ability to make something that is uniquely yours, that articulates your identity, and gives value to those things that make us essentially human.

The Mid-Pen music program serves more than 30 students each year, who perform in at least four different ensembles. A handful of students who are so energized by their success in music that they confidently take on every other challenge they encounter, no matter how daunting or formidable.

Spring Concert 2023: Live at the Guild

The Spring 2023 Concert was like no other. Under the direction of music teacher Jameson Swanagon, all six Mid-Pen ensembles performed a two-hour concert at Menlo Park's Guild Theatre, a renovated former-movie-palace-turned-concert-hall, with a spectacular professional sound and lighting system.
 
Built in the 1920s, The Guild underwent a $35 million renovation and opened in 2022 as an intimate venue for live music on the Peninsula. Polished wood, stone, and unique tiling give a luxurious feeling to common areas such as the bar areas and bathrooms. But the interiors also embrace The Guild’s 1920s heritage in light fixtures and other details, perhaps most notably in an art deco chandelier salvaged from the theater that hangs over the ground-floor bar.

Now I Know the Difference

Listen to a sample from the Music Program's latest album, Now I Know the Difference, featuring 13 covers of songs by Bill Withers, Bastille, Led Zepplin, and more. You can listen to or download the full album here.

Dreams

In March 2023, the Mid-Pen music ensembles released their Dreams album. Arranged, produced, and recorded by students and music teacher Jameson Swanagon, the project was made extra special by the inclusion of album artwork created by students in Lesly’s Vazquez’s art classes. The album, which includes covers of songs by Fleetwood Mac, the Beatles, Harry Styles, and Billie Eilish, is the sweetest sound of summer by our talented Dragons.

Listen to or download the full album here.