Intended for children with high musical potential, Special Music School provides a rich musical and demanding academic education for grades K-12 through an integrated curriculum with a primary focus on music. In the lower and middle schools children have two private lessons per week in piano, cello, violin, flute, French horn, trumpet, trombone, percussion, oboe, or clarinet, as well as classes in music theory, chorus, and P.E. . Three quarters of the students' time is spent on academic subjects. The school has partnerships with the
National Dance Institute, the Center for Educational Innovation,
New Visions for Public Schools, Studio in a School,
Teachers College, Columbia University and the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Special Music School also has a high school at the
Martin Luther King Jr. Educational Campus on the Upper West Side, with a music curriculum that emphasizes the development of the student as a musician for the 21st century. With the establishment of the high school extension, Special Music School High School is the city's only K-12 school that teaches music as a core subject. The music program covers the subjects of music theory, music history, and music technology. SMS had their first high school graduating class in 2017 with 100% graduation and college success rate. Students from all five boroughs of New York City are eligible to apply for admission, across all grades in lower and upper schools, which is by audition. Admission is extremely competitive, and the lower school kindergarten class gets approximately 700 applicants for 15 spaces. The total enrollment for all grades (K-12) is approximately 315 students. SMS consistently ranks among the top NYC public schools, based on student academic performance on New York State assessments. ==History==