Be Sure to join us for the 36th Annual Evening of the Arts—March 10, 2026. The 36th Annual Evening of the Arts event showcases the hard work created by our students and their teachers, who have been working for eight months or more for this initial event. The Evening of the Arts also prepares and launches our students’ efforts for Kansas
State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA) annually sponsors competitions at league, regional, and state contests across the state.
The spring art show and musical arrangements will include students from both Horton High School and Everest Middle School. The musical arrangements will cover a wide range of traditional, contemporary, and classical works on Tuesday, March 10, 2026.
The Evening will be Launched with Dinner
The evening will be launched at 5:00 PM with art exhibits in the gymnasium, interactive art activities featuring jewelry making, printmaking, and palette knife painting. In addition to the evening activities, a homemade spaghetti dinner in the Commons area will be available as an easy, delicious option for supper on such a busy night. The dinner is a fundraiser for the USD 430 South Brown County Art Program. For a donation as small as $6.00, you will come away more than pleased with a home-cooked meal and very special artwork to view prior to the musical performances.
The night begins at 5:00 PM with Horton High School and Everest Middle School’s students’ art exhibit, which will display a broad range of artistic mediums that convey specific characteristics to the medium. Student artworks will cover art mediums, each with its specific offering up colorful drawings, oil and acrylic paintings, graphite drawings, charcoal, photography, printmaking, ceramics, fibers, encaustics, watercolor, sculpture, batik, and pastels. Artmaking provides a reaffirmation and exploration of oneself. Artmaking provides artists the opportunity to build bridges between themselves and others; art has the ability to record feelings and memories that at times can't be expressed in any other way. Some of Horton High School's art students' current work will be submitted for this year's invitational contests in April and May.
Come Experience Silver Casting for Jewelry, Palette Knife Painting and Pochoir Printmaking on Evening of the Arts March 10th
Something new is being offered this year during the Evening of the Arts! Three visiting artists have worked with our art students throughout the 2025-2026 calendar year, which has been funded through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Visiting Artist Program immerses students in direct engagement with professional artists and original works of art, providing meaningful experiences that go far beyond viewing art through a digital lens. For many students, this may be their first opportunity to encounter original artwork in person outside of a museum, transforming art from something observed on a screen into something tangible, immediate, and deeply human. Opportunities to understand the realities of a professional art career are more accessible for our students. This program offers a rare and powerful window into the life and work of a practicing artist. Through face-to-face interaction with professionals, students can examine artwork up close, ask authentic questions, and gain valuable insight into creative processes, artistic decision-making, and diverse career pathways within the arts.
Our art students felt it would be an excellent opportunity to have our Visiting Artist be available to work with non-art students, parents, and community members in hands-on workshops during the Evening of the Arts. Participants will have the chance to explore jewelry making, stencil printmaking, and palette knife painting. Be sure to arrive early and take part in this exciting and creative opportunity. This is a great opportunity that is available through Horton High School’s Art Program. We would like to sincerely thank the National Endowment of the Arts and the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission for bringing these artists to your child’s art classroom earlier this year.
Music Extravaganza
The evening continues with extraordinary performances from the Horton High School Concert Band, and the Everest Middle School 7th & 8th Grade Band will be performing at the annual HHS Evening of the Arts. The music part of the program will begin at 7:00 pm with the 7th & 8th grade band. The band will start the concert with a march in a minor key, titled “Darklands March” by Randall Standridge. “Softly Speaks the Night,” a slow, ballad-type piece by Carol Brittin Chambers, will be next on the program. To close their part of the concert, the band will be performing a four-movement suite titled “A Prehistoric Suite” by Michael Sweeney.
The HS Band will next present four pieces of music in a variety of styles. They will open with “Fidelity March” by Karl King. Karl King marches are energetic and contain all of the trademarks that a standard march should have. “Chorale and Shaker Dance II” by John Zdechlik is next on the program. Much of the piece is based on the famous folk song “Simple Gifts,” which was the basis for Aaron Copland's “Appalachian Spring.” “On A Hymnsong” of Philip Bliss by David Holsinger is a classic piece of music, based on the hymn “It Is Well With My Soul.” The Horton High School Concert Band will close out their portion of the concert with “Moscow 1941” by Brian Balmages. This piece is a programmatic piece describing the Russian defense of Moscow against the approaching German Army.
The forty-six high school band members and twenty-six of 7th and 8th grade band members will unite on stage for a combined performance of Randall Standridge’s “Firebirds,” a piece based on themes from Igor Stravinsky’s famous ballet “The Firebird.” This piece is a part of his suite of pieces called “The unBroken Project”, in the author's words, “a musical initiative about mental and emotional health”.
The evening will continue to offer something for everyone. The choirs will be performing a selection of pieces to prepare for our upcoming festival season. Evening of the Arts gives us a chance to not only perform our festival pieces for the public, but also gives us a benchmark for how much we can still improve before taking the pieces to a judge!
Of those pieces being performed on the Evening of the Arts by our students, these pieces will fall into three categories: Solos, Small Ensembles, and Large Ensembles at the 2026 Festival. Solos and Small Ensembles traditionally share a festival date and location, while Large Ensembles have their own designated festival. Each of these divisions includes a vocal and an instrumental category. Solos do not perform on the Evening of the Arts due to the staggering number of students we have that perform them, which is an awesome problem to have! We elect to have soloists who qualify for the state festival to perform on our Pops concert in May!
School and Everest Middle School choir students will be performing special selections for your enjoyment. The musical performances will continue with a combined middle school and high school performance. The high school choirs will be performing the following selections both at Evening of the Arts and at Festivals, which include Small Ensembles like “Lacrymosa” by Mozart/Robinson performed by Horton Harmony - Mixed Small Ensemble. Choir students will also perform, “I Cannot Go from The Bronte Trilogy” by Ruth Morris Gray - Harmony Women - Treble Small Ensemble. Additional performances by choir members will include a wide array of special selections like “Loch Lomond” by Earlene Rentz and “The Journey” by Joseph Martin.
Large ensemble will perform the following selections: “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep” by Laura Farnell. Combined Charger Choir and Mixed Large Ensemble will perform “Dies Irae” by Ruth Morris Gray.
In addition to performing of our Festival pieces, we have also invited our 7th and 8th grade choir, the Everest Elite, to join us on stage for two special selections. This not only gives us a choir of over sixty students, but also gives our younger students a valuable experience of singing with a large choir with more advanced skills! Many students now in high school remember this experience fondly from their own middle school days! The middle school choir has already performed one of these selections earlier in the semester at the Annual League Mass Choir, and looks forward to getting to perform it again with a different group! They will sing two selections together, “Hope Lingers On” by Andrea Ramsey and "Elijah and Joshua" by Sally Albrecht.
This event is truly a collaborative effort, and we are incredibly proud of what it represents for our students and our community. Evening of the Arts not only showcases months of dedication and preparation but also highlights the commitment our students have made towards artistic growth and excellence. The opportunity to present high-quality visual art exhibits alongside outstanding musical performances is both meaningful and rewarding for our students and those who support them. This year’s Evening of the Arts celebrates the talent, perseverance, and creativity of our local students. We extend our sincere appreciation to both schools, as well as to the students, teachers, and staff whose hard work and dedication make this event possible.