Amherst Central High School
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The Amherst Central High School Music Department continues a long and storied tradition of success and award winning performance groups since the inception of the school district in 1930. Amherst Central High School is well known for the quality of their music program. Instrumental music comprises the Orchestral Department featuring a Symphony Orchestra, Concert Orchestra, Operetta Pit Orchestra, Sinfonia, and chamber ensembles. The Band Department consists of Concert Band, Wind Ensemble, and Jazz Ensemble, as well as smaller sectional ensembles. The Vocal Music Department includes Concert Choir, Concert Chorale, Sweet Sixteens, and Varsity Singers, and the longest-tenured high school musical tradition in Western NY, the Amherst Operetta Association. In 2019, the Amherst Central School District invested millions of dollars in renovating the entire music wing and equipping it as a state-of-the-art facility, transforming the music rooms into acoustically engineered, recording-capable, and technologically adept 21st Century classrooms. See the Tour of the Amherst High School Music Department.
All performances of Amherst Central High School Groups are held in the Theodore Masterson Auditorium, on campus. Featuring 1,100 seats, this auditorium is one of the most architecturally ornate and acoustically fine auditoriums in Western New York. It was dedicated to the memory of Theodore Masterson (1894-1984), Amherst Central High School teacher.
A plaque, dedicated by the Class of 1984 reads: "Theodore Masterson loved Amherst and its students. 'Young people', he said, 'are just as grand today as they ever were, and it's a joy to be their friend.' He was truly our friend in word and in deed. He represents the spirit that is Amherst High. He will be with us always. It is in his memory that we dedicate this auditorium.