Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School

For the first two years of education, the art department stresses traditional artistic skills and discipline. Students work on drawing from observation, learning color theory, and the principles of design.[14] Following this, students elect vocationally oriented courses in the fine arts such as Digital Media, Architecture, Painting, Sculpture, and Photography. In their senior year, art majors can submit portfolios to the department for consideration for a place in the senior galleries, which are a series of shows organized and constructed by the chosen students and a student curator.

The music department features two symphony orchestras, five choirs, four string ensembles, two concert bands, two jazz bands, a chamber group, a gospel choir, a show choir, and an opera company with a pit orchestra. Vocal and instrumental students study in a conservatory curriculum featuring three hours of music per day, including performing ensembles, electives (in areas such as music technology and composition), music theory and history. The department has done featured work with composers and organizations such as Eric Whitacre, Josh Groban, Arturo O'Farrill, Béla Fleck and NPR's Radiolab.

Every student in the instrumental department must join a performing ensemble as well as a class specific to their instrument's musicological classification (one of three winds ensembles, three string orchestras or a percussion corp). After completing their first year with an ensemble, students may fulfill the remainder of performance credits with electives.

• The LaGuardia Philharmonia ("Junior Orchestra") was formed with the goal of exposing students to more complex and professional repertoire.
• The LaGuardia Symphony ("Senior") Orchestra accepts students through a rigorous secondary audition process. It is one of LaGuardia's best known ensembles.
• Junior Jazz teaches elementary jazz performance and theory.
• Senior Jazz is the school's premier, award-winning jazz band.
• Chamber Ensemble
• Junior Band was formed as an alternative to the orchestral program, exposing wind, brass and percussion students to repertoire that features their instruments.
• Symphonic Band
• Pit Orchestra, a program consisting of two distinct ensembles that perform with the annual musical and opera. In 2014, the musical pit orchestra worked with Lin-Manuel Miranda and the cast of In The Heights to help workshop their own production of the musical.[15]

Every student in the vocal department must perform with Elementary Chorus within their first or second year. At the secondary level, students must perform with either Mixed Chorus or Girls' Chorus. Third-year vocal music majors must complete an additional year of chorus, performing either with Mixed Chorus, Women's Chorus, or Senior Chorus.

• Women's Chorus is an all-female group that is open to third- and fourth-year voice students. It is not audition-based.
• Senior Chorus is a competitive elective class open to juniors and seniors. The ensemble is one of LaGuardia's most well known and has been routinely selected to perform for the American Choral Directors Association.
• Gospel Chorus is an elective open to all students.
• Show Choir is also an elective course that accepts students from any studio.
• Opera Workshop is open to third- and fourth-year vocal majors through audition, where operatic works are analyzed and studied. The opera of choice is performed halfway through the spring semester. In 2011, the Broadway musical team of Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin announced a musical with LaGuardia's Opera Workshop and Pit Orchestra. The musical, entitled Life of the Party, is a comedy based on Stalinist movie musicals of the Soviet Union. The work ran from May 3 through May 6, 2012.
• Solo Voice teaches operatic solos through private instruction.

Every music student must pass an elementary sight singing course as well as a year of music theory and history in order to graduate.

• The LaGuardia New Music Ensemble focuses on popular music composition and theory. Students are able to compose their own original songs and perform them during school productions. The ensemble grants admission through auditions, in which a portfolio is required.
• Music Technology is a class in music production, electronic music history and computer theory.
• AP Music Theory can be taken by members of either department.
• Composition is taught through private instruction, currently with composer Jim Pugliese.

The Drama studio at LaGuardia is highly competitive. The students do not get a chance to perform publicly until their junior year with musical theater, or senior year during the Spring Drama Festival. The exceptions for drama students' ability to perform are the annual school musical, in which any second-, third-, or fourth-year student may audition for any number of roles, and the Rising Stars talent show, where any group of students can prepare an act.

There are several guest teachers in the drama department, who are featured particularly in the junior and senior courses. Many actors such as Jake Gyllenhaal, Alan Rickman, Darren Criss have spoken to students, while recent graduates Timothée Chalamet and Ansel Elgort visit to share their experiences. Rap superstar Nicki Minaj also attended this department. The faculty members of the department include AP Sandy Faison, Harry Shifman, Lee Lobenhoffer and Robert Krausz.

The Dance Department is based strictly on pre-conservatory-based training in the field of dance. Students spend the first two years training solely in classical ballet and the combined modern techniques of Graham and Horton. In their junior year they are given the opportunity to take musical theater and tap classes. Beyond that, the junior class performs for the first time junior year. The second semester of junior year they take a choreography class in which they create pieces of their own to perform. Senior year, the dancers take career management classes to support their success and take part in two performances: the Winter Showcase and the Graduation Dance Concert of the spring.

Alumni of the program include Desmond Richardson and Suzanne Vega.

The Technical Theater Studio is a professional training program that provides students with the skills and techniques necessary to pursue a career in technical theater. Concepts and aesthetics are taught using contemporary teaching methods that utilize state-of-the-art equipment. Professionally produced events in the concert hall, thrust-stage theater, and black-box theater provide students with practical hands-on work experiences.