The first high school program in Romania dedicated to the musical industry

Politehnica High School in Bucharest becomes the first pre-university education unit in Romania to introduce a high school program dedicated to the musical show industry, following a partnership signed with the Children's Comic Opera and the Cantus Mundi National Program. Starting with the 2026-2027 school year, students will be able to follow an educational path that combines artistic and technical training for the show industry. For decades, Romanian schools have operated according to a simple rule: first you learn the "serious subjects", then, if you have time and energy left, you follow your passion. Music, theater or dance have been seen more as extracurricular activities, useful for personal development, but rarely as professional paths.

The new program, developed as part of the Ministry of Education's pilot project on alternative framework plans for high schools, will operate exclusively at Politehnica Bucharest High School and includes subjects such as acting, singing, dancing and diction, along with courses dedicated to sound, lighting and multimedia technologies used in stage productions.

The rector of the National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest, Mihnea Costoiu, believes that the project demonstrates that the school can go beyond classic teaching models and offer students practical experiences alongside professionals from the artistic and technical fields. "Through this partnership, the school becomes a space where students live real experiences, working alongside professionals from the artistic world, but also from the technical world,” he said.

• Two specialization directions

The program offers two distinct training paths. The first is intended for students who want an artistic career and includes acting, singing, dancing, diction and the development of stage expressiveness. The second is oriented towards the technical component of performances and trains future specialists in sound, lighting, image and multimedia. The director of Politehnica High School, Laura Şerbănescu, states that the project responds to new professions in the creative industries and allows students to combine academic performance with the development of artistic talent.

• Practice directly on stage

In addition to the activity carried out in high school, students will participate in productions of the Children's Comic Opera and events of the Cantus Mundi National Program, where they will work alongside professional artists and technical teams. The manager of the Children's Comic Opera, Felicia Filip, appreciates that the new program offers for the first time the possibility that training for musicals will benefit from the same educational status as classical subjects: "For many young people, the passion for the stage remains a dream put in second place. This program is an option: for the first time a student can study as seriously in musical-specific classes as in math class."

• Response to the development of the musical industry

The coordinator of the School of Musical and the manager of the National Chamber Choir "Madrigal - Marin Constantin”, Emil Pantelimon, emphasizes that the public's interest in musicals has been constantly growing in Romania, but the educational offer dedicated to this field has remained limited. According to him, performance in a complex artistic genre, which combines acting, music and dance, requires an educational path that begins in high school and is consolidated through practical experience. The new program is inspired by the experience of the School of Musical, a project developed by the Children's Comic Opera and the Cantus Mundi National Program, which has prepared hundreds of children and adolescents for the professional stage in recent years. The initiators believe that the model can become a benchmark for the modernization of artistic and technical education in Romania, by bringing schools closer to the current requirements of the cultural and creative industries.