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Spring Arts Festival
2026 TASIS Spring Arts Festival
Under the direction of TASIS Founder M. Crist Fleming, who was an ardent supporter of the arts, former faculty members Horst Dürrschmidt and Fernando Gonzales established the TASIS Spring Arts Festival in 1974. Held near the end of each school year, the festival is, in addition to a community-wide celebration of the arts, a final assessment for students in visual arts, theater, and music. It aims to celebrate and support the unique contributions that the arts and humanities make to TASIS life while offering an opportunity to showcase, through both performance and exhibition, the arts across the Elementary, Middle, and High Schools.
Director of Performing Arts Erika Cramp, Visual Arts Department Chair Andre Adami, all of the teachers involved in the arts at TASIS, and our many talented student artists were delighted to share their incredible work with the TASIS community from May 11–16. See an archive of all the content below.
Spring Arts Festival Opening Assembly
MONDAY, MAY 11 | Palestra
This assembly served as the official opening of the 2026 Spring Arts Festival and provided students a preview of what is to come throughout the week. It featured introductory remarks from Visual Arts Department Chair Andre Adami; two performances by the TASIS Orchestra; an explanation of the incredible backstory for this year’s Performing Arts Showcase, Moon Tree, from Director of Performing Arts Erika Cramp; a video message from NASA European representative Gregory Mann, who will answer questions from TASIS students during a Zoom call on May 12; and solo performances from Maria Julia Tomas Cardoso ’26 and Rodrigo Chavez Lizarraga ’26.
Use the links below to watch the full assembly and see a photo gallery.
Grade Five Conducting Workshop
MONDAY, MAY 11 | Palmer Cultural Center
Fifth-grade music classes were instructed by Maestro Andrea Cupia for an Introduction to Conducting Workshop that featured students having the special opportunity to conduct members of the Opera ViVa Orchestra. The repertoire included excerpts from famous works by Tchaikovsky, Verdi, and Beethoven. Click on the link below to see more photos.
Visual Art Exhibition
TUESDAY, MAY 12–SATURDAY, MAY 16 | Palmer Cultural Center and Şahenk Fine Arts Center (Horst Dürrschmidt Gallery)
This year’s Visual Art Exhibition opened on the afternoon of May 12 and included a wide variety of artworks produced by Elementary School students (guided by Ms. Caroline Rossi); Middle School students (Ms. Simona Bellini and Ms. Brigit Hurst); and High School students in the disciplines of drawing and painting (Ms. Megan Pendleton and Ms. Zeynep Baransel Korman), photography (Mr. Andre Adami), architecture and design (Mr. Thomas Wong), and ceramics (Ms. Hurst)—with selected works from the IB Visual Arts and AP Art & Design courses also featured.
Click on the links below to see photos from the opening and a 3D scan of the entire exhibition!
Please note that the link for the 3D scan will drop you into the main part of the exhibition in the Palmer Cultural Center. To see the Elementary School artwork that was housed in the lobby upstairs, click on the search icon in the top-left corner of the screen, open the “Tags” drop-down menu, select “Elementary School: Lobby,” and then click on the green circle that appears on the door on the main part of the screen.
Performing Arts Showcase: Moon Tree
SATURDAY, MAY 16 | Palestra
Following amazing Performing Arts Showcases during our last three festivals—Shine in 2023, Dream in 2024, and Wild in 2025—we were thrilled to invite the TASIS community to this year's extravaganza, Moon Tree. More than 200 talented students from all three TASIS divisions lit up the stage in our very own Palestra for the fourth annual showcase, with featured performances from orchestras, choirs, instrumentalists, theater groups, bands, dancers, and soloists.
Moon Tree tells the extraordinary true story of the Apollo 14 mission through a vibrant fusion of acting, dance, and music. The performance follows astronaut Stuart Roosa, who carried hundreds of tree seeds into lunar orbit, honoring his history as a forest smokejumper while venturing into the deep unknown. By tracing the journey of these seeds from the launchpad to the moon and back to the Earth’s soil, we explore the profound connection between human exploration and the natural world. It is a celebration of resilience and legacy, depicting how these "Moon Trees" grew from cosmic travelers into living monuments that still stand across our planet today.
Learn more about the inspiration behind Moon Tree here, and click on the items below to see a huge photo gallery, a full recording of the showcase, and video highlights.
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