Bridging Art and Music

Summary

Podcast Summary: Bridging Art and Music

Hillsdale College K-12 Classical Education Podcast
Host: Scott Bertram
Guests: Noah Bush (Upper School Music and Fine Arts Director, Orange County Classical Academy)
Gina Capaldi (Art, Art History, Studio Arts Teacher, Orange County Classical Academy)
Release Date: June 1, 2026
Duration: ~23 minutes

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the vital relationship between art and music within the classical education model, focusing on how bridging these disciplines benefits students and strengthens curricular connections. Host Scott Bertram is joined by Noah Bush (Music & Fine Arts Director) and Gina Capaldi (Art Teacher) of Orange County Classical Academy, who share their personal journeys, collaborative teaching experiences, and actionable advice for integrating music and art throughout the school community.

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1. Guests’ Personal Connections to Their Disciplines

Timestamp: 02:07 – 04:31

• Gina Capaldi recounts her early passion for art:

  • Decided in second grade to become an artist, specifically an illustrator.
  • Studied at Pepperdine University with scholarships, attended a leading art school for illustration, and worked for over 30 years as an author-illustrator.
  • Became a teacher to "give back" to students and the community.

    “I became a teacher because I thought it was time for me to give back. And that’s the truth.” (03:11 – Gina Capaldi)

• Noah Bush shares how music was woven into his upbringing:

  • Grew up surrounded by music at home and church, homeschooled with a strong emphasis on music education.
  • Love for music spurred by exposure to literature and art alongside music education.
  • Chose music as a career due to its interconnectedness with other disciplines.

    “One of the main things that drew me to music is actually ... my love of literature and art. ... I saw how music connected to everything else.” (03:56 – Noah Bush)

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2. The Integral Role of Arts in Classical Education

Timestamp: 04:31 – 06:21

• Arts as Pinnacle of Human Expression (Noah):

  • Arts mirror our Creator and reveal the human soul’s depth.
  • They connect history and culture; serve as “connective tissue.”
  • Without arts, we lose understanding of identity, desire, and capability.

• The Transformative Power of Seeing and Experiencing (Gina):

  • Art trains students in order, harmony, balance, and discipline.
  • Engages students deeply by moving them beyond technology to perception.

    “It’s really remarkable what the classical approach to the arts and classical education gives to a student.” (06:13 – Gina Capaldi)

• A Unique Model for Disciplined Creativity:

  • Classical education provides structure and freedom for expression, embedding arts at the core of learning.

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3. Beyond School Subjects: The Risk of Marginalizing the Arts

Timestamp: 07:36 – 10:21

• Danger of Treating Arts as Secondary (Gina):

  • Reduces transformative disciplines to mere “fun time” or “craft.”
  • Arts develop concentration, memory, attention, and good habits.
  • Even basic skills like hand-eye coordination are enhanced through arts.

    “The arts in general are really about training the brain, developing concentration, strengthening memory, sharpening attention, cultivating good habits.” (07:57 – Gina Capaldi)

• Philosophical and Historical Undervaluation (Noah):

  • Cites Plato: music as education for the soul.
  • Modern schooling rarely prioritizes PE or music as essentials.
  • Treating arts as ancillary deprives students of understanding true beauty, “the sublime,” and significant virtues.

    “If art and music are treated as afterthoughts, then students ... miss out on a true understanding of beauty ... on accessing what many have called the sublime.” (09:26 – Noah Bush)

• Arts Foster Key Virtues (Gina):

  • Humility, fortitude, patience, gratitude—all developed through arts participation.

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4. Why and How to Bridge Art and Music

Timestamp: 10:21 – 15:55

• Unified Front to Counter Cultural Neglect (Noah):

  • Collaboration among arts teachers prevents the relegation of arts and supports shared values.

    “When you have a unified front as classical teachers ... that can actually prevent some of that attack.” (10:42 – Noah Bush)

• Historical Interconnectedness (Noah):

  • Arts (literature, visual arts, music) evolve together—each movement builds on the other.
  • Example: Romantic era—authors/poets influence artists, who influence composers.

    “If you divorce these disciplines ... students miss out on all of that, and they're trying to fill in a puzzle without all the pieces.” (12:41 – Noah Bush)

• Strength in Joint Curriculum and Teaching (Gina & Noah):

  • They teach world cultures collaboratively, aligning content and projects across classes.
  • Gina integrates primary sources, music, and poetry in art, while Noah aligns music units with visual art themes.

• Practical Collaboration Examples:

  • Co-developing projects in a “World Cultures” course (Gina leads art, Noah leads music).
  • Teaching opera and linking visual aspects (costume, staging) with art history.
  • Syncretic lessons on Impressionism linking Monet’s paintings with Debussy’s music.

    “The possibilities are really limitless for integrating the two subjects together. It just requires intentionality and ... brainstorming.” (15:45 – Noah Bush)

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5. Integrating Arts for Non-Specialist Teachers

Timestamp: 15:55 – 19:15

• Advice for General Classroom Teachers:

  • Start small: Play classical music during independent work, or display relevant artworks.
  • Collaborate with arts teachers for guidance and resources.

    “Start with something easy. ... Talk to your music and art teachers. Ask them what you can do to best support the learning of the arts for their students.” (16:46 – Noah Bush)

• Cross-disciplinary Collaboration Examples:

  • Gina partners with science teachers on projects like “camera obscura” to link optics with art.
  • Literature teacher links music (e.g., Prokofiev’s ballet, Berlioz’s symphonic suite) to Romeo and Juliet.

    “Just being open to trying new things and ... reaching out to your co-teachers for ideas goes a very long way.” (18:21 – Noah Bush)

• Organic Cross-Pollination:

  • Students get excited encountering overlapping content (e.g., Greek columns in both art and history), fostering deeper engagement.

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6. Showcasing the Arts: School-Wide Events and Initiatives

Timestamp: 19:49 – 22:47

• Blending Arts in Public Showcases:

  • School concerts double as gallery exhibitions, with student art displayed alongside musical performances.
  • Poetry recitations, visual art, and music unified in a single event to demonstrate school-wide vision.

    “It’s all combined into one concerted effort ... our parents, they know that we are unified as a school and ... have one vision.” (20:54 – Noah Bush)

• Enrichment Opportunities:

  • Scholarship established for students to take advanced art courses at local art colleges, with their work featured at school events.

• A Co-Taught Elective:

  • “Fine Arts through World Cultures” elective, co-taught by Noah and Gina, examines the arts’ place in shaping civilizations.

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7. Advice for Schools Seeking to Connect Arts Programs

Timestamp: 22:47 – 24:14

• Study and Collaboration are Key (Noah):

  • Teachers must actively study and understand disciplines beyond their specialty to meaningfully bridge subjects.
  • Engage earnestly with colleagues’ passions and expertise.

    “You have to work hard to fervently study the program guide outside of your subject ... the arts are best understood when they're connected to everything else.” (23:01 – Noah Bush)

• Model Curiosity and Creativity (Gina):

  • Show students that teachers are also learners—model risk-taking, creativity, and collaboration.

    “Allow students to see you take the chances with the arts and really be creative ... as you collaborate with other teachers. I think that's really critical to the success of students and the school.” (23:53 – Gina Capaldi)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Teaching the Whole Person:

  “The arts are really a window into the human soul and the human condition.” (04:46 – Noah Bush)

• On Collaboration:

  “From the beginning, a very clear partnership ... It’s been a true blessing at this school.” (14:27 – Noah Bush)

• On Interdisciplinary Excitement:

  “They are excited about learning and ... bring things up that they learned in the other class, and it really creates a wonderful dialogue.” (19:35 – Gina Capaldi)

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Key Takeaways

• Art and music are inseparable from classical education’s pursuit of virtue, order, and a holistic understanding of humanity.
• Collaborative teaching—within and across the arts—enriches students’ experiences and strengthens curricular relevancy.
• Non-specialist teachers can meaningfully include arts by starting small, leaning on colleagues, and seeking connections in their own curricula.
• Showcasing the arts through joint school events and electives signals unity of educational vision and celebrates student achievement.
• Faculty modeling risk-taking, curiosity, and collaboration powerfully encourages students to embrace interdisciplinary learning.

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For more on topics discussed, visit the Hillsdale College K-12 site or seek out additional episodes at Podcast Hillsdale Edu.

Transcript

[Noah Bush]

On the new episode of the Larry Arn Show, Hillsdale College President Larry Arn sits down with Senior Journalism Fellow at Hillsdale College and Editor in Chief at the Federalist, Molly Hemingway for a one on one conversation.

[Gina Capaldi]

I always try to be optimistic about the situation, but we really do have some serious problems going forward that need to be addressed and we need more great men to help lead us. Men like Justice Thomas and Justice Alito. These men are not made every day, but there are other men and women I would encourage to step up and help lead us from our current troubles.

[Noah Bush]

Listen to this exclusive interview with Molly Hemingway right now, only available on the Larry Arn Show. Find it on the Hillsdale College Podcast Network at podcast hillsdale.edu or wherever you get your audio and subscribe to receive new episodes delivered right to your device. That's Podcast Hillsdale. Edu.

[Gina Capaldi]

Welcome to The Hillsdale College K12 classical education podcast, bringing you insight into classical education and its unique emphasis on human virtue and moral character, responsible citizenship, content, rich curricula and teacher led classrooms.

[Noah Bush]

Now your host, Scott Bertram.

[Scott Bertram]

Thanks for listening. The Hillsdale College K12 Classical Education Podcast is part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network. More episodes at Podcast Hillsdale Edu or wherever you get your audio. You also can find more information on topics and ideas discussed on this show at our website, K12 Hillsdale. Eduardo we're joined today by two guests. Mr. Noah Bush is Upper School Music and Fine Arts Director at Orange County Classical Academy and Gina Capaldi is Art Art History Studio Arts Teacher also at Orange County Classical in Orange, California. Noah Gina, thanks so much for joining us.

[Noah Bush]

Thanks so much for having us. We're happy to be here absolutely talking

[Scott Bertram]

today about bridging art and music. So we have a representative from each of those sectors with us on the program today. As we start, I think it would be interesting and perhaps important to have both of you share what exactly drew you to your discipline, be it Music for Noah, art for Gina. Why do you think you ended up where you did?

[Gina Capaldi]

I'll go first. My name is Gina. You know, I decided early on when I was in second grade that I was going to become an artist, actually an illustrator. That was my direction because it just really spoke to me even then. And I love story and I particularly love art and I was exposed to art so I ended up going receiving an art scholarship to Pepperdine University and then I was accepted one to one of the top art schools in the nation for illustration. And after that I worked as an author illustrator for over 30 years and basically, I became a teacher because I thought it was time for me to give back. And that's. And that's the truth. Absolutely. And that's it in a nutshell.

[Noah Bush]

No, for me, for music. I really don't remember a time when I didn't love music. Music was a part of my childhood, a part of my home growing up, whether it was singing in church, listening to 70s music with my dad. I was homeschooled. And my mom made a big point to teach all of my siblings and I how to read music. And she taught us all how to play the recorder as well. And I was the only one who actually loved the recorder. And they saw how much I loved it, saw how much I practiced and played. And so they decided to investigate a similar instrument, which happened to be the clarinet. And ever since then I. I've studied that. I went to school for degrees in both performance and education. But really, one of the main things that drew me to music is actually, ironically, my love of other disciplines, my love of literature and art. And really impressed that love of music on me even more because I saw how music connected to everything else. And so the well rounded education that my parents were able to give me is really what pushed me in the direction of music.

[Scott Bertram]

So how are the arts again? Be it music or arts, studio arts, how are they integral to our classical model of education?

[Noah Bush]

Well, in my opinion, the arts are the pinnacle of human creativity and expression. And in that way, I believe that we reflect our creator, who is the perfect artist and author. And so the arts are really a window into the human soul and the human condition. I believe the arts help us to answer questions of who are we? What do we desire as human beings? What are we capable of? And the arts are really the connective tissue, I believe, of history and culture. You can learn everything about a region, a culture, a time period or a person through the art that they create. And so without the arts, you lose so many things.

[Scott Bertram]

Gina.

[Gina Capaldi]

You know, for me, art is such a discipline. And what is so exciting is when I see students experience art for the first time, when they actually learn how to see and really experience it. And then you force them to go outside and look and get off of technology and experience it in a way that they've never done before. And it's just profound for me. And I think that the classical model is the way to actually teach art. I think that art they get. Children get a sense of order and harmony and balance with the classical approach to the arts. They're allowed to express Themselves. There's discipline involved and there's structure. It's really remarkable what the classical approach to the arts and classical education gives to a student.

[Noah Bush]

And I think specifically with art and music, it's so important that students learn how to really look at something and how to really listen to something. And those are skills that go beyond the specific disciplines of art and music. The ability to use our senses, to steward our senses well, to be able to really, truly look and listen to things. Those are abilities that will serve students well for the rest of their lives. Specifically, on the music side, we believe as classical teachers that music has a unique ability to shape the affections of students and to express emotion. And on the scientific side, music accesses parts of the brain and more parts of the brain than pretty much any other activity. Memory wise, Music is stored in parts of the brain that often aren't affected by diseases like Alzheimer's. People remember music, people connect with music, people tell stories through music. It's a part of every culture throughout all of history. In the classical model, students have the opportunity to participate in that conversation that's been happening for centuries.

[Scott Bertram]

Talking with Noah Bush and Gina Capaldi about bridging arts and music. And I think Noah was getting a bit at this question there, but let's expound a bit on this. What's the risk? What's the harm of treating art and music as, say, mere secondary subjects?

[Gina Capaldi]

That actually makes me a little bit crazy because it's not. It is. It is. The arts in general are really about training the brain, developing concentration, strengthening memory, sharpening attention, cultivating good habits. And so I don't know when it happened that the arts became a craft. And so I'm not speaking specifically for the visual arts, but it's. But music too. It's a fun time. It's a party. It's not. It is such an extraordinary moment to grow as a human being and experience just where your soul grows as well as your mind and everything else. It's baffling to me. Even something practical as hand eye coordination. That's really remarkable. So do you want to weigh in on this as well?

[Noah Bush]

Sure, yeah. I mean, on the sort of philosophical side of things, Plato in his Republic talks about how the two primary subjects that students should learn in the perfect city state are gymnastics for the body and music for the soul. And if you asked any teacher in the public school system, certainly in California, what the two primary subjects should be, neither of them would be PE or music. No one would say either of those. And so we Have a very different perspective now in our culture than we used to. And I think it's a shame. As the program guide from Hillsdale says in its curriculum essays, art and music are primary lenses through which we should perceive the world. The arts provide a lens through which to see everything else. And if art and music are treated as afterthoughts, then students miss out on that. They miss out on a true understanding of beauty. They miss out on accessing what many have called the sublime. In the Romantic movement, There are so many beautiful parts of life and education that students completely miss out on if they are not taught well in the

[Gina Capaldi]

arts and think about the virtues that they're missing out on. Humility, fortitude. I mean, patience, gratitude. It just goes on and on. So it's extremely important.

[Scott Bertram]

We're bringing the two of you together today to talk about bridging art and music. So why is it important that teachers of the arts, music, art elsewhere, work together to bridge the content and bridge the curriculum?

[Noah Bush]

Well, I think, as we've been talking about, that there is an attack on the arts and our culture. I believe the arts are being destroyed. They're being relegated, they're being undersold, and even the actual discipline and creation of modern art is under attack as well. And so when you have a unified front as classical teachers, when the music teachers and art teachers are actually working together and showing that they're unified in their mission and in their values, I think that that can actually prevent some of that attack. I think it's important that teachers are working together to show that the arts are valuable and having similar perspectives on those things as they instruct students.

[Gina Capaldi]

I completely agree. I mean, Noah is so eloquent with what he's saying, but it's. It's the truth. I mean, the bottom line is arts reflect society and culture and history and philosophies and everything. And I don't. It's really remarkable, so you couldn't put it better.

[Noah Bush]

And I also think that the arts throughout history are inherently connected. So it doesn't make sense to teach them as separate things. They have to be connected. When you study the eras of the arts throughout history, art is used to interpret art. Composers who come later help interpret composers who come earlier and vice versa. The other thing that many people don't understand is that there's actually a clear progression throughout history in the specific eras or time periods. Let's take the Romantic period. Usually authors and poets come first, and they sort of establish the guidelines of what new movements are going to be and then artists come, and they paint some of the things that the writers were writing about. And then usually composers come last, which is interesting. And they take what the artists have done and they build on that through music. So you have this interesting almost construction of the senses, where it's starting with writing and reading and then moving to looking and then moving to. To hearing. It's really interesting. And so if you divorce those, all of these disciplines from each other, students miss out on all of that, and they're trying to fill in a puzzle without all the pieces.

[Scott Bertram]

So you clearly work together. What does that collaboration look like in practice between an art teacher and a music teacher? And maybe you have some personal examples to share.

[Gina Capaldi]

When we collaborate together, it's wonderful because actually, Noe has a good, strong sense of the arts, fine arts, the drawing and painting. And so. And I'm not so much with music, but we try to incorporate our given disciplines together. Let's see. I start with usually an art project, specifically when we work in a class that is the world cultures class. He takes on the music, I take on the art, and we talk about the cultures together. So we combine our learning. But I also. Or rather our teaching. But I also like to incorporate informational text, primary sources, poetry and music when I teach in my particular discipline. And any of the projects I work on reflect any given period, time period.

[Noah Bush]

Yeah, I remember our first year here because we started working at the school at the same time. We both started the upper school programs for art and music, respectively, here. And we sat down together and opened up the program guide and just walked through every single unit together and said, okay, when you teach this, I'm going to teach that. And, oh, I can incorporate this painting into this unit on this. And, oh, I'll play this piece of music for students when we're talking about this composer. It was from the beginning a very clear partnership, and we're very grateful for that. We know that not every school or every pair of teachers has that ability. So it's been a true blessing at this school. But we do all kinds of things to blend the two together. I mean, just one specific example off the top of my head. I teach opera to students, and that provides so many opportunities to talk about visuals, because so much of opera is visual. So we talk about the costumes, we talk about the staging, the lighting, the set pieces. All of those things bleed into what Gina teaches in her class.

[Gina Capaldi]

And.

[Noah Bush]

And I have other units, like when I. When we talk about impressionism, we're bringing in impressionist composers and Painters that correspond with each other. Many of Debussy's works were based on paintings by Monet or other impressionist artists. And so the possibilities are really limitless for integrating the two subjects together. It just requires intentionality and actually sitting down with the other person and brainstorming.

[Scott Bertram]

Talking with Noah Bush teaches upper school music and is also fine arts director at Orange County Classical Academy. Gita Capaldi with us too. She teaches art, art history, studio arts at Orange County Classical. For those teachers who are not specialists in art or in music, are there ways for them to bring these disciplines into their teaching in a real substantive way?

[Noah Bush]

Definitely. I think, I think that many teachers are afraid of the arts. Actually, many non arts teachers are afraid of the arts because it can be intimidating if you don't feel like you have a background or a lot of knowledge in those things. I think many teachers are intimidated by the thought of talking about classical music or classical art if they don't have a background in it. But it doesn't necessarily have to be that complicated. Even the simple act of putting on classical music in the background as students are working independently on something. There are studies that show the effects that that can have on students work and their brain as they're working. If you can go even a step further and challenge yourself to find classical music that relates to what they're talking about, then that's even better. But start. I would just advise teachers, general ed teachers, to start small. Start with something easy. Start with something achie believable and talk to your music and art teachers. Ask them what you can do to best support the learning of the arts for their students.

[Gina Capaldi]

I totally agree. I think that that's certainly the way that most teachers approach it anyway. I mean, they'll take a painting, for example, and have a discussion about, I don't know, the Industrial Revolution for impressionism or during the late 1800s. I'm collaborating with one of our science teachers for next year and we' doing a chem obscura together. And so that should be really fascinating. I'm not sure what his. His side of it is. It's probably prisms and color and whatnot. But that's something that we talk about in art and it opens up the children's eyes. So you always have to have some sort of a collaboration with teachers outside of your discipline. And it's really exciting and it really makes sense to. It makes sense with this for the students as well in particular.

[Noah Bush]

Yeah, another, another example of that that actually just happened. This reminded me of that A couple weeks ago, our literature teacher has been teaching Romeo and Juliet. And so she reached out to me and said, hey, are there any famous pieces of music that are about Romeo and Juliet? And I said, well, great. Prokofiev wrote his ballet on that. Berlioz has a symphonic suite that is Romeo and Juliet. And here's the specific timestamps, here's the specific, specific scenes that those correspond to. And I'd love for you to talk to students about how does the music. How does a musical portrayal of the scene that we just read and acted out together, how does that enhance your understanding of it? So really, just being open to trying new things and being open to reaching out to your co teachers for ideas goes a very long way.

[Gina Capaldi]

And I want to add one other thing. So the children, when they learn from one area and let's say history, and they learn about Rome, Greek columns, and they come into my class and I'm really teaching something very similar, and not only similar, but adding to it, they get really excited and they really get. They are excited about learning and they bring things up that they learned in the other class and it really creates a wonderful dialogue. So I. I really urge anybody to. To look into that, to really work with and collaborate.

[Scott Bertram]

After you do all this work and the students are learning, you want to show it off a little bit. What are some examples of events at Orange County Classical Academy that really help showcase the arts to teachers, parents and other students? Yeah.

[Noah Bush]

So one of the things that I'm very passionate about as the director of fine arts here is having our concerts or showcases be a blended and collaborative process that incorporates all of the arts. Many times, I think many public schools make the mistake of compartmentalizing the arts. As we were talking about earlier, where they'll have this art showcase here and this music showcase there, and they have nothing to do with each other. I think that is a tremendous oversight Here at occa. All of our concerts feature as many of the arts and as many of our students work as we can fit in there. For instance, at our concerts, we have a gallery show, we have students artwork that is relevant to whatever the theme of our concert is displayed all around the room. During the concert, we have students who come up and do poetry recitations. It's all combined into one concerted effort to make sure that our students, our audience, our parents, they know that we are unified as a school and that we have one vision for helping their students to better understand the world.

[Gina Capaldi]

Also, we just got put together a scholarship for one of our students to take art classes at a local art school, Laguna College of Art and Design. And it's just really enhancing her skills. You can see the development. It's wonderful. And to be able to do that is a gift. And it's a gift for us as a school. It's a gift for our students as well. They do have to compete with for it. But that's one of the ways that we also showcase our artists.

[Noah Bush]

And that student's work is going to be featured as part of the gallery show at our upcoming concert.

[Gina Capaldi]

Right.

[Noah Bush]

One of the other things that we do, Gina mentioned it briefly earlier, but one of the other main things that we do, the two of us, to blend the arts together, is we actually created a class, an elective here for high schoolers, that we call Fine Arts through World Cultures. And we actually co teach the class. So both of us are instructors in this class. And we go through cultures from ancient times, all over the world to modern times. And we talk about how the arts are a core part of their culture, how they affect their culture, how they've affected their development as a group, as a people group. And so that's another unique way in which we show that we care about these two things being married together, the art, the visual arts, and music.

[Scott Bertram]

And as we close our conversation today, is there one specific piece of advice you might give to schools who are trying to better connect their arts programs?

[Noah Bush]

I think my primary advice, which I've alluded to before, and it's not easy, but usually things that are valuable are not easy. You have to understand other teachers, disciplines almost as well as your own. And that doesn't mean that you understand the intricacies and the details of every event or work or whatever it is. But you have to work hard to fervently study the program guide outside of your subject. You need to talk to your co workers, ask them about what they teach, ask them to share their passion for their subject. As I've said before, the arts are best understood when they're connected to everything else. And so that requires work. You have to put in the effort to understand disciplines that maybe you don't have a professional background in.

[Gina Capaldi]

And I would add to that by saying I really think you should allow students to see you take the chances with the arts and really be creative with your approach to it as you collaborate with other teachers. I think that's really critical to the success of students and the school. I really do. It's really a beautiful thing to see.

[Scott Bertram]

Noah Bush is upper school music and fine arts director at Orange County Classical Academy. Gina Capaldi is art, art history studio arts teacher also at Orange County Classical in Orange, California. Thanks to both of you for joining us today here on the Hillsdale College K12 Classical Education Podcast.

[Gina Capaldi]

Thank you.

[Noah Bush]

Thank you very much.

[Scott Bertram]

I'm Scott Bertram. We invite you to like us on Facebook search for Hillsdale College K12 classical education. You also can follow us on Instagram hillsdalek12. That's hillsdalek12 on Instagram. Thank you for listening to The Hillsdale College K12 classical education podcast, part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network. More at Podcast Hillsdale. Edu or wherever you get your audio.