In Winston-Salem, the nation’s first public arts conservatory is tucked away. Now home to almost 1,400 students, it might come as a surprise that over 200 attendees of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) aren’t yet in college. Through their residential high school program, UNCSA provides a unique opportunity for high schoolers to experience a conservatory-style arts education while balancing their academic interests.
For two current high school seniors and previous Enloe Eagles, this balance was what drew them to life as a Fighting Pickle (yes, that is their mascot)! Nate Branscomb, Drama ‘26, and Luke Tychansky, Instrumental Music ‘26, took the leap and are now expanding the breadth of their art beyond the Nest.
Luke has been involved with orchestra for 15 years now. After showing interest in the violin while watching a community performance, Luke started lessons at age three. In the 6th grade, he spotted a double bass across the orchestra room and asked his teacher if he could try it. Little did he know, picking up the instrument would spark a passion that drove him through countless orchestras, a solo performance at Meymandi, and being selected for UNCSA’s prestigious bass program.
Nate started theatre in 5th grade “on a whim” while looking for a creative outlet. For Nate, acting became one of the many things that satisfied his problem solving spirit, matching his love for animation and math. After his first role as Bert from “Mary Poppins,” Nate soon came to realize his passion for performance, starring in productions year round as everything from King Triton in “The Little Mermaid” to Colonel Mustard in “Clue.”
Despite their different paths to entering the arts, Nate and Luke both chose UNCSA to push themselves further in their goals of professional artistry. As seniors this year, UNCSA has been invaluable in guiding them through the “incredibly daunting performing arts college application process,” as Luke puts it.
“We literally have classes just to prepare for college. We’ve had people come in that currently do the work that we want to do and give us the facts about what this profession looks like. It’s scary going into a job with people telling you about it who have never actually been in the work, but UNCSA has really cleared up what this goal I’m chasing looks like, and has helped me realize who I want to be in the future as an artist and as a person,” Nate explains.
However, UNCSA isn’t an environment just for those who want to turn their craft into a career. As Nate says, “You don’t have to want a job in acting or the arts to be here. In fact, we have two people in the drama program that don’t.” And it’s not all arts, all the time, either. For Eagles who want to apply and are worried about leaving the variety of Enloe behind, UNCSA still has clubs open to join that aren’t arts related. Luke says the only difficult part may be “finding the time when your discipline can demand so much.”
At UNCSA, both Nate and Luke are each taking 2 to 3 core classes, which sounds small compared to the Enloe average, but is significantly balanced out by the many discipline-specific classes they take. Like a college schedule, classes at UNCSA are spread out throughout the day, which both Nate and Luke appreciate as it gives them breaks to practice or prepare for what’s next. “The people in my class cohort are definitely some of my favorite people, and I’ve enjoyed getting to build relationships with them through even my core classes. Everyone’s just fully enjoying the creativity that all of us have,” says Nate.
As a double bass student, Luke says the structure is “very different from orchestra at Enloe.” In fact, Luke hasn’t played in a full orchestra setting since October of last year. However, Luke loves the shift, saying, “The small setting of the private lessons classes, the more diverse and newer variety of music we play, the bass repertoire class, and getting to practice performing solo in front of others has been amazing.”
Through so many classes, especially those that are individual or small-group oriented, UNCSA doesn’t only provide practice for growing artists, it helps them to fundamentally break down the skills their art is built on. Similar to Luke, Nate has not been in a large-group production this school year. The small-group environment of his classes has allowed him to dissect the specifics of voice, energy, dancing, and how it all connects to drama.
As Nate says, “When you get into acting, you just kind of do it and hope it works, but UNCSA has really demystified the acting process. They give you elements that you can actively play with to create characters. I learn so much about myself through that, and so when I perform, there’s a big piece of me in it without tangling myself in the actual character. It’s so much more true because of it.” He emphasizes, “I think I had this idea when I was younger that acting was lying to the audience and making up someone you were not, but as I’ve been here, I’ve learned that acting is some of the greatest truth that you can find. In learning to implement these different tactics, it sounds like you’re taking the magic out of it, but I really feel like UNCSA has taught me to understand the magic itself.”
To Nate and Luke, another huge perk of being at UNCSA is not only the diversity and depth of the classes they can take for their artistic discipline, but also the performances they are surrounded by. Luke’s favorite was seeing The Jonathan Scales Fourchestra give a masterclass on their steel pan gear and play at the weekly Wednesday Performance Hours. Nate shares, “I’ve gotten to see a couple of shows from the college level drama program and every single one has blown me out of the water. Every single person has such a care for their craft, and because of what we’re learning in class, I can pick out what things they are implementing, which is so cool to me.”
Nate describes a student that would be a great fit for UNCSA as “someone who just loves what they do.” He says, “If you are willing to sacrifice some long hours and willing to accept that you don’t know what you are doing, then you will grow exponentially [at UNCSA].”
Luke echoes this, saying, “Someone who would really focus on their art and would really benefit from the flexibility that UNCSA provides would be a great fit. Because everyone is arts-focused here, people are very understanding of when arts are your number one priority, which has been a great shift for me.”
Beyond anything else, Nate says, “The sheer amount of people just so passionate about their craft at UNCSA has made the transition easier than I thought. It was a very hard decision to make, as I had this whole vision of my senior year planned out for so long, but it definitely was the right choice for me. It’s never too late to apply either. I don’t think I would have been nearly as successful here if it wasn’t for my time spent at Enloe.”
With programs spanning classical ballet, contemporary dance, drama, vocal and instrumental music, and the visual arts, high school students can apply as early as their freshman year for some programs in the Pickle Jar. If you are interested, see more information on UNCSA here, attend a try-it-out day, or take a trial lesson with an instructor. Both Nate and Luke could not emphasize enough that applying doesn’t mean you are committing, so there is only good that can come from putting yourself out there! As Nate puts it, “It is a big jump, and you are losing the high school experience that you may have been imagining, but just because it’s different, doesn’t mean it’s bad at all. I’ve gained an incredible amount here that I wouldn’t have anywhere else.”
