The string instrument program of Plano ISD began in 1974 with an initial enrollment of fifty students. Today, Plano ISD has over 2200 students enrolled in the orchestra program. The Plano Senior High Cluster boasts an enrollment of approximately 800 orchestra students.

Plano Senior High School is designed for the final two years of a student’s public school program offering a wide variety of academic and career major studies. The music curriculum of this school includes orchestra, band, choir, jazz band, music theory, and music history. Honors credit is available to students in the more advanced segments of this curricula. Students in the orchestral program participate in Texas Music Educators Region 24 Orchestras and in the Texas Music Educators All-State Orchestras and Bands.

Over the past decade the PSHS Orchestra has consistently won Sweepstakes Awards at University Interscholastic League festivals, numerous Best in Festival awards at national music competitions, including 1994 and 2000 Grand Prize Winner for the American Classics National Festivals. In 1993, the Plano senior High Chamber Orchestra was chosen as the Honor Orchestra of Texas, and through international competition, was invited to perform at the prestigious Mid-West International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago. The spring of 1995 brought a performance in the illustrious Carnegie Hall of New York City. The Chamber Orchestra was again chosen as the Honor String Orchestra of Texas for 1995, 1998, and 2000. The Plano Senior High Symphony Orchestra performed for the Music Educators National Conference in Phoenix in April of 1998, and in December 1998 the Symphony Strings were again invited to perform for the Midwest Clinic in Chicago. Recently, the full Symphony Orchestra was invited for a third appearance at the prestigious Midwest Clinic in December 2003.