Dallas student Josh Goldberg watched the city's new performing arts center go from construction stacks to a state-of-the-art facility, but he was unaware of the role he'd play in its opening.

The senior at Dallas' arts magnet high school was chosen to play his rendition of John Lennon's 1971 hit "Imagine" – on the piano Lennon used to compose the song – at a school event last weekend held in conjunction with the center's open house.

"I simultaneously was intrigued and petrified – it was incredible striking the keys," said Goldberg, 18, of playing on the piano, which pop singer George Michael paid $2.1 million for in 2000. The Goss-Michael Foundation lent the piano to Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts for the performance.

The school has formed a partnership with the new $354 million AT&T Performing Arts Center, which sits next door in the Dallas Arts District. Students are learning from professionals at the center, who make regular visits to the campus.

Other Dallas ISD campuses also will get in on the act.

Students from 17 Dallas high schools will participate in workshops at the center's Wyly Theatre and attend performances for free, compliments of Project Discovery, a grant-based program by the Dallas Theater Center that pays for the workshops, tickets and transportation.

"Everyone is really looking forward to being in the space, and [to] how Dallas students can fit in that part of the community, right in the heart of the Arts District," said Rachel Hull, Project Discovery manager. In addition to the theater, the center includes an opera house, an artist square, a yet-to-be-built performance hall and a 10-acre park, which ties together the complex.

At Booker T., the center's proximity also saves the campus money because students don't need to be bused to other venues, principal Tracie Fraley said. And, she said, the students get to work with experienced professionals. Two directors with the Dallas Theater Center walk over from the Wyly Theatre at least twice a week to work with students in the advanced acting class, and the kids often visit the Wyly.

"They're working side by side with our kids," Fraley said.

Lisa Lawrence Holland, director of education at the Dallas Theater Center, is one of the directors who worked with students at Booker T. Last week, Holland and the students were working on scenes from three contemporary plays.

"Every other day, we haul our cookies over there and teach," she said. "They've opened their arms to us, and we've opened our arms to them. It's a mutual love fest right now."

And just recently, ballet dancers from Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company, based in New York and London, used the school's dance studio to prepare for the center's opening. Students got to interact with the dancers.

"We've got this learning arts laboratory right here in our backyard," Fraley said. "It's just been amazing."

Amir Razavi, 17, performed with the school's LunaSol Ballet Folklorico at the opera house for last week's opening. He was still giddy from the experience a couple of days later.

"It was amazing," he said. "When you walked in there, you knew this was something else."