Music at Cheltenham is very busy and friendly, with a thriving department that caters for musical talent of all kinds. Many pupils are as involved with choir, jazz and orchestra. We value and encourage this musical breadth as an ideal way to develop musicianship.
We are proud of our academic results in Music, holding the top spot in College this year with all ten A and AS level candidates achieving A grades or A*; several of them will be going on to read music at university. Similarly at GCSE over three quarters of our candidates have achieved A* over a long period. We get to know our academic pupils well, and have lots of fun as well as working hard for our results.
Over 250 music lessons are taught each week by a dedicated team of teachers who cover every orchestral instrument, piano, organ, singing, and even bagpipes. There are many instrumental groups and ensembles; Orchestra, Wind Band, Chamber Orchestra, Big Band, two Jazz Bands, plus numerous smaller ensembles and chamber music. The Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra give our pupils the opportunity to perform some wonderful music, recently including Bach’s A minor Violin Concerto and Brandenburg Concerto No.4, Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, Grieg’s Piano Concerto and much more. Jazz is exceptionally strong in College with three jazz bands, the top one (JIG) being in demand for balls and charity events outside the College. Recent pupils have been members of the National Youth Orchestra, and the National Schools’ Symphony Orchestra.
We are also renowned for our choirs. With our glorious Chapel, our Chapel Choir (of 50) is inevitably central to musical life here, and in addition to singing at weekly Sunday services the Choir sings several well-attended services of Choral Evensong for the general public on Wednesdays each term. Recent tours have seen the Choir singing in St.Mark’s Venice, Siena Cathedral, Assisi, Padua and Prague, Barcelona - Cathedral and the church of Santa Maria del Mar, and with another tour to Venice and Padua next in July 2012. Every summer term the Choir sings Choral Evensong at a major location such as Westminster Abbey, St George’s, Windsor, or Salisbury Cathedral, and we are proud of the steady stream of our pupils who go on to achieve Cathedral Choral Scholarships or Oxbridge and other university Choral Awards. Every Christmas the Choir join with many former members for the Christmas Eve Carol Service sung to over 700 people in Chapel, which has become a feature of Christmas here for many.
The Chamber Choir consists of 20 singers from the Chapel Choir specialising in early music, and in addition to recording a CD of Renaissance music this year, has also been on tour to New York, singing in St.Thomas’s Fifth Avenue and the Cathedral of St.John the Divine. Almost one pupil in ten of the whole College takes singing lessons, and our team of singing teachers are kept very busy.
Finally, generous Music Scholarships are awarded every year, and also Choral awards are available for promising singers. Pupils regularly continue with music at university or conservatoire, with regular Choral Awards at Oxford, Cambridge and other universities.
Gordon Busbridge, Head of Music