Music

The Music School is a self-contained department with one main teaching room, a fully equipped music technology suite and five teaching rooms. The two full time members of staff teach the class music whilst there are fourteen dedicated specialists who teach the instrumentalists and vocalist on a one-to-one basis.

The Music Department is fortunate to be inextricably linked with the musical work of the cathedral, enjoying the professionalism of the choristers singing in the Cathedral Choir and using their deep-seated musical expertise after they have left the choir. Take up of Music at GCSE and A Level is high and many pupils go on to study music in further education.

The cathedral affords the department an ideal performance space; alongside the carol services, eucharists and other special services the choirs and orchestras give many concerts in the nave. Recent repertoire has included Beethoven and Haydn symphonies and performances of Requiems and Glorias by Fauré, Vivaldi and Rutter.

Listen to AS Level pupil, Philip Quinlan, play an extract of Newton Faulkner's 'All I Got' on the guitar

There are regular trips to concerts, both locally and further away to bolster the lessons taught in the classroom and there have been a number of trips abroad, where the choirs and orchestras have had opportunities to perform in some outstanding places, including Notre Dame Cathedral and Chartres Cathedral.

There are a large number of choirs and instrumental groups that rehearse and perform throughout the academic year. The King's Harmonists, a close-harmony group of eight voices, has recently recorded a CD of popular light jazz pieces and regularly sings outside the school for various charities and functions.

Listen to A Level pupil, Joshua Ip, play an extract of the first piano sonata written by Beethoven, composed in 1795 and dedicated to Joseph Haydn