Our well-staffed and resourced department offers boundless
opportunities to all girls who have any interest in music. We have
four class-teachers and twenty-one visiting instrumental and vocal
specialists. We are able to offer tuition in every orchestral
instrument, brass band, percussion, guitar, piano organ and voice.
Visiting artists provide music workshops at all key-stages.
In the Senior School there are instrumental ensembles and choirs
for every age and level of ability: Intermediate and Joint
Orchestras, Junior, Intermediate and Concert Bands, Jazz Band,
Guitar, String and Percussion ensembles, Intermediate and Senior
Flute Ensembles, Clarinet and Saxophone groups, Senior Choir,
Middle School Choir and two Chamber choirs: Middle School and
Senior, the latter having performed with the Manchester Camerata
and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. A number of these choirs and
ensembles perform jointly with the Boys' Division, on a regular
basis, in major concerts and events throughout the year. The
outreach of our music-making extends to parents, past pupils, staff
and governors in an annual choral event, in which major works are
performed with an orchestra and professional soloists.
Throughout the academic year, a wide range of performing
opportunities are available and every choir and ensemble perform in
at least two concerts per year. There is an annual Year 7 concert
in which every Year 7 pupil performs. Our Music Department is
eclectic and inclusive; we like every pupil to participate in
public musical events. We have concerts for soloists and our
ensembles all perform on a regular basis.
Many musical events take place beyond the school day; in June
2009, the Girls' and Boys' Divisions combined for a gala concert in
Manchester's Bridgewater Hall in which over 650 musicians and
singers performed. Other concerts include those for the local
community, music weekends at Patterdale Hall and overseas tours to
Tuscany, Chartres, Flanders, Barcelona, Venice, Prague, Paris and
Vienna.
We extend a warm invitation to anyone who wishes to attend any
of our concerts. Recent programmes include: Bruch Violin Concerto,
Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, Schubert's 'Unfinished Symphony',
Mozart's, Faure's and Rutter's Requia, Mozart's Coronation Mass and
Rutter's Gloria. We are currently preparing for a performance of
Handel's 'Messiah' in March 2010.