Music at Queen Mary’s is food for the soul, builds confidence and enhances memory.
Music at Queen Mary’s Yorkshire
Queen Mary’s strong traditions in both instrumental and choral Music enables you to be involved at whatever level you choose. Many Queen Mary’s girls have achieved ABRSM Grade 8 Distinction and beyond, and performance opportunities have included concerts at Ripon Cathedral to recordings on BBC Radio 4.
From an Opera to Battle of the Bands, the musical repertoire covers a wide spectrum, from fun to formal, with regular concerts allowing pupils in all year groups to gain confidence performing to an audience.
Individual Music Lessons
Over 50% of pupils learn at least one instrument and many learn two, three or even four. Whatever your interest, whether you would like to sing or play the piano, harp, double bass or kit drums, the Music Department will do their best to arrange the right teacher for you.
The Director of Music and her team of 19 professional peripatetic Music staff bring with them a wealth of experience including being part of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra to singing opera at Covent Garden.
Pupils are inspired to make time to practise within the dedicated Music Practice Rooms.
Whatever level you reach, there are many studies that correlate learning an instrument with increased patience, enhanced memory and abstract reasoning skills required within many academic subjects.
"Many girls have achieved ABRSM Grade 8 Distinction before their sixteenth birthday"
Playing Music Together
Throughout Queen Mary’s there are opportunities to make music. Pupils in Reception are introduced to the Kodaly method using folk songs, signs, pictures, rhythm symbols and syllables. Year 3 pupils enjoy a recorder group and every girl in Year 4 learns the basics of playing an instrument during class Music lessons. The resulting Year 4 Class Orchestra encourages girls to continue learning an instrument as they go through the school.
All Key Stage 2 pupils enjoy learning the violin and sing in Junior Choir.
Junior ensembles include String, Brass and Woodwind ensembles and the school’s flagship instrumental group is the Queen Mary’s Chamber Orchestra. Alongside these, jazz ensemble and several rock bands are extremely popular. The school has a separate ‘Band’ room complete with a PA system, drum kit and a variety of keyboard instruments. A Music Technology Room is also available for composition using the latest Sibelius software.
Choral Singing
The Chapel Choir, celebrating its 40th year, enjoys a reputation as an outstanding chamber choir in Yorkshire and beyond. Several girls have sung as choristers at York Minster and Ripon Cathedral.
Recent performances include the staging of the opera ‘Dido and Aeneas’, recordings on BBC Radio 2, Evensong in many cathedrals, ‘A Ceremony of Carols’ by Benjamin Britten and a performance of Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria’. Senior Choir also performs across the year and all Prep School pupils sing in a choir which is a timetabled lesson every week.
Former Queen Mary’s pupil, Emilia Jaques was the female BBC Radio 2 Young Chorister of the Year and is now studying at the University of Oxford with a Choral Scholarship.