If music be the food of love …
Well, it seems it might be, judging by the number of girls learning instruments, playing in groups and the orchestra or singing in the choirs.
The separate Music House (opposite the main school) has over thirty practice and teaching rooms. Most are equipped with a piano (acoustic or electronic). In the two main teaching rooms there is provision for video, television and audio. In addition there is a single-manual harpsichord. A separate room contains computer equipment (network PCs with Sibelius for Windows). There is a clavichord and two-manual tracker action Walker pipe organ in the Chapel, as well as a 7′ grand piano. A music laboratory of keyboards is available for class music lessons taught up to Upper 4 (Year 9).
Over half the girls in College learn one or more instruments. Examinations of the Associated Board of the Royal School of Music, preparatory, Grades 1-8 to Advanced Certificate are taken in College by up to fifty girls each term. A few girls go on to take diplomas of the London colleges as well.
Music is offered at GCSE and A level. Past pupils have gone on to study music at Chetham’s, the Royal Northern College, Birmingham Conservatoire, The Scottish Academy, and a range of universities, including Sheffield, Hull, Durham, Edinburgh and Cambridge (choral scholars). One is now a viola player in the Hallé, another is in the Glyndebourne chorus and another was a member of the BBC Singers.