Established 1880 Headteacher Kenneth Taylor Phone +44 131 538 7766 Founded 1880 | Religion Non-denominational Director of Music Paul Stubbings Number of students 80 (2017) | |
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Type Independent day and boarding
Specialist music school Location 25 Grosvenor Crescent
Edinburgh
EH12 5EL
Scotland Address 25 Grosvenor Cres, Edinburgh EH12 5EL, UK Similar St Marys Cathedral, The City of Edinburgh Music Sc, Saint Mary's Roman C, Broughton High School, Portobello Music School | ||
St Mary's Music School is a music school in Scotland in Edinburgh, for boys and girls aged 9 to 19 and is also the Choir School of St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral. The school, which is non-denominational, provides education for children with a special talent in music, and is Scotland's only full-time independent specialist music school. In 2017 the school has 80 pupils from many different backgrounds and from all parts of Scotland, the rest of the UK and abroad - 49 day pupils and 31 boarders, plus one student on the school's Part-time Pathways to Specialism scheme.
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Entrance
Entry to the school is by audition and assessment, based on musical ability and potential and regardless of personal circumstances. Scottish Government funding, up to 100%, is available through the statutory Aided Places scheme to assist with the cost of tuition and boarding fees. The school and St. Mary's Cathedral also award bursaries. The school draws pupils from many different backgrounds, from all parts of Scotland and abroad. Boarding facilities are available at Coates Hall.
Performance
The school operates a large chamber orchestra, a Junior String Sinfonia and a Senior String Ensemble. Jazz and Traditional Scottish Music (including instruments like the clàrsach and bagpipes) feature in specialist ensembles and in Jazz and Scottish Music Days. Students perform regularly throughout Edinburgh and beyond. In addition to internal lunchtime concerts, students have also performed at the Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, Jam House, Kirks, Cathedral and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow. Students have also been requested to play at many civic occasions including Royalty, the Scottish Parliament and other public events such as NATO visit to Edinburgh.
In addition, students play regularly in external youth orchestras such as the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra, National Children’s Orchestra of Scotland, National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and sing in the National Youth Choir of Scotland.
Students also have the opportunity to form their own bands such as the contemporary folk-fusion band Kilairum.
Academics
The school day is from 8.30am until 5pm (3.30 on Wednesdays and 4.30 on Fridays) - and there is no study leave. The School is regularly at or near the top of Scotland’s academic league tables. St Mary's Music School was named as Scottish Independent Secondary School of the Year in 2007 and its academic results are consistently excellent. The 2016 pass rate is 100% for National 4, Higher and A level exams, 94% for National 5 and 95% for Advanced Highers. A former Music Director, Nigel Murray, wrote in 1994 that the self-discipline acquired in the devotion to the mastery of an art as self-fulfilling as Music was bound to have a beneficial effect on the rest of the pupil's work and play. Murray continued that if he had a motto for St Mary's Music School it would be the words of the great Italian pianist Ferruccio Busoni,;
"He who is only a musician is no musician".
All pupils proceed to higher education and most generally go on to conservatoires or universities, this is usually but not always to study music. Of 12 pupils going directly to Higher Education in 2016, all were continuing to Conservatoires or University music departments, including one attending Cambridge. Many established alumni now pursue international careers, retaining contact with the School.
History
St Mary’s Music School was founded as the Song School of St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in 1880 to educate choristers for the newly built St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral. At that time the school was located at Old Coates House and the adjacent Song School Building, both within the Cathedral precincts.
In 1970 Dennis Townhill and the Provost, Philip Crosfield, became the driving force of a plan not only to safeguard the future of the Choir School of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh but to transform it into a new and vibrant entity. In 1972 the school was expanded into a specialist music school on the lines of the Yehudi Menuhin School, with Lord Menuhin becoming patron and referring to it as "my younger sister-school in Scotland". The school educates young instrumentalists, composers and singers. In 1976 the Cathedral choir was opened to girls. In 1995, the music school moved out of the Cathedral grounds and into its current location at Coates Hall, Grosvenor Crescent, Edinburgh.
St Mary's Music School is the only Scottish member of the UK Music and Dance Schools (MDS) and is similar to other specialist music schools throughout Europe such as the Dresden Music Gymnasium; Sächsisches Landesgymnasium für Musik "Carl Maria von Weber". The current President is Professor John Wallace, a trumpet player and former principal of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Vice presidents are Dame Evelyn Glennie CH DBE, Steven Isserlis CBE, Sir James MacMillan CBE, Jerzy Maksymiuk and Steven Osborne.
Location
Coates Hall was originally designed by David Bryce for Sheriff Napier in 1850 as a small Baronial house. In 1891 the building was bought by the Scottish Episcopal Church for use as the Edinburgh Theological College and enlarged by Sydney Mitchell adding a late gothic chapel. In 1913 Robert Lorimer added a storey to the main block much improving the whole group.
In 1995 Coates Hall was sold to St Mary’s Music School and houses the (de-consecrated) chapel which is used for concerts. The Chapel contains three stained glass windows. by J. Ninian Cooper which includes Scotland's first saints;. St Columba and St Ninian. The school also has two libraries, staff offices, bedrooms for boarding pupils, and around 30 music practice rooms. Academic subjects are mainly taught in two modern buildings within the school grounds.
The school is surrounded by gardens in the heart of Edinburgh's West End and has good transport connections due to its proximity to Haymarket railway station.
The Song School within the nearby Cathedral precinct is still used by the Choristers for daily practice, where they are surrounded by beautiful murals by Phoebe Anna Traquair. It was these murals (1888–92), which won Traquair national recognition. Within a tunnelled ceiling interior the East Wall depicts the cathedral clergy and choir. The South depicts Traquair’s admired contemporaries such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, and George Frederic Watts; the North, birds and choristers sing together. The West shows the four beasts singing the Sanctus.
In 2016 the school put forward a fully funded over £25 million proposal to move its location to the old Royal High School in Edinburgh in competition with another proposal to convert the site to a hotel. The St Mary's Music School proposal, if successful, will allow the school to increase the number of its students.
Directors' Recital Prize
This annual prize, funded by the Directors of St Mary's was inaugurated with the aim of providing pupils with the experience of public solo performance in a competitive situation. In 2013 there were 27 entries, with four finalists performing in St Mary's Cathedral. Recital prize winners were;