Music
Music tour of Venice 2009
The Music Department provides a broadly-based education to all pupils in Years 7 – 9, with the option of proceeding to GCSE and A level afterwards. Teaching consists of a good grounding in music theory through various themed projects and focuses particularly on composition. For this we have a suite of computers linked to midi keyboards and running Sibelius software.
Instrumental and vocal tuition is provided by a team of dedicated visiting teachers and covers all orchestral instruments, together with guitar, piano, organ and percussion. Practice and ensemble rooms are available for use by pupils.
Our school A Cappella Choir recently joined forces with other schools to record two programmes for BBC “Songs of Praise”. The first was broadcast recently and the second aired on the 10th Anniversary of 9/11.
In October the choir, together with the wind ensemble, gave concerts in Tuscany. We have also performed in Paris and Venice (including St. Mark’s) in recent years.
Music Scholarships are available to pupils who have achieved highly on their principle instrument. Details of these are available from the Registrar, Karen Cannon kcannon@pitsfordschool.com.
We pride ourselves on the standard of performance achieved by our pupils and run a weekly lunchtime concert series in Pitsford Hall every Thursday lunchtime. These are well attended by pupils, staff and often parents. There are also evening concerts in the autumn and lent terms. We are a strong academic school with a reputation for encouraging music across all levels of ability. Our lunchtime concert programme features pieces from grade 1 to grade 8 students, and sometimes even those not taking formal instrumental music lessons.
There are many opportunities for musicians at Pitsford. We have a very successful wind band, in addition to flute, saxophone, string and percussion ensembles. The school choir rehearses weekly and performs in a variety of styles from baroque to jazz and modern pop song arrangements.
This video shows clips from three recent performances.