The Purcell School aims to provide a stimulating and challenging musical environment, at the heart of which is an individually tailored programme for every student.
We strive to ensure that the balance of musical studies and the weighting of musical and academic work are balanced to suit each student.
There are eight Music departments within the School, each led by an experienced Head of Department:
- Strings
- Keyboard
- Wind, Brass and Percussion
- Harp and Voice
- Composition
- Jazz
- Commercial and Popular Music
- Audio Production*
*Offered at Sixth Form only.
Music Departments
Students’ musical lives are cared for by their Head of Department who, in collaboration with the student and instrumental teacher, will craft a bespoke programme of study to best suit the individual’s needs and afford the flexibility to enable daily practice. Disciplines of Academic Music, including aural, theory, harmony, composition, music history and analysis, support and broaden our instrumental studies, and are a key part of our holistic approach to a musical education.
Our expert specialist teachers, many of whom also teach at the London conservatoires, have considerable experience working with motivated young musicians and will develop individual practise goals and strategies for students. We also provide practice supervisors, themselves graduate musicians, to support efficient and effective practise.
Regular masterclasses, recitals, courses and collaborative projects with celebrated visiting musicians further enhance a student’s instrumental studies and offer invaluable exposure to the wider music world.
Students benefit from an enriched musical programme that includes chamber music, orchestral playing, choirs, jazz and piano recitals. Performance opportunities are frequent and varied, and can range from daily lunchtime concerts in School to formal recitals at London’s leading performing venues. There are, for example, numerous opportunities to audition for the chance to play with the School’s orchestras and give solo recitals at prestigious venues such as the Royal Festival Hall, Cadogan Hall, Wigmore Hall and Milton Court Concert Hall.
Our Music Centre provides outstanding facilities which are second to none. A state-of-the-art recording studio, recital hall, fully computerised composition classrooms, and a suite of dedicated teaching and practice rooms offer ideal surroundings in which our students to flourish.
Each department maintains close links with music colleges and conservatoires around the country; all have excellent records of entry and of securing scholarships. Accolades from the music world are fittingly similar, and students are regularly the recipients of prestigious and fiercely competitive awards.
