Ensemble and Performance Opportunities
Through coaching sessions and performance classes pupils gain experience and confidence performing and we believe it is an important element of their development as instrumentalists and singers. Weekly concerts are given in the Cathedral Chancel and often at the Edinburgh Society of Musicians during term-time.
There are lunchtime concerts in school as well as formal school concerts in prestigious Edinburgh venues such as The Queen’s Hall and the city centre churches. Our pupils play for many civic occasions, in front of royalty and in the Scottish Parliament, and give frequent concerts for outside organisations and many charities.
We are lucky at St Mary’s Music School to have made a number of recordings and broadcasts, with chamber music and orchestral concerts recorded and broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Radio 2 and Radio 3. BBC Television has filmed at the school in connection with BBC Young Musician of the Year. The Choristers are heard regularly via radio and television and through the many CD recordings of the choir, several of which are to be found as Gramophone magazine recommendations. The Choir also has its own Spotify channel.
Edinburgh Venues
By performing in different spaces our pupils become accustomed to adapting to varying acoustics and size of space which helps them on their journey towards becoming a young professional.
Edinburgh, as the capital city of Scotland and a world centre of culture has some exceptional concert venues and some of those we use regularly are listed below.