The Seven Hills Project

The academic year 2022/23 marked 50 years since St Mary’s Music School opened its doors to young instrumentalists. 

Leading up to this landmark event, the School devised a major new music project celebrating composition, creativity and community. Using the topography of the Seven Hills of Edinburgh as the underpinning theme, the project combined seven original poems about the hills written by Alexander McCall Smith and seven commissions, for chamber music works inspired by the hills and poetry, from seven composers with a connection to Scotland or to the school. 

The seven new chamber works were each performed by the School’s senior pupils, joined by professional musicians. These seven concert premieres, spread over seven terms, provided metaphorical foothills that led to the School's 50th birthday celebrations in June 2023 at The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, where pupils and alumni performed a major new commission, for orchestra and choir, written by the School’s Vice-President, Sir James MacMillan CBE.  

As well as involving our pupils and alumni, The Seven Hills Project included workshops for schoolchildren in different locations throughout Scotland, events with communities, and opportunities for emerging artists to work with our professional partners. 

A huge thank you to everyone involved in the project, including poet and writer Alexander McCall Smith and our seven composers Jay Capperauld, Tom David Wilson, Neil Tòmas Smith, Helen Grime MBE, Ailie Robertson, Simon Smith and David Horne.  Special thanks to Dr Valerie Pearson, the School’s Head of Strings, for masterminding the project. 

We would also like to express our gratitude to everyone who made a donation to support The Seven Hills Project and to those Trusts and Foundations, whose grants helped to make the project come to life.  We hope you enjoyed the musical experiences the project created.