Music
Head of Department: D J Chandler
At Arnold, all pupils are encouraged to take an active role in music and the department offers a broad range of opportunities for pupils of every age and ability. Each year a number of music scholarships are awarded.
Working within a positive and vibrant environment, our aim is for music to be both fun and productive, ensuring that pupils perform and progress to the best of their abilities.
The department has excellent facilities, which include a spacious rehearsal and teaching room, a music technology suite with PCs running Cubase and Sibelius software, a recording studio and several practice rooms. The recording studio has recently been equipped to a high specification and there is a new Schimmel grand piano in the Recital Room. In the Memorial Hall, there is a Yamaha grand piano and a 2 manual Allen organ.
Music is taught to all pupils as part of the curriculum in the Lower School and an increasing number are taking the subject to GCSE and A level. Extra Curricular activities are on offer for pupils of all ages and abilities, and a programme of formal and informal concertsis organised each term. The 70 strong School Choir joins forces with our Choral Society each year to perform a major choral work with orchestra. These have included Mozart's Requiem, Orff's Carmina Burana, Handel's Messiah, Karl Jenkins' Armed Man and Haydn's Nelson Mass. Our Girls' Choir performs regularly outside school and has toured to Venice and Cologne and, most recently, to Krakow in Poland.
Instrumental ensembles include the Swing Band which, as well as leading the highly popular annual "Evening of Swing", has performed on several occasions in Blackpool's Tower Ballroom. Other ensembles include the highly acclaimed Soul Band "Got Soul", a Wind Band, Brass Group and String Ensemble. A major musical production is also staged each year; former productions include Grease, Oliver and The Sound of Music. Professional musicians have also visited Arnold to give recitals and workshops. Amongst them are pianist Andrew Wilde, percussionist Simone Rebello, singer Charlotte Kinder, Status Quo's drummer Jeff Rich and the Band of The King's Division.
Further opportunities are also provided for talented musicians. These have included a pupil performing a trombone concerto that he had composed himself and a Year 11 pupil performing Mozart's Clarinet Concerto. Numerous pupils have achieved a grade 8 on an instrument or voice and, in recent years, pupils have left Arnold to study music at the Royal Northern College of Music, Birmingham Conservatoire and LIPA.
Instrumental tuition is available in school on orchestral instruments, singing, piano and guitar. Two full time members of music staff and a dedicated team of peripatetic musicians are fully committed to the enjoyment of music and encouraging the highest standards from pupils.
Do browse the links on this page for a more detailed insight into music at Arnold and don't hesitate to contact the Director of Music, Mr D J Chandler, should you require any further information.
A complete schedule of Ensemble Rehearsal times and a full list of Music Concerts and Events is available here.
Concert reviews
Staff
Mr Daniel Chandler Director of Music
