Music at Harrogate Ladies’ College
Harrogate Ladies’ College is a very musical school – in fact it’s unusual not to hear the sound of music being made as you walk around our campus.
In Years 7-9 (or Upper 3, Lower 4 and Upper 4 in our terminology) all girls have timetabled music with our specialist music teachers. We have a dedicated Music School, located in its own building, with more than 20 practice and rehearsal rooms, as well as a theatre (or the Small Hall); the Assembly Hall; and Chapel which are all used for musical performances.
Instruments
Many of our girls choose to have individual music tuition, in fact we have more than 100 individual music lessons taking place each week. Unlike many schools, we build these lessons into the timetable so girls don’t miss other lessons in order to receive music tuition. Girls can choose from virtually any instrument including piano, strings, wood wind, brass and percussion.
Our thriving music department also means that girls get the chance to participate in a wide range of music groups including Orchestra, Strings Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Recorder Ensemble and Band Skills (for our budding drummers and guitarists!). We also regularly create smaller, tailor made ensembles in response to the individual interests and abilities of students.
Choir
We love to sing at College and our Gallery and Chapel Choirs are simply outstanding. The Gallery Choir is for our younger girls many of whom then go on to join our Chapel Choir, which sings at weekday and Sunday services in our school Chapel.
Our Chapel Choir is widely regarded as one of the top school choirs in the country and was a semi-finalist in the BBC Songs of Praise School Choir of the Year Competition in 2015.
See our Chapel Choir in action.
Sharing our Passion for Music
Our love of music means that you’re never far from a performance of some kind within College whether it’s the House music competition (which all girls take part in); a musical soirée or one of our major musical productions. Our choirs and orchestras also regularly perform outside College both in the UK and around the world at competitive music festivals; at community events; and during our music tours. Some of our recent performances outside of College have been at Durham Cathedral, York Minster, Ripon Cathedral, Harrogate’s Royal Hall and the amazing Barcelona Cathedral.
For girls with exceptional musical talents we have both Music and Choral Scholarships available which are held in high esteem within our school community and also include a number of other benefits. You can find out more about these in the Scholarships section of our website. .
Some of our talented musicians also go on to study Music in Higher Education with recent leavers studying at Trinity College London, Birmingham, York and Hull universities.
Music is part of our way of life at Harrogate Ladies’ College and we encourage all of our pupils to embrace and appreciate music as a means of expression; a method of relaxation; and a way of developing discipline.
