Our Music Department staff comprises 19 full-time and part-time teachers. They deliver curricular and instrumental lessons in many instruments and styles.
In a typical week Gordonstoun students study more than 400 individual instrumental music lessons. Students can study:
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orchestral instruments
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jazz and rock instruments
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piano, organ and keyboard
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singing
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traditional Scottish instruments
A comprehensive programme of ensemble activities complements individual study. Students also benefit from regular masterclasses and workshops.
Student performances and tours are notable features of life at Gordonstoun. The School also has a wealth of choirs, groups, orchestras and bands.
Instrumental teaching
Specialist teaching is available for the following:
Bagpipes
Brass
Clarsach
Drum Kit
Electric Keyboard
Guitar - classical, electric and rock
Piano
Singing
Strings
Woodwind
Please contact the Music Department for further information
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Student performances and tours
Students have regular opportunities to perform within the department, the School and in the wider community, for example:
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at the students’ jazz and rock spectacular; and
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supporting drama department productions, including ‘The Mysteries’ and ‘Macbeth’.
Students have also performed abroad in tours to Norway, Greece and, most recently, Ghana.
In addition to performing, students and staff collaborated with Ghanaians in a community-based service project.
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Choirs, groups, orchestras and bands
Barbershop
Each week, senior boys rehearse singing close harmony in the American barbershop tradition.
They are a small, select group of tenors and basses, willing to learn demanding repertoire and rehearse it to an advanced level.
It’s also great fun, with a repertoire that ranges from traditional Yale songs such as My Eveline to arrangements of songs by Tom Lerher, Flanders and Swan and Scottish musical comedy.
The group have been fortunate to be invited on recent Music Department tours to Greece and Ghana.
Chamber Choir
This is a select and advanced group with some 25 male and female voices. Students have the opportunity to tackle a challenging repertoire and to develop important aural and sight singing skills.
The choir comprises mainly senior students, including all musical scholars and particularly those studying for GCSE and A-Level music examinations.
The choir has recently been on tours to Athens, the Greek islands and to West Africa.
Chamber music
In addition to their regular rehearsals in large ensembles, Gordonstoun students take part in chamber music that reflects individual musical tastes, such as:
The Gordonstoun Choir
This is the largest performing ensemble at Gordonstoun.
It is open to all school students and staff and is currently an enthusiastic group of 60-plus male and female voices.
The choir traditionally performs in school concerts, chapel services and, most importantly, at our annual Service of Nine Lessons and Carols.
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Gordonstoun Junior Girls Choir
Girls from years 9 and 10 are invited to join the Junior School Girls Choir.
The choir rehearses once a week and performs at special occasions such as school services, school concerts and external competitions.
The repertoire includes folk songs, popular music, classical songs, choral anthems and world music songs.
Gordonstoun Senior Girls Choir
The Senior Girls Choir enables students in years 11-13 to perform a diverse and challenging repertoire.
Around 25 girls meet for weekly rehearsals. The repertoire includes choral, classical, popular and other styles of music.
The choir has performed at prestigious events, including school Remembrance Day services, carol services, at local churches and, notably, on the 2006 music tour to Ghana.
Jazz Band
On Tuesday evenings the Gordonstoun campus echoes to the sounds of jazz.
The Gordonstoun Big Band rehearses and performs standards from the Big Band era and beyond.
The band performs regularly in school, both at formal concerts and in the annual jazz rock spectacular.
This is the band’s showcase performance. It gives students the opportunity to perform in a near-professional environment and to display their ensemble and solo improvisational skills.
Orchestra
About 25 of the school’s more advanced players meet weekly as an orchestra to rehearse a range of musical styles.
One of the pleasures of this ensemble is that students play alongside staff, who both coach sectional rehearsals and play in the concerts.
Orchestral playing is highly disciplined. Students improve their sight-reading, learn to play as a team, and practise to perform at as high a level as possible.
Music studied in recent terms has included movements by Haydn and Beethoven and arrangements of Schumann, Ravel, Gershwin and Michael Nyman.
Every year during the Summer Term the orchestra accompanies the School on a Sunday morning Songs of Praise Service.
Pipe Band
Directed by Gordonstoun Pipe Major, Mr Scott Oliphant, piping continues to flourish and develop at Gordonstoun. Over 40 students are involved in piping at School and within the local community.
Three pipe bands meet and rehearse weekly:
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The Aberlour Preparatory School Training Band
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The Gordonstoun Senior School Training Band
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The Gordonstoun Pipe Band
All comprise students who work together to develop their knowledge of traditional Scottish repertoire and to hone their ensemble skills.
We hope that our senior band will soon compete in Scottish piping championships.
Significant recent performances have included performances for
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the President of Ghana in Accra;
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British Ambassador in Athens; and
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the Scottish Rugby Union.
The band has also played at Pittodrie Stadium, home of Aberdeen Football Club.
Rock music
At the summer jazz rock spectacular - one of the School’s most popular annual events - five school-based rock bands perform on a professionally created live stage in St Christopher’s Chapel.
The Music Department provides equipment, rehearsal space and weekly tutoring.
The annual spectacular is usually themed and recent years’ performances have included music by the Beatles and Queen.
No one will ever forget the outstanding performance of Bohemian Rhapsody by our most senior band. Interestingly, every member of this band went on to study music at university or at conservatoire level.
String orchestra
This ensemble is open to advanced string players and forms the core of the Gordonstoun School Orchestra.
Its challenging repertoire develops both technical and ensemble skills.
Recent performances have included Pachelbel’s Canon and Concerto for four violins by Antonio Vivaldi, at a string-themed lunchtime concert.
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Gordonstoun Concerts Society
The Concerts Society promotes six or seven concerts a year by distinguished soloists of both national and international standing.
The programme gives students and members of the public a chance to hear classical, contemporary, jazz and world music.
Artists also give masterclasses to students and lecture recitals to Sixth Formers.
Composition and percussion workshops have led to works by students being premiered at evening concerts.
Students are encouraged to attend the concerts, especially those studying GCSE and
A-Level music.
The 2008-9 Season started on Friday 26th September with a concert by Scotland's leading a capella group, The Dunedin Consort. The season's programme of concerts is as follows:
Friday 26th September, 7.30pm - Ogstoun Theatre
The Dunedin Consort
Review by Mr Kenneth Bews
The Gordonstoun Concerts Society’s opening concert was given by the wonderful Dunedin Consort, a six voice a capella ensemble. Their excellent programme of music from the Renaissance to the present day was carefully thought out to cover a range of styles, idioms and textures. There was some glorious six-part polyphonic singing with each voice carefully integrated into the musical texture. We also enjoyed joyous madrigals and part-songs. On the lighter side the demands of the overture to the Marriage of Figaro were wittily transcribed for voice and the evening ended with a group of very stylish close-harmony arrangements. The singing throughout the evening was sensitive and musical, with phrases projected beautifully.
Friday 31st October, 7.30pm - Ogstoun Theatre
O Duo
Review by Mr Kenneth Bews
The Gordonstoun Concerts Society was delighted to host O Duo last Friday evening in Ogstoun Theatre. This extremely talented percussion duo of, Oliver Cox and Owen Gunnell, (O Duo), entertained the audience with their musicianship and virtuosity. In a programme of original percussion works and arrangements of piano music, they explored sensitive touch and texture as well as flamboyant display pieces. Their sense of ensemble was outstanding and their witty platform manner brought a wry sense of humour to the evening. In the afternoon they also ran a workshop for aspiring young musicians which ought to have inspired the young to compose and perform.
Thursday 20 November, 7.30pm - North Room
Janet Hilton, clarinet, Pavlos Carvalho, cello, Jakob Fichert, piano
Review by Mr Kenneth Bews
The Gordonstoun Concerts Society enjoyed an evening of fine chamber music playing last Thursday from the distinguished ensemble led by Janet Hilton, clarinet, with Pavlos Carvalho, cello, and Jacob Fichert, piano. In great works by Beethoven and Brahms they played with intensity and musicianship and had a fine feeling for ensemble playing. They were always aware of the emotional depths and architectural complexities of the trios. This intellectual approach was carried on in intense and exciting solos by Piazzollo and Lutoslawski.
Tuesday 20th January, 7.30pm - Ogstoun Theatre
Haydn Trio Eisenstadt - Lorna Anderson, soprano, Jamie MacDougall, tenor
With 2009 being the bi-centenary of Haydn’s death and the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns’s birth, the distinguished piano trio, Trio Eisenstadt, has collaborated with two of Scotland’s foremost singers to celebrate the Scottish folk-song settings so lovingly made by Haydn. These charming, inventive settings evoke both the pathos of the tunes and the rugged good-humour Haydn displays in many of his more large-scale works. The programme will be completed with piano trios.
Wednesday 11th February, 7.30pm - South Room
Illuminati
The wind quartet, Illuminati, is this year’s winner of the prestigious John Tunnell Award for chamber ensembles. Their prize is a series of concerts in Scottish music clubs, which will give them invaluable concert experience. The ensemble was formed four years ago whilst all were students at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music. We can look forward to a varied programme of music including works by Mozart, Bridge, Françaix and Villa-Lobos, all of whom wrote idiomatically and wittily for wind.
Friday 6th March, 7.30pm - St Christopher's Chapel
Thistle Brass
The Season ends with a return visit from, Thistle Brass, who delighted the audience with their excellent playing and well-devised programme on their last visit. The generous acoustic of St Christopher’s Chapel lends itself to the wonderful sonorities of a brass ensemble. We will close the Season with music from the Renaissance and Baroque through to exciting and unexpected arrangements.
Membership rates for 2008 - 2009
Family Membership admitting two adults and two children to each concert - £69.00
Adult Membership admitting one adult to each concert (this is transferable) - £45.00
Membership rates include a £2.00 donation to the Society’s Emergency Fund
Individual concerts cost £10.00 for adults and £5.00 for students, tickets available on the door. For further information, or to apply for membership of the Concerts Society, please contact the Membership Secretary, c/o Gordonstoun School, Elgin, Moray, IV30 8QJ or email: gordonstoun.concerts.society@hotmail.co.uk
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