Perfect Harmony Issue One | Winter 2020 by St Mary's Music School

PERFECT HARMONY O P P SU

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THE ROYAL HIGH SCHOOL ON CALTON HILL WAS ORIGINALLY CONCEIVED AS A CULTURAL BEACON FOR AN ENLIGHTENED SCOTLAND. HOW BETTER TO PRESERVE THAT SPIRIT THAN BY DELIVERING A WORLD-CLASS CENTRE FOR MUSIC EDUCATION AND PUBLIC PERFORMANCE, FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE WHOLE OF SCOTLAND?

ISSUE ONE | WINTER 2020

The hopes and ambitions of The Royal High School Preservation Trust have taken a significant step forward in 2020 with Scottish Ministers leaving the way clear for the City of Edinburgh Council to consider new proposals for the iconic Thomas Hamilton building on Calton Hill. Find out more about the shared vision to deliver a national cultural asset that will offer huge public benefit at no public cost.

©Richard Murphy Architects

FUTURE

PERFECT The Royal High School on Calton Hill became part of Edinburgh’s landscape in 1829. Designed by Thomas Hamilton, it stood for nearly 150 years as an inspiring place of education and enlightenment. In 1968, however, unable to accommodate the needs of an increasing student population, the school relocated to larger, modern premises and the iconic building closed its doors. Although eventually purchased by the City of Edinburgh Council in 1994, it has been underused since, with no clear future, no new purpose.

William Gray Muir, Chair of the Royal High School Preservation Trust, explains how serendipity played its part in finding a ‘perfect fit’ for the future of the old Royal High School building.

whole site; and to establish a public use, accessible to the city of Edinburgh, its residents and visitors. Attending an event at Dovecot Studios, I met Peter Thierfeldt, Development Consultant for St Mary’s Music School, and he introduced me to Carol Grigor, CEO of Dunard Fund. Of course, the building is very close to Dunard Fund’s Edinburgh home on Royal Terrace so Carol knew it well and was concerned about its future. I talked about finding a new use for the old Royal High School, Peter spoke about needing more space, a concert hall and room for St Mary’s Music School to expand its community engagement, and Carol – a notable musician, staunch defender of Scotland’s architectural heritage and one of Scotland’s most significant philanthropists – talked about her conviction that the building should be a school once more. We made a critical connection.

“I grew up in Edinburgh and got to know the city very well by walking through it almost every day. It undoubtedly shaped my view of the world. Calton Hill is a monument to the city’s Enlightenment fathers with the Royal High School standing apart as one of the most dramatically characteristic buildings in Scotland. Educationally it reflects the ambitions of an enlightened society to provide access to excellence, physically it creates a link between the city’s Old Town and New Town, and architecturally it is one of Hamilton’s finest works – entirely sculptural in the way it relates to its surroundings.

One of the building’s challenges is that it’s not big enough for the needs of today’s high schools – but for a small, specialist music school with ambitions to engage more widely with the community, it would work. The next day, I telephoned Dr Kenneth Taylor, Headteacher of St Mary’s Music School, and said, “I’ve got an idea.”

After its rejection as the permanent home for the Scottish Parliament, finding a new purpose for this important building continued to prove remarkably challenging and, in 2009, the City of Edinburgh Council launched a formal competition to address this. The winning proposal – a boutique hotel – seemed a reasonable way of breathing new life into a fastdecaying building. However, largely due to the banking crisis, little visible progress was made until early 2015, when the hotel plans finally came to light. Like many others, I was dismayed by the extent to which the proposed additions would overwhelm the original building. The Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland held an exceptionally well-attended public meeting and the future of the building found its way back into conversation. Then a number of things happened at once…

I HAVE A VIVID MEMORY OF VISITING ST MARY’S MUSIC SCHOOL FOR THE FIRST TIME. I WAS SURROUNDED BY MUSIC, SPILLING OUT FROM EVERY ROOM; THE BUILDING RADIATED A TANGIBLE SENSE OF JOY. HERE WAS A SCHOOL WITH AMBITIONS TO BE SCOTLAND’S NATIONAL MUSIC SCHOOL, SHORT OF SPACE BUT FULL OF YOUNG PEOPLE WITH AN EXCEPTIONAL TALENT AND PASSION FOR MUSIC – AND HERE WAS THE OLD ROYAL HIGH SCHOOL, JUST WAITING TO HAVE

The Royal High School Preservation Trust (RHSPT) was established with three clear objectives: to conserve the building and protect its setting in the heart of Edinburgh’s World Heritage site; to find an economically sustainable and culturally suitable use for the

LIFE AND PURPOSE BREATHED BACK INTO IT. IF THIS WAS INDEED THE ‘PERFECT FIT’, IT COULD BE TRANSFORMATIONAL FOR BOTH THE SCHOOL AND THE BUILDING.

ARCHITECTURALLY, THE BUILDING HAS ALWAYS BEEN SLIGHTLY SEPARATED FROM THE CITY, SITTING ON A PLINTH ABOVE STREET LEVEL. The great genius of Richard Murphy’s plan is to introduce a new foyer that directly links the street with the proposed concert hall at the heart of the building – this transforms a difficult building, in terms of accessibility, into one that serves two distinct purposes at the same time, a working school and a public performance space. Additionally, removing some of the unsympathetic secondary buildings (added on when the original school was running short of space) will create public gardens and improve presentation.

©Richard Murphy Architects

Dr Taylor and the School’s Directors enthusiastically embraced the idea and we immediately went to work, seeking listed building and planning consent and raising awareness and support. Richard Murphy, Simpson & Brown and David Narro all came on board – a design team with exceptional credentials; Edinburgh World Heritage Trust, the Cockburn Association, the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland and Historic Environment Scotland helped to guide our approach; and the Perfect Harmony Development Board was founded to promote the shared ambitions of St Mary’s Music School and the RHSPT. Perhaps the most critical piece of the jigsaw was the extraordinary contribution of Dunard Fund, pledging in excess of £36m to meet the anticipated costs of restoring and repurposing the building. We had a once-in-a-lifetime coming together of the opportunity, means and people to deliver an historic landmark back into civic use. We submitted our plans in December 2015, just ahead of the planning committee decision on the first hotel planning application and, while the hotel plans were refused, ours were unanimously approved. However, our story was far from over. The hotel submitted revised plans, which were rejected again, and they appealed against both decisions, resulting in a lengthy and costly Public Inquiry, the results of which were finally submitted to the Scottish Government in the summer. The hotel plans have now been formally rejected by Scottish Ministers and, with this decision, the City of Edinburgh Council can now rescind the current contract it has with the hotel developers and reconsider the future of the building. We are one step closer to realising our ambition.

It was never our intention to throw rocks from the sidelines at the hotel plans, we simply wanted to find an alternative solution which would go to the heart of Scottish culture, protecting the building and bringing it back into public use as a valuable historic asset. We can now look forward to the opportunity of fully participating in the Council’s deliberations with the intention of demonstrating the outstanding benefits our proposals can deliver. Allowing the work of St Mary’s Music School to expand through a myriad of outreach activities will deliver additional high quality music provision and one of the cornerstones of our plan is to act as a hub of musical excellence, with state-of-the-art facilities offering imaginative ways to engage. While, naturally, we want people to be in the building as much as possible, if the last few months of lockdown have taught us anything it is that communicating, teaching and learning through the internet is entirely possible. By borrowing the enlightened legacy of the Scots of the past and harnessing modern techniques, we can continue to deliver education for all, ensuring that every young person with an interest in music and an internet connection can access excellence here. In the past, Royal High School pupils had to come to the school to learn – today, we can broadcast our teaching to the world. That feels like a hugely democratising process. This building once reflected the highest ambitions for access to excellence in education. It will be wonderful to see it filled with those ambitions once again.”

Please visit www.stmarysmusicschool.co.uk/perfectharmony

A MEETING OF

MINDS

Carol Nimmo is Chair of the Perfect Harmony Development Board – the body founded to promote and protect the shared ambitions of St Mary’s Music School and the Royal High School Preservation Trust. We asked Carol what inspired her to get involved and what’s next for Perfect Harmony.

Why did you become involved in plans to repurpose the old Royal High School building? “I’ve always got involved with things because I’m interested in them – but then life is interesting! It’s such a beautiful building and I really wanted it to work. My story starts in 2009 when I became a member of the RRCTMA (Regent, Royal, Calton Terraces and Mews Association) residents group. The Terraces were always part of the grand plan for Calton Hill and Regent Terrace is the nearest neighbour to the Royal High School, so we always had an interest in the building and discussed it at our meetings. We knew Duddingston House had secured the lease and were planning to convert it into a boutique arts hotel and we were initially quite happy with this plan. Then we went into recession and it wasn’t until 2014 that I saw the first sketches of the proposed hotel when we were invited to see the inside of the building and review the early plans. It was awful – this beautiful building with these huge wings coming out of it – I didn’t know what to say! It had honestly never crossed our minds that the original architecture would be lost to such an extent. That’s what galvanized us into action.

“The silver lining to the planning delay is that it has allowed the School to deepen and strengthen its partnerships and strategies in preparation for becoming a national resource in state-of-the-art facilities.”

As a residents group, we already had a relationship with Edinburgh World Heritage and we got to know people at the Cockburn Association and the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland. Then the Royal High School Preservation Trust came along and of course Dunard Fund is based at 4 Royal Terrace, which is also the home of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. When the RHSPT, St Mary’s Music School and Dunard Fund all came together it was like a lightning bolt. A national music school for Scotland housed in the old Royal High School building – how could you not roll with that idea? It just merged together so naturally.”

©Richard Murphy Architects

©Mike Wilkinson

As the alternative proposals got underway, what was your reaction to Richard Murphy’s plans? “I thought it was a fantastic design solution. By opening up the front of the building you connect the Old Town and the New Town – you recreate that link – it’s a combination of the iconic and the contemporary and to miss this opportunity to reimagine the building in such an exciting way would be terrible. It’s still a school, it’s still an educational establishment, but it’s so much more. What could be better news for Edinburgh, for Scotland? When the hotel appealed against the rejection of their plans, I attended the Inquiry every single day as Chair of RRCTMA. What’s the point of having a planning department if we’re not going to listen to them? It was fascinating and I learned a huge amount. The importance of the building, but also the constraints it faces, are now better understood than ever. More than this, the mistakes of the last few years show how important it is that any decision about the building’s future is made with full transparency and with considered public support.”

Why was the Perfect Harmony Development Board brought together and who’s involved? “Perfect Harmony exists to conserve the building and reflect the natural meeting of minds between St Mary’s Music School and the RHSPT. Going forward, the process will be highly collaborative, involving the Trust, the School and the City of Edinburgh Council – we will play a role in helping to bring everyone’s ideas and aspirations together. This incredible gift from Dunard Fund is not the kind of thing that happens every day and we have a huge responsibility to ensure that the right people are in place to support and care for the development of the building and the creation of the school, both now and in the future. We are a step closer but

our vision is long-term and needs to be curated, communicated and managed effectively and responsibly, if we are to succeed. Our real job is still ahead of us and that’s hugely exciting. I see the Development Board as the zip that connects building and school and holds their shared vision together. We’re all still getting to know each other and we come from a variety of backgrounds. I’m a local resident and supporter of the building as is Lesley Kerr, who is also deeply involved with the Edinburgh International Festival. Kat Heathcote, Gavin Gemmell and David Smith all have strong connections with St Mary’s Music School – Kat currently sits on the School’s Board; Gavin was on the Board for 8 years, until 2018; and David Smith, a retired solicitor, supported the Board back in 2014 by contributing to plans to improve the existing Coates Hall campus. Everyone brings something different and that’s critical as we’ve always known that we’d need to be ready to hit the ground running.”

Moving forward, what will the Development Board’s role be as discussions about a new national music school at Calton Hill progress? “Fundamentally, we’ll act as an interface between the new school and the community – that means bringing together groups of like-minded people to act as volunteers and fundraisers, ensuring that the public are fully aware of the benefits that the new school will bring and ultimately have access to it and be able to engage with it. We’re also there to ensure that funds are managed responsibly and in the interests of the school and the widest possible community. We want to be proactive, we want to spread the news and we want to be part of the cultural life of Edinburgh.”

And finally, what does music mean to you? “I love music and I come from a reasonably musical family – that said, my sister and I had the same number of piano lessons and she’s now a music teacher and I’m not. But I didn’t practise! Being involved in St Mary’s Music School is part of my life now. Every time I talk about this project I get butterflies in my tummy.”

Please visit www.stmarysmusicschool.co.uk/perfectharmony

“What MUSIC means to me...” “Having a father who has played the organ at church for as long as I can remember means memories of home are of organ music; of his mastering Widor’s Toccata and Fugue and playing Jesu’ Joy of Man’s Desiring on high days and holidays. These pieces of music will instantly bring my family to mind and they are shared amongst all of my family, however far flung we might be.”

“At eleven I purchased a saxophone and I’ve never been able to part with the instrument since. I may not have got to the levels of music accomplishment that I hoped but music was the door that opened up a world of dance, theatre and a career in the arts. Music has something for everyone and brings us together.” Paul Fitzpatrick, CEO, Imaginate, Edinburgh’s International Children’s Festival

Joanna Mowat, Councillor, City Centre Ward, City of Edinburgh Council

“Music plays a vital part in our Arts Programme. It offers young

“One of the artefacts we have at the museum is a Mayuri, a beautiful instrument shaped like a peacock, dating back to the late nineteenth century. It’s important to both the Persian and Indian cultures and to both the Sikh and Hindu religions. The peacock represents Sarasvati, the Hindu goddess of both music and learning, which for me are inseparable.”

patients an opportunity for self expression, gives them choice and control, and can be soothing and distracting before a procedure or noisy when they need to let off steam. I regularly witness music transforming the hospital environment, lifting a ward from a place of stress and upset to a place where children laugh and have fun and where families from neighbouring beds come together through a shared experience.” Fiona O’Sullivan, Deputy Director of Children’s Wellbeing, Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity

Dr Sarah Deters, Learning and Engagement Curator, St Cecilia’s Hall: Concert Room & Music Museum

“Fifty years ago, secondary schools did not usually take music seriously. My music course consisted of singing English folk songs. On one occasion, however, Mr Miller played something called the Fifth Symphony on the gramophone. He claimed to have written it. I had never heard music of such power and began listening keenly to classical music. I quickly discovered that there was a dead German who also claimed the symphony, apparently with better credentials. I have long since forgiven Mr Miller’s little fib as he opened the door to a lifetime’s pleasure.”

“I think creativity is probably our single biggest human asset in the face of the colossal challenges society has to resolve. Music is one of the core expressions of that creativity in its highest form. If we want Scotland to be world class at creativity, our learning environments need to match. A truly world-class school, accessible to all on the basis of ability alone? Well that excites me.”

Keir Bloomer, Chair of the Commission on School Reform, set up by think tank, Reform Scotland

Andrew Wilson, economist, former politician and founding partner of Charlotte Street Partners

“I have always felt extraordinarily privileged to have music in my life. Before I could walk, my mother would sit me down to listen to my father’s extensive collection of classical music because it calmed and entranced me. Playing the bassoon, which I first picked up as a 12-year-old and carried with me through university and an orchestral career, has always been my happy place. Because of the comfort music has provided, I try to pass on its nurturing effects to the children in my classes. Music, with all its moods and expressions, touches people.” Eleanor Ruth Parker, Manager of Friday & Saturday Music Classes, St Mary’s Music School

“I saw David Bowie at the old Glasgow Apollo in 1973. It changed my life. After Ziggy Stardust came punk rock and sticking a safety pin through my ear was more appealing than putting a pencil behind it. I picked up a guitar, joined a band, and then another. We supported The Clash and got signed by two record companies. Music made everything possible. Joining Nordoff Robbins was for the pleasure of giving something back. Getting the music industry engaged and contributing to music therapy and all the benefits it brings has been simply immense.” Donald MacLeod MBE, Holdfast Entertainment & Head of Fundraising, Nordoff Robbins

“We support families through the heartache of knowing their child will die young. For many, music brings powerful solace when other happiness is scarce. Our hospices are – counter-intuitively – noisy places, full of fun. Recital, participation and music therapy all play important roles in supporting families, with music often the only way that some children with complex conditions can communicate with the world. One mum told me that music therapy is one of the few things in her daughter’s life that consistently brings pleasure. Our mission is to keep the joy alive, even in the face of death, and music is essential to that.” Rami Okasha, Chief Executive, Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS)

“Music has been my whole life but it was in teaching rather than performing that I found my musical niche. It was wonderful and I loved every minute of it. Children respond with instinct and enthusiasm from the earliest age. I once played a recording of Wagner to a kindergarten class – just a minute or so – and asked them what they thought. One little boy put up his hand and said in awe: “I think that lady was really cross.” Music is a truly universal language!” Margaret Yorston Scott, Head of Junior School Music (retired), High School of Glasgow

“In its phenomenal diversity, music speaks to everyone. In the theatre, people literally uncurl when music becomes part of the performance. Music opens up bodies and minds to what’s happening on stage physically, emotionally and intellectually. But if there is one example of its power to both liberate and bring great joy, for me it has to be the impact music has on my 9-year-old nephew. He is severely disabled and yet play him music – any kind of music, from opera to Girls Aloud – and he smiles, he laughs and he dances. Sing to him and he holds his hand against your chest to feel its resonance. That means the world to me.”

“Music has always been part of my life. Whether it was my mother singing spontaneously at home, my father playing the piano, or singing at church as a family, music has always been something I have immensely enjoyed. The beauty of music is that it is there for everyone to enjoy, regardless of personal ability. Music lightens our world.”

Elizabeth Newman, Artistic Director, Pitlochry Festival Theatre

Gordon Lindhurst, MSP, Lothian Region

Please visit www.stmarysmusicschool.co.uk/perfectharmony

In Search of a

Finer Purpose One of the world’s most prolific and best-loved authors, ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH became a household name following the publication of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency in 1998. But here, in Edinburgh, it is perhaps his stories of 44 Scotland Street and his Isabel Dalhousie novels that are closest to our city hearts. A passionate supporter of music and the arts, Alexander has been one of the staunchest advocates of plans to bring together the old Royal High School building on Calton Hill and St Mary’s Music School.

great city needs either a great river or an important hill. In Edinburgh, which by any standards is one of the great cities of the world, we have a river, but only a very modest one – more of a large burn, really. But we have seven hills, and two of these in particular are redolent of a large and colourful slice of history.

had to education. The suggestion that this building could be part of a different, commercial use brought dismay to those who cherished that educational tradition. A finer purpose was sought – and found – a wonderful scheme to make this the centre of musical education for talented children from all over Scotland and beyond. What could possibly be more inspiring than that? That a young person, irrespective of family means, could be brought to the capital and educated in this special place appeals to every fibre of our Scottish belief in the value of education. A public use for a great public building; a statement of belief in the transformative power of music and the arts in general; the creation of a new holy place for us to love and cherish – the RHSPT and St Mary’s Music School project has all of that.

Castle Rock, that brooding eminence that dominates the Old Town, is suggestive of Scotland’s turbulent past. Calton Hill is another matter altogether. This is a hill that reminds us of Scotland’s artistic and intellectual heritage. This hill in all its parts – its monuments, its domestic buildings – is a statement of the role of reason and order in the way we view the world. If the Scottish Enlightenment is expressed anywhere in physical form, it is here, in the stone of the buildings that line the contours of this hill.

The Seven Hills Project From my peripheral place as a supporter of this scheme, I have had extraordinary pleasure in writing seven poems about Edinburgh’s hills, to support The Seven Hills Project. I hope that these will help seven composers to create music that will capture our nation’s desire to make this lovely project happen and to mark St Mary’s Music School’s much valued contribution to Scottish musical life.

That is why Calton Hill is important for Scotland and for the world. It is part of the heritage of a small northern European country that has, over the centuries, punched well above its weight in the life of the mind. If there are reasons for people to feel proud of Scotland – and there certainly are – then these reasons are to be found here. The Royal High School is an essential part of that heritage. Not only is it an architectural gem, an exceptional example of the neo-classical architecture for which Edinburgh is famous, it is also a testament to the attachment that Scotland has long

To find out more about The Seven Hills Project, please visit www.stmarysmusicschool.co.uk/ support-us/the-seven-hills-project

On Calton Hill A hill, or any place of heights, May both stand out and simply stand For something quite beyond itself: Everest stands for all the things We can only do at the very limits Of our ability; man can climb it, But only just, and many find The death zone means exactly what it says, May find, too, that where oxygen is thin People are slow to help one another. Similarly, a mountain may stand for purity, As does Mont Blanc, white-topped, unsullied, Or, under its Aegean sky, Olympus Stands for a whole theology of gods Given to intemperate, selfish power Exercised by those who like to hurl Thunderbolts, to punish mortals For being themselves, not gods, And sometimes irritating, or scared.

©Iain McIntosh

Calton Hill, a moderate slope By any standards, is inimical to gods, Portrays the role of intellect; few hills Give room to philosophers, as this hill does; Few hills attempt to embody reason As understood during that brief Moment of clarity when Edinburgh Put Enlightenment at its heart. Order pervades the human contribution To this hill’s restrained appearance: The buildings here are classical, A Grecian dream realised in Scottish stone; Here the measured life may confidently be led; Reason and wisdom both thrive under the aegis Of an architecture that embodies An ancient ideal, sensitive to proportion. Looking west from here, down bustling Princes Street, We’re reminded of all those truths That Dugald Stewart, David Hume, and Adam Smith All professed to us: be sympathetic, For human sympathy is all; take note Of the needs of others; avoid the dark; Let justice prevail, and pay heed to light.

Please visit www.stmarysmusicschool.co.uk/perfectharmony

TO FLOURISH AND EXCEL “ACCORDING TO PLATO, ‘MUSIC GIVES A SOUL TO THE UNIVERSE, WINGS TO THE MIND, FLIGHT TO THE IMAGINATION AND LIFE TO EVERYTHING.’ AROUND 2,500 YEARS LATER, I THINK HE WAS SPOT ON.” DR KENNETH TAYLOR, HEADTEACHER OF ST MARY’S MUSIC SCHOOL, EXPLAINS WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT A SPECIALIST MUSIC EDUCATION.

Last year, a report commissioned by the All-Parliamentary Group for Music Education, in collaboration with the Society of Musicians and University of Sussex, stated: “Studying music builds cultural knowledge and creative skills. It improves children’s health, wellbeing and wider educational attainment… Music also enables young children to develop the sheer love of expressing themselves through music, discovering their own inner self and being able to develop emotional intelligence and empathy through music.” From a wider business perspective, the same report notes that the creative industries, which contribute more than £100bn to the UK economy, rely on a pipeline of creative talent emerging from our schools. So what part does a specialist music education play in the creation of this pipeline? The need for early training, in particular to develop the physical and intellectual disciplines required of dancers and musicians, is widely recognised but not always accessible. However, the Music and Drama Scheme (MDS) is a remarkable element of the UK’s education and training system and the Government’s main vehicle for supporting exceptionally talented young musicians and dancers, regardless of their background and financial circumstances. Thanks to MDS (together with its sister scheme administered by the Scottish Government) just over 1,000 young people in the UK have access to the best specialist music and dance training available, alongside a rigorous academic education. This is a vital provision if the UK is to maintain a world-class pool of creative talent for the future. St Mary’s Music School is one of five government-supported music schools in the UK and the only one its kind in Scotland. Here, as in other specialist music schools, our pupils enjoy a close association with other young people who have an outstanding gift and passion for music. They have access to an extended teaching day and practice facilities, with around half of each day spent on music-related activities. Individual timetables allow for music lessons, coaching, performance classes and ensemble work to be integrated with academic

teaching and our young musicians benefit from being taught by talented and inspiring teachers, many of whom are professional performers in their own right. In common with other specialist music schools, we offer boarding facilities and our own pupils come mainly from Scotland but also elsewhere in the UK, Europe and beyond, providing a truly international experience. Entry is by musical audition only, to assess skill and potential. As an aspiring musician, the opportunity to become familiar with performing is key and one of the features of a specialist music education is the regular opportunity to perform in public. Here, at St Mary’s Music School, opportunities grow as our young people mature and gain confidence. Pupils graduate from performance classes to small lunchtime concerts in the School and then to Chancel Concerts in the Cathedral, performed to the whole school and an invited audience. We also present three major concerts a year in outside venues – in which every pupil has the chance to perform – and we encourage and support our pupils to take part in competitions and external engagements in the community. Working with musical partners is also a significant way for our young people to develop their musical skills, their technique and stage presence, and their life skills too. We provide peer mentoring through our partnership with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and recording and broadcast opportunities through the BBC and Delphian Records. Our pupils also play an active part in our own wider engagement work, supporting our Friday and Saturday Music Classes and Summer Schools. Community engagement is critical – we may be a specialist school but we are certainly not elitist. Music is made to be shared and we aim to share it with as many people as possible. What were once our Saturday ‘Morning’ Music Classes now run well into the afternoon and have spilled into Fridays too with our new Friday choirs; we run a Tuesday Singing Club at the Cathedral for children aged between 6 and 8 years and,

an ©Fiona Dunc

©Fiona Duncan

on Sunday afternoons, workshops with musicians from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. During the summer holidays, young musicians aged 12 and over come to us for intensive residential and day courses, while our Masterclass programme provides opportunities to observe or participate in sessions led by world-renowned musicians such as Nicola Benedetti and Craig Ogden; with COVID-19 restrictions in place during 2020, we moved to online delivery.

St Mary’s Music School was established in 1880 as the Choir School for the choristers of St Mary’s Cathedral. In 1972, the School opened its doors to instrumentalists and, in 1979, the first Saturday Morning Music Classes were introduced.

Ultimately, a specialist music education is one where music is fully embedded and integrated into every pupil’s timetable and where every pupil is supported to develop their music skills through a wide range of expert tuition. This is not achieved at the expense of their academic education, indeed the close integration of the two provides a sure foundation for later life, whatever career path is ultimately chosen. But most of all, a specialist music education is democratic – it puts access to excellence above financial or social considerations and focuses on the passion and talent of each individual, enabling them to flourish and excel, musically and academically, in a safe, supportive and inspiring environment.

©Paul Raeburn

On a daily basis, we teach our own students across the full range of brass, keyboard, percussion, strings and woodwind – as well as vocal and composition – and we embrace all kinds of music making from classical to contemporary and from traditional Scottish to jazz. We do all of this from a former theological college in the West End of Edinburgh where every conceivable space has been converted to musical use! Academically, and bearing in mind we’re a school that requires no academic testing for entry, we deliver exceptional exam results – our 2019/20 pass rate was 100% with 86% at A across all SQA qualifications. In line with the Curriculum for Excellence, a broad education from P5 to S3 becomes increasingly specialised from S4 to S6. In addition to the usual subjects offered under the Scottish system, our pupils undertake a number of academic music subjects and all of them go on to conservatoires, music colleges or universities. St Mary’s Music School is a charitable trust, governed by a Board of Directors and subject to regulations set by the Scottish Government. The majority of our pupils are supported through the Scottish Government Aided Places Scheme and the majority of our choristers receive around 50% bursary support through St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral.

Please visit www.stmarysmusicschool.co.uk/perfectharmony

A MATTER OF

PUBLIC CHOICE As public debate over the future of the old Royal High School building reached a peak in 2017, the Royal High School Preservation Trust (RHSPT) decided to gauge public opinion on the merit of the two rival restoration proposals – a boutique hotel or the new site for St Mary’s Music School – in the most robust way possible. Through an in-home survey, using government standard methodologies carried out by global leaders in market research Ipsos MORI, the rival hotel and music school proposals were presented to over 500 residents across every Edinburgh postcode.

Thinking about proposals for the future use of the old Royal High School in Edinburgh, which option do you prefer?

The results were conclusive, showing that having a new music school at the site was a truly popular choice for Edinburgh’s city centre. An overwhelming 81 per cent preferred the option to establish St Mary’s Music School at the Calton Hill site, while only 10 per cent said they preferred the proposals for an international hotel.

81%

10%

THE NATIONAL MUSIC SCHOOL

THE INTERNATIONAL HOTEL

7% NO PREFERENCE

Unprompted, 68 per cent of the people surveyed said they felt that the main benefit of the proposals for a national music school at the old Royal High School site was that it would nurture Scottish talent; 41 per cent felt that this would be in keeping with the building’s original use; and 36 per cent said that it would improve Edinburgh’s reputation.

1% NEITHER 1% NO ANSWER How favourable are you towards the proposal to develop the site into a National Music School?

By contrast, respondents were less sure about the benefits of the hotel proposals, with 42 per cent naming increased tourism, followed by employment opportunities at the hotel (28 per cent) and boosting the economy (27 per cent). Overall, 67 per cent had an unfavourable view of the hotel proposal, including 21 per cent who were ‘very unfavourable’; only 4 per cent were ‘very favourable’ towards the hotel.

41%

22%

11%

“We thought it important to take an objective reading of public opinion to create research that people could trust,” recalls RHSPT Chairman, William Gray Muir. “The results provided immensely useful evidence, putting beyond doubt the truth that our proposals had the backing of the people of Edinburgh.”

11%

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 VERY UNFAVOURABLE

VERY FAVOURABLE

In your opinion, what do you think would be the main benefits of this proposal?

68%

41%

36%

32%

31%

30%

21%

14%

13%

NURTURING SCOT TISH TALENT

DESIGN IN KEEPING WITH ORIGINAL ARCHITECTURE

USE IN KEEPING WITH THE BUILDING’S ORIGINAL USE

WILL IMPROVE SCOTL AND’S REPUTATION

WILL IMPROVE EDINBURGH’S REPUTATION

AT TR ACTIVE DESIGN

NEW PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE GARDEN

NO USE OF PUBLIC MONE Y

SUSTAINABLE USE OF THE BUILDING

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

For information on the survey results and methodology visit: www.rhspt.org/sites/default/files/RHSPT-Survey-Results-01.pdf

THREE NEW PUBLIC PERFORMANCE SPACES

NONE/NO BENEFITS

HARNESSING the POWER of MUSIC

WHEN ELIZABETH LAMBLEY OF INDIGO INTERVIEWED PROFESSOR JEFF SHARKEY, PRINCIPAL OF THE ROYAL CONSERVATOIRE OF SCOTLAND, VIA ZOOM, SHE WAS DELIGHTED TO DISCOVER THAT HIS IMPROVISED LOCKDOWN ‘OFFICE’ COMPRISED A LAPTOP STRATEGICALLY POSITIONED ON HIS MUCH-LOVED STEINWAY, A PIANO THAT FOLLOWED HIM FROM THE USA TO SCOTLAND SIX YEARS AGO.

©KK Dundas

“Music transcends language barriers with its amazing myriad of emotional content. A slow movement from Brahms’ Third Symphony or a Chopin nocturne have far more gradations of feeling than all the synonyms in the thesaurus for the words ‘sad’ or ‘melancholy’. Music can lift us out of normality, reminding us that it is incredibly special to be alive, to have our senses and to experience and convey emotion.” More time to play the piano in between MS Teams and Zoom meetings might be one positive that Jeff takes from the COVID-19 crisis, but he’s quick to acknowledge the significant challenges the pandemic has placed on an already cash-strapped arts sector. Amid natural concerns for the nation’s health, and worries over jobs and the wider economy, he fears it could be all too easy for culture to slide, when in fact he believes it is critical to the nation’s recovery. “You can make an argument for culture on economic grounds – it is the fastest growing sector in the UK, it brings the tourists in and we have a really entrepreneurial arts sector,” he says. “But I think it goes deeper. Culture creates the bonds of society and those bonds have been fractured in the weeks of isolation. Going to the cinema, the opera and the theatre is how we keep sharing stories – and sharing stories is how we achieve understanding, how we achieve a common direction.” Jeff’s own relationship with music started as a four-year-old with piano lessons from his mother. Thanks to some ‘amazing’ teachers, he went on to be the first double major in piano and composition at the Manhattan School of Music. Postgraduate studies at Yale and Cambridge followed and then a move into teaching with senior roles at Wells Cathedral School, Purcell School, Cleveland Institute of Music and Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute, before arriving at the Royal Conservatoire in 2014. Jeff describes himself as ‘always trying to break out of boxes’ and it was the Peabody Institute that first offered an environment in which he could stretch the concept of music in the wider world.

This is what drives his passion for the arts today. “I started to work on collaborations with medicine and with cancer treatment departments, performing music in recovery centres. It was incredibly powerful,” he says. During his tenure at Peabody, Jeff introduced free programmes to widen access to music and dance for school children from disadvantaged neighbourhoods, an initiative he looks back on with pride. “I passionately believe that every child must have access to a creative education,” he says. “But the challenge is that it has to go beyond access and into progression if they are to truly benefit. You need consistent quality education and it is for RCS and the likes of St Mary’s Music School – those strong education entities – to help ensure that this happens.” Outreach programmes, the potential of new technology and online teaching all offer opportunities to develop talent and are some of the things that RCS is engaged in activating and exploring with a range of partners, including The Prince’s Foundation. The Conservatoire started a new academic year with a comprehensive blended learning approach, which has enabled students to come back into rehearsal rooms and performance spaces on campus, to rehearse and perform in ensembles. That has been so important and invaluable for individuals and for RCS as a creative community. Jeff tells his students that they must use their art to ‘reflect, shape and transform’ and it is hard not to be uplifted by his passionate conviction that the world needs music to flourish and grow.

Please visit www.stmarysmusicschool.co.uk/perfectharmony

UNIQUE & DISTINCTIVE

VOICES

St Mary’s Music School may have been founded on classical tradition, but today’s teaching is far from narrow in its outlook. How this specialist music education is experienced, interpreted and taken out into the world by pupils and alumni could not be more diverse. STEVEN OSBORNE was taught by Richard Beauchamp at St Mary’s Music School in the 1980s and is now one of the world’s most highly regarded solo pianists, noted for his distinctive and idiomatic interpretation. When interviewed by Pavlina Gusheva, a first-study pianist currently in S5, they discussed Steven’s belief in the power of music to make deep emotional connections and discovered a shared love of Rachmaninoff. “The first piece I really connected to was Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. I was quite young and just listened to it over and over again, the first movement especially. For me, it’s still just about the happiest piece of music that there is. When I came to St Mary’s Music School, I was completely obsessed with Ravel and at college I played a lot of Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert. Then, in my 20s, I began to explore more romantic repertoire and that’s stayed with me. As you get older, I guess you’re attracted to different things and one of the great things about playing the piano is that the repertoire is so enormous – it gives you every possibility to express what it is you want to express. So now it’s still Rachmaninoff, still Beethoven, still Ravel. Those are the three I feel closest to. With Rachmaninoff, there’s a kind of extreme of emotion, a feeling that he gives that’s so unguarded, so passionate and sometimes so melancholy. I’m allergic to music which is ‘nice’ – it’s got to have a really, really strong flavour to it.

Music feels like one of the fundamental ways I connect to other people. It’s a way of sharing that full spectrum of human emotion. Audiences can immediately feel the difference between a performer who’s engaged with the music and a performer who isn’t. I think classical music has suffered a bit from the reverence that’s attached to composers – as if they are supermen or superwomen. Composers are humans with this wonderful ability to put into music some deep life experience. We are human too and our job is to respond to the life experience they had and make it our own.”

TWELFTH DAY is Catriona Price (fiddle) and Esther Swift (pedal harp), a duo with ‘folk roots and classical training’ who met as pupils at St Mary’s Music School. Talking to Lola Flaxen, a first-study pianist in S6, they explain how the challenges imposed by physical distancing turned into new ways to connect with audiences… and why they’ve stopped trying to put their ‘genre-bending’ music into a stereotypical box. “We put our heads together at the start of lockdown and thought, this is going to be weird, how can we collaborate while we’re socially distanced? We set up a podcast called Figuring Out How to be at Home and, in each episode, we discussed a topic with three fellow musicians about how they were dealing with lockdown. We also did our first online gig via Patreon – an artist-led platform. The only odd thing was at the end – closing the laptop instead of having the post-gig buzz – suddenly you’re back in your living room all by yourself! It’s important for us to go down different routes and find new ways of doing things. We push boundaries as much as we can with our instruments and experiment a lot. The harp is stereotyped as being pretty and angelic but actually the pedal harp especially is such a hardcore instrument, you can get really wirey and grungy sounds out of it. It’s getting harder and harder to identify certain types of new music because it’s cross-genre – but the term ‘cross-genre’ is now a genre! We really enjoy challenging stereotypes – not only our instruments, but what is expected from two young women who have high voices and play the fiddle and the harp.

Music education is about empowering young people to recognise that everyone has their own unique and distinctive voice to offer the world. We quite like the folk genre being attached to us because we relate directly to our society and our music is often political – a comment on our experiences – but we take a lot of inspiration and influence from classical music too. It was amazing to go through St Mary’s Music School, not only to gain the technical stuff but just to be exposed to so much different music. We loved it!”

“I became a chorister because I wanted to extend my singing experience. When I first came to the School I wasn’t thinking so much about the instrumental side but I really enjoy my violin lessons – I’ve improved a lot and I’m working on Grade V right now. The training is challenging but the music is very, very good. There are lots of different contrasts, which I really enjoy – I think most people do because obviously you want to challenge yourself and not just stick to the things you know well.

I love singing with all the other choristers and with the lay clerks too – the tenors, basses and altos – Mr Ferguson, the conductor, is really great. One of the highlights for me was the build up to the Easter Service, especially the St John’s Passion, but sadly we didn’t get to perform because of COVID-19. I didn’t expect the services to be like they are – they are so much fun! – especially the Christmas Service but actually the Sunday Services too. You may think “Oh no, it’s a Sunday!” – but just being in the Cathedral is amazing. I like the small classes here – we each have our own timetable and then we’ve got practice times – it all just fits together. The choristers go to the Cathedral after school and we sing and do Evensong but I don’t feel different to the instrumentalists. I’ve definitely improved in both the academic and the musical side of things since I’ve been here. It’s really great – I’ve changed a lot.”

EVE BOULOS, Head Girl, has just started her final year at St Mary’s Music School and plays jazz saxophone with extraordinary talent. Fiona Duncan, the School’s Marketing Manager, caught up with Eve before the start of the new term to find out how carving a career as a jazz musician fits into a music school with a strong classical tradition. “Initially, I played mostly classical sax but then I decided I wanted to focus on jazz – what makes it interesting is trying to compare and find similarities between the two genres. You need a completely different skill set to play jazz because it’s all improvised but you constantly put your knowledge from classical into jazz and jazz into classical. That’s why I really enjoy music history because when you look at composers from hundreds of years ago you can still see the similarities between their thoughts and their harmonies and the music I’m playing now. Classical is very, very focused on technique and that can sometimes be a bit lost in jazz, but whenever I meet people in the jazz scene they can hear when you’ve had a classical training – just because of certain techniques and tones. My second study is composition and in jazz you have to be able to compose because everything’s about creating new music – it’s such a progressive genre and you need to bring out new things – I want to have the ability to do that.

Identity is the thing in jazz because everything is so personal – what you say through improvisation is the way you bring your personality out. Sometimes, I just play pop covers for fun when I’m performing in public – I think it’s good being able to appeal to a wider audience – I really enjoy it and the School is so supportive of whatever performance opportunities you get. At school, there are fewer jazz instrumentalists than classical instrumentalists and while that can be a challenge, there are definitely benefits because we need to learn to work with what we’ve got. Everyone is inspired by each other; we have a passion for music and we all bond over that.”

Please visit www.stmarysmusicschool.co.uk/perfectharmony

©Chris Lomas

©Fiona Duncan

©Jannica Honey

©Ben Ealovega

ST MARY’S MUSIC SCHOOL was founded in 1880 to educate the choristers of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral and, in 1972, expanded to include instrumental tuition and become a fully rounded specialist music school. Today, choristers make up around 25% of the student body and Jake, who’s 11, explains why he wanted to become a chorister and what he thinks of the experience so far… including having to sing every Sunday!

GOOD NEWS FOR

MUSIC

The Perfect Harmony Campaign aims to deliver the old Royal High School “Let’s have one of our as the new home for St Mary’s Music School, and to fit out the reimagined greatest buildings being used as it was intended to be used – building as a world-class centre for music education and public performance as a place of the highest standards in the heart of Edinburgh. of education. And let’s allow one of our greatest buildings to be repopulated by the people of Edinburgh, used and enjoyed by both citizens and visitors to the city, part of a living, vibrant and forward looking community.” William Gray Muir, Chair Royal High School Preservation Trust

In this new building, St Mary’s Music School – as Scotland’s national music school – will be able to: • attract more outstanding young musicians and enrich their lives by growing pupils numbers from 80 to 120; • engage more young people from Edinburgh and right across Scotland through substantially extended outreach programmes, masterclasses and workshops;

•

share the joy of music from the earliest age by enabling more primary school children to take part in Friday and Saturday Music Classes, with fee assistance offered when required;

•

ensure that access is open to as many talented young musicians as possible by increasing the number of pupils who receive scholarship funding of up to 100% of fees; and

• engage fully with local and wider communities by welcoming up to 20,000 people to over 100 performances per year in the new purpose-built performance hall.

LEND YOUR VOICE AND LEND YOUR SUPPORT In 2021, it is our aim to reach out to the community to develop our plans in consultation with citizens from across Scotland, heritage associations, and music therapy and music education groups. Register now to receive information from the Perfect Harmony Campaign, to participate in a consultation, to receive invitations to public events and to receive online updates, including our annual Perfect Harmony newsletter: www.stmarysmusicschool.co.uk/perfectharmony

Alternatively send an email to register at advancement@st-marys-music-school.co.uk

The Perfect Harmony Campaign is delivered by the Perfect Harmony Development Board, the body founded to promote and protect the shared ambitions of St Mary’s Music School and the Royal High School Preservation Trust. St Mary’s Music School Trust Limited is a charity, number SC014611. Registered in Scotland number 54504. Registered Office: Coates Hall, 25 Grosvenor Crescent, Edinburgh, EH12 5EL www.stmarysmusicschool.co.uk Royal High School Preservation Trust is a Scottish Guarantee Company, number SC504433. Registered as a Scottish Charity, number SC045770. www.rhspt.org