Taking up the mantle of the School Captain positions are Maame-Yaa (pictured centre-right) and Will (left), who’ll be leading the Captaincy team and chairing regular staff-student liaison meetings.

Our newly appointed Vice Captains are Stella (centre-left) and Alexei (right), who’ll help highlight important issues for their peers.

The concept of student leaders has been a tradition since our beginnings as a music school. It’s an important one that requires close working between students and staff, ensuring that the voices of all our students are heard and acted upon.

Nicola Smith, Joint Principal 

Nicola Smith, Joint Principal at Chetham’s, expressed her delight for the new School Captaincy appointments:

The determination from all our student applicants to make our School an even better place was humbling to hear and impressively delivered by each and every one of them.

I’m delighted for our new School Captains and I’m looking forward to working closely with Maame-Yaa, Will, Alexei and Stella. We know what a positive impact they’re going to make on the School and among their peers this year.

We look forward to welcoming Maame-Yaa, Will, Stella and Alexei back in September as our new School Captains.

Two years of hard work has led to some really wonderful and well-deserved grades for our year 11s, as well as for some of our year 10 students who took exams a year early.

We are delighted to see a 95% grade (9-4) pass rate, with 67% of grades at grade 7, 8 or 9 .

As with all schools nationwide, it isn’t possible to compare with the non-exam assessment-based grades of 2020 and 2021. These achievements are worthy of celebration in their own right.

This group has overcome the challenge of studying through a pandemic, with periods of online lessons, but have clearly triumphed due to their diligence, the dedication of their teachers and the support from home.

Our entire Chetham’s community is proud to celebrate with our students today. The future is bright, and we look forward to the sixth form journey together.

Nicola Smith and Tom Redmond, Joint Principal

Harry, Ben and Oliver celebrate GCSE results

We are incredibly proud of our students’ individual and collective efforts to achieve grades that they have worked so hard for.

Our 2022 leavers have achieved remarkable outcomes in an examination series where their first year of A-Level study was partly online.

Today, their hard work, resilience and tenacity has paid off. Our students have achieved great results in a range of subjects, which will open the doors to the next stage of their musical and academic pursuits.

Due to the changes in Grade Boundaries set Nationally because of Covid-19 disruption, it is not possible to compare results to previous years, however it is particularly pleasing to see 78.3% of the grades were at A*- B, showing that excellence and ambition is very much alive in all A-Level subjects at Chetham’s.

We are so excited for our students as they begin their next steps. With many students blessed with multiple brilliant offers and choices, it looks like around 30 are heading to conservatoires around the country and the world while around 16 others are heading to such prestigious institutions as University College London and The University of Cambridge, studying subjects as diverse as Medicine and Air Transport Management.

Nicola Smith Joint Principal said: “Chetham’s offers both a specialist music education and an outstanding academic curriculum. This year’s results show the determination our young people have to succeed. On behalf of the whole Chetham’s community we wish all our leavers much good luck for their next adventure!”

Nicola Smith and Tom Redmond, Joint Principals

Join us in congratulating our Year 13s today and watch out for the hashtag #chetsresultsday on social media as students share their own successes!

A huge round of applause to all our A Level students today. Congratulations on your fantastic results. Musical AND academic superstars! #ChetsResultsDay #AlevelResults@ChetsVIForm pic.twitter.com/EYi8HeChcJ

— Chetham’s School of Music (@Chethams) August 18, 2022

Congratulations Saul!

Chetham’s offers an exceptional academic education alongside its unparalleled music programme. Although there are no academic criteria for entrance, Chetham’s students regularly celebrate outstanding A-Level results and progress to leading conservatoires and universities across the world. Our teachers work hard to help each student reach their full potential, and students’ success is supported by small class sizes, a motivated teaching team, and a school community which encourages hard work and high achievement.

Tell us about your background prior to starting at Chetham’s?

I grew up in Cape Town South Africa and started violin lessons at the age of 7 at the Beau Soleil Music Centre. I went to Westerford High School from 2017 and also joined the youth development program of the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra where I was concert master of the youth orchestra. From 2017-2020, I was fortunate enough to perform solo recitals in many different venues in Cape Town, I participated in chamber music festivals, won a couple of competitions and played solo with the Cape Town Philharmonic.

What first inspired you to play the violin?

When I first saw the violin on TV I was very fascinated by the sound and shape. When I started violin I could not stop playing on it. At that time, it was still strong hobby and it was slowly becoming a passion. What really inspired me was when I watched a performance of Sarah Chang playing the Sibelius Violin Concerto. That was when my eyes opened and showed me that the violin can do many things. This motivated me so much as I wanted to get to that level of playing. The more I practiced, the more connected I felt to my instrument.

Tell us about some of your favourite memories of your time at Chetham’s?

There are many! Musical ones include: collaborating with Manchester Collective, participating in all the music courses, and doing interesting chamber music projects with the Barret Due Institute in Norway.

Jazz and curry nights have been the best socials of the year. Muck up day was definitely a highlight too.

How important do you think Chetham’s Symphony Orchestra is for developing the future generations of world-class musicians?

Performing with Chetham’s Symphony Orchestra gives many students the opportunity to play standard orchestral repertoire. It  improves vital listening and communication skills. And it gives students a taste of what orchestral life could be like if as a future job.

Orchestral playing can sometimes be more challenging than solo playing. As a string player, playing in a string section requires heavy amounts of listening for intonation as a collective and not as an individual. The entire string section needs to look synchronized in bowing, as well as what part of the bow they are playing. It is very pleasing to an audience member to see such unity. To an extent, these factors help with individual solo playing too.

What advice would you give to younger students at Chetham’s?

Enjoy every moment of your time at Chetham’s. Cherish the friendships you have. Embrace every musical experience that comes up, and consume as much information you can. Remember to not be too hard on yourself and remember to express yourself as confidently as you can as a musician.

Tell us one musical piece that you would love to play again and why?

I would love to play the Schoenberg Verklarte Nacht with Chetham’s Symphony Orchestra strings. We played it during the last summer music course. It was one of the most challenging works for string ensemble and everyone played with passion and commitment. The energy in the room was electrical and bought tears to a few audience members.

Tell us how you’re feeling about your upcoming performance in The Bridgewater Hall?

I am extremely excited and humbled to perform in The Bridgewater Hall. I am also a little bit sad as it will be my last performance at Chets.

Why did you choose the Korngold violin concerto?

Korngold’s violin concerto is a piece of music filled a variety of unique aspects. It is a concerto that merges the composer’s 20^th century Hollywood film music influences with Western Classical music ideas, one of them being a concerto with a fast-slow-fast structure. These two ideas combined create a space for endless amounts of expressivity and opens the imagination of the performer and the listeners. The Korngold concerto allows me to play to the extremes of my instrument. It is the best piece to show who I am as a musician.

What are your plans for next year/the future?

I will be studying at The Royal College of Music. There are also a couple of exciting musical projects which I will be part of in UK and in South Africa.

Tell us what audiences should expect when you take to the stage with Chetham’s Symphony Orchestra?

A musical journey of your own imagination!

Jordan will perform, with 200 of his fellow students, for Chetham’s Symphony Orchestra and Chorus at The Bridgewater Hall on Friday 8 July.

Book Now

View our full A-level results

Chetham’s A level results are consistently outstanding and this year, our students have enjoyed over three quarters of their results at A*-B with half of their results at A*/A.

But statistics tell only a fraction of the story and the quality of our students’ lives going forward will depend far more on their personal qualities and characters.  Most importantly, there are numerous personal achievements and success stories to celebrate which reflect the outstanding academic, musical and personal progress our students make during their time at Chetham’s.

Five students scored at least 3 A* grades, and four have secured places at Oxford or Cambridge. A further 13 students have secured places at top UK universities including London (University College, King’s College, Royal Holloway, Imperial College), Liverpool, St Andrews, Edinburgh and York to read subjects as diverse as Music, History, Biochemistry, Physics, Medicine, Computer Science, French and Social Policy, Mathematics, and French and Philosophy.

Special mention should go to clarinettist Oliver Burrow, our young soloist for Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto at The Bridgewater Hall last year. Oliver achieved 4 straight A* and will read Biochemistry at Imperial College London. Hot on his tail, pianist Bolin Dai gained 3 A* and an A and will study medicine at Cambridge. Similarly, pianist Solomon-Miles Donnelly achieved 3 A* and an A and will study medicine at Liverpool. Having achieved 4 A* our Head Girl, Josephine Cowley, leaves us to read Physics at Imperial College London and George Herbert, who also gained 3 straight A*, will assume his rightful place as Organ Scholar at St John’s College Cambridge, ten years after he joined Chetham’s as a chorister.

Once again, the majority of students leave us to study at the very best conservatoires in the UK and abroad, many with multiple scholarship offers. Particular mention to trumpeter Holly Clark, who gained three A grades at A level and enjoyed scholarship offers from all her conservatoires – she finally chose to study at the Royal Academy of Music in London!

View our Leavers’ Destinations (2019 updates to follow)

I am sure you will wish to join me in congratulating both my colleagues and our students who now leave us for the next exciting stage of their lives. We wish them every possible success in the future.

Sarah is studying for a PhD at the University of Huddersfield, where she will journey into England’s distant musical past, from 1216 to 1272.  The Musica Britannica Trust Research Award – bestowed after she had submitted a detailed application to the judging panel – will enable her to acquire a costly facsimile edition of surviving repertoire from the Henry III period.  This will be an important aid to her researches, which are supervised by the University of Huddersfield’s Dr Lisa Colton, Reader in Musicology and a leading authority on medieval music.

Set up in 1951, the Trusts core aim is to publish an authoritative national collection of British music.

The project marks the revival of a long-standing ambition to carry out doctoral research into music of the Middle Ages.  Sarah studied music at Oxford in the 1990s and planned to move straight on to a PhD.  But instead, her children came along and she embarked on a teaching career that led to her current post at Chetham’s.

“Now my daughter – former Chetham’s student Molly – is reading music at Cambridge and when she came back for her first vacation she brought a lot of medieval repertoire as holiday work and said ‘I need your help’.  It reignited something that had always been on the back burner and made me think that this is the time,” said Sarah.

“Medieval music was my first love and has always been my greatest interest academically,” she added.

“Because Henry III had such a long reign – politically turbulent at times – there must be more to know about his relationship with music.  He had a lot of chapels and was responsible for the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey,” said Sarah, adding that a considerable quantity of music from the period survives as fragments.

“A lot of it exists intriguingly and sometimes maddeningly as interpolations into miscellanies, so there will be a page of music written into a book that has nothing to do with music.  So it is a question of wondering how it got there,” said Sarah, whose doctoral project will blend cultural history with sound and performance of the 800-year-old repertoire she is investigating.

Interaction in French was the order of the day, despite all Parisians seemingly being pre-programmed to switch into English at the slightest soupçon of Anglo-Saxon infiltration! And despite warnings from the Foreign Office, our attempts to witness the spirit of 1968 reincarnated in the Gilet Jaune protestors were thwarted, alas, as it appears that contemporary French protestors only come out at the weekend!

No Chetham’s trip would be complete without some musical input. A tour of the original (and best, according to most) Opéra Garnier was followed by a trip to see the Orchestre de Paris perform Berlioz’ gargantuan Grande Messe des Morts in his 150^th anniversary year, complete with four brass choirs, ten timpanists and a massed choir of 170!

On a slightly more intimate scale, the final evening was given over to the famous Caveau de la Huchette jazz club recently popularized in the movie La La Land. And never ones to turn down a chance to perform, the students joined an indigenous busker in an impromptu rendition of the unofficial Chets anthem Don’t Look Back in Anger! Despite the impressive improvised harmonies, which are, incidentally, readily available to view on the @ChetsLanguages twitter feed, our participation did nothing to enhance his income, sadly…

Earlier this year, students form the English department saw the National Theatre’s adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse live onstage. Student Jennifer Mei, 13, reviews the show – 100 years after the guns were silenced.

Fact: Puppets are pathetic. Nobody, be he a king or a beggar likes to watch a puppet show. Needless to say, I was not surprised in the slightest when the class chorused in concealed cries, for we were to watch a two-and-a-half hour play with PUPPETS as the main characters. However, humans unearth unexpected wonders all the time, and just as Harry Potter learned about science, then discovered his ‘magic’, we, with our scientific-pathetic-puppet theories, found the ‘magic’ of War Horse.

Although we knew that the puppets in War Horse were wooden and inanimate, we all believed that the horses and goose puppets were alive during the entire tow-and-a-half hours of that fantasy world of the theatre. Even though the puppeteers of the horse named Joey could be have been dressed in clothes more similar to Joey’s colouring and there was a small loss of detail from Joey’s legs – which are meant to be adorned with four white socks – there are not other complaints about the puppets (some of the audience fervently adoring the goose puppet), since very movement and ‘neigh’ of the puppeteers were flawless, causing no small amount of tears.

Not only were the puppets precise, but the actors’ reactions to the puppets was what made the audience empathise, as the actors talked to the puppets as if they were real. Nevertheless, the actors won less praise to my class than the puppets did; I believe this was because the pace was a little lazy (perhaps because of the cast’s familiarity with the play) and the overdramatic reactions of Emily (the French girl) and Frederick (the German soldier), such as shrieking every time they were within four metres of each other.

In spite of this, the actors were admired for their inventive use of a minimalist set, for example, they turned four wooden poles into realistic farmer tools, gates, barriers, and even weapons, with seemingly ache-less arms. In addition to this, the actors used space in an effective way; when they actors froze whilst another scene was being played, the audience was also frozen into silence. Despite this, the audience had mixed feelings on the ‘no more than required’ style cloud in the background which showed the setting of the scene, some saying that it was hard to make out the setting since the cloud was so small, yet the majority agreeing that they enjoyed how bare yet detailed the set was.

Perhaps the set and stage was bare, but the lighting, sounds and special effects were popular among the audience. Even though furious flashes of light and gory gun bangs shocked the audience into horror, this managed to make the audience remember WWI’s gruesome history, which added interest to the play. However, some people found the gunshots crackly which proves that the technology used was not perfect. The again, these people do tend to be the ones nit-picking at the details, since otherwise the costumes and makeup were realistic, especially the long scar on a German soldier and the old fashioned uniforms.

Moreover, the play incorporated symbolic meanings, the most obvious being the blood of the soldiers blooming into poppies on the cloud screen mentioned earlier. Poppies have long been associated with peace in death and resurrection and eternal life, which seems fitting to remember the soldiers’ lives. Another glimpse of symbolism in War Horse is the colour of the horse Joey’s coat which is red, like blood. Could this be foreboding? Joey also represents the effect of war on humanity, for example, in the play, two soldiers argue about Joey, one believing that the horses are better than men and kinder, more heroic, whilst the other counters that they’re simple creatures, “controlled by a very little brain that can’t think beyond food and drink.” War brings out the best and worst of humankind, the heroes, the wretched, the ones trying to survive.

Though War Horse‘s plot was clear and easy to understand thanks to the simple dialect and dates on the background, the opinion of many was that, because there was so much detail in the plot, the clarity of storytelling was a little…unclear. For this reason, narration was suggested by some to add to the story, which would bring the audience a deeper understanding of the brilliant performances.

All in all, War Horse is a priceless, NOT pathetic performance with a thoughtful, stunning flair. And that is a FACT.

Full GCSE results

Leavers’ Destinations

As students across the country collect A-level and GCSE results, Chetham’s are celebrating an outstanding year of academic and musical success.

At A-level

With a 100% pass rate and nearly 80% of A level grades at A*-B, Chetham’s students move on to the best conservatoires and universities in the world with confidence. 55% of the students’ grades were at A*-A – the best score since 2011!

Principal Alun Jones said he was delighted for his students and his staff.

“For students to add such impressive academic results to their already well-developed, high level musical skills is such an outstanding achievement.  Such attainment provides the most perfect conclusion to life at Chetham’s for these super young people – we wish them every possible success and happiness.”

At GCSE

Chetham’s students joined the national cohort taking some of the new ‘reformed’ GCSEs this year and have enjoyed over half of their results at Grade 9-7 or A*-A, including Music, which was taken a year or two early.

Principal Alun Jones said he was

“Pleased for his students and colleagues at a time when we have seen such change and the inevitable impact of the significant reduction, or cutting altogether, of coursework. In French & German, for example, in which we have seen coursework cut from 60% to zero, students achieved 56% of their grades at 9-7 in French and 89% of their grades at 9-7 in German. This is particularly pleasing at a time when we read of a decline nationally in those choosing to study such languages at A Level”.

Whilst the students achieved 93.5% of their grades at 9-4 or A*-C, there have also been some outstanding individual performances. Particular congratulations to pianist Geordie Campbell who enjoyed all his subjects at Grade 9 or A* and an A in Additional Mathematics!

Conservatoires and higher education

Following conservatoire auditions during the autumn, the majority of Chetham’s students will continue directly to leading music colleges including the Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Royal Northern College of Music and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland as well as top colleges abroad. Among these students, many have received scholarships and bursaries recognising their musical ability, and a number have been invited to progress directly to the second year of conservatoire teaching – testament both to their own commitment, and to the quality of musical preparation which they enjoy at Chetham’s. In many cases they enter conservatoire with superb A-level results as well as musical talent – pianist Dominika Mak joins the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with three A*s and an A, whilst seven of her peers – Rachel Fairhurst, Olivia Gandee, Harry Harrison, Esme Lewis, Anna Maran and Henry Rubiano Poveda – also collected two or more A*s among their grades.

For a smaller number, superb individual A-level results open doors to academic careers. Leavers with academic destinations in mind include Michael Arnold, a pianist from Leicester, who’ll read Engineering at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, with four A*s and an A; and LucyAnne Fletcher, a horn player and singer from Altrincham, who’ll join Merton College, Oxford, to read English and History. Joining her at Oxford is Ben Collyer, from Stockport, who’ll take up an Organ Scholarship at Christ Church College. Ben – who received School prizes for both Keyboard and Academic Music, and who achieved his ARCO Diploma alongside fellow organists George Herbert and Tammas Slater in 2018 – epitomises Chetham’s unique offering of both musical and academic excellence.

Complementary skills for top-level careers

Occasionally, visitors to Chetham’s express surprise when they encounter the classrooms and laboratories that fill its top two floors. With musical talent in abundance, what need, they wonder, have these young people of academic success? That answer can be given with a brief look at Chetham’s alumni, whose ability to combine musical excellence with skills in leadership, communications and financial management have seen them thrive across the musical world and beyond.

In today’s environment, with most musicians spending at least part of their careers in self employment, emerging performers must learn to manage and market themselves to stand out in a crowded sector. Academic learning gives musicians both the practical skills to succeed as both performers and influencers, and a deeper understanding of the world in which they play, helping them to interpret and explore society through their art.

Stephen Hough, frequently described as a Renaissance man and polymath, has built a rich career as a composer, painter and writer as well as one of the world’s leading classical pianist. He blogs for The Telegraph, published his first novel, The Final Retreat, in 2018, and received a MacArthur Fellowship or ‘Genius Grant’ in 2001 for his music.

Sam Shepherd, aka Floating Points, gained a PhD in neuroscience and epigenetics after leaving Chetham’s, where he was a chorister and pianist. Rumoured to have DJ’d in New York nightclubs from his school bedroom, he’s since built a hugely successful career in electronic music out of his classical and Jazz roots, and a recent project saw him performing live electronics alongside an 11-piece orchestra.

Prishita Maheshwari-Aplin was the youngest ever shortlisted candidate for a Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize whilst still at Chetham’s, aged 16. Now 21, she graduated in Biological Anthropology from Cambridge where she also played first violin in the University Chamber Orchestra. Prishita was named a Female Groundbreaker by The Independent for her work as director of NGO, the Cambridge Development Initiative, which works with partners in Tanzania to tackle key development issues through innovative, community-driven projects.

Roger Wright was among the first music students at Chetham’s, where he played the cello. After graduating in music from Royal Holloway, he went on to become Head of Classical Music at the BBC, and later Controller of Radio 3 and Director of the BBC Proms. Today, he’s Chief Executive of Aldeburgh Music and received a CBE in 2015.

Thangam Debbonnaire was elected MP for Bristol West in 2015. After Chetham’s she studied mathematics at Oxford alongside the cello at the Royal College of Music, and performed professionally with ensembles including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic before becoming an active campaigner against domestic violence and eventually entering Parliament. In her first interview after election she expressed enthusiasm for establishing a Westminster String Quartet, and credited classical music with helping in her recovery from breast cancer in 2016.

“Right in the centre of an insignificant planet, in an insignificant country, in an insignificant city, there is an average sized building in which less-than-average-sized-humans make loud noises for a few years and then leave. It is known on earth as ‘Chetham’s School of Music.’ One can go visit this place, however it is not advisable as being in close proximity to its inhabitants for more than an hour can cause chronic diseases such as a ‘longing for something other than what is known as ‘classical music’’ and ‘oh my gosh why can’t the violas just play in tune-itis’.

Some of the inhabitants of this school choose to leave their families and ‘board’ (board- a wooden plank usually used as flooring.) When an inhabitant ‘boards’ or becomes a ‘boarder’ (boarder- like a hoarder but with a b) they are no longer allowed to do as they please and in effect become prisoners. The guards (known as ‘house staff’) prevent the inhabitants from leaving at inappropriate times and subject them to strange rituals such as the ‘wake up call’ (this is when one particular ‘house staff member’ will punch an entrance/exit slab (known on earth as a ‘door’) three times whilst screaming ‘good morning’ in as bland a tone as possible in as much the same style as a foghorn.) Nobody really knows the exact translation of these words but interstellar translators believe that it is something like ‘Run away small humans before a large bulldozer decides to run over you.’

The inhabitants of the school are also subject to the most cruel torture currently allowed in the galaxy. On Earth this is known as ‘School dinners’. (This type of torture is much like the experience of having your left eye prodded with a fork covered in tabasco sauce.) The leader of these less-than-average-height-humans is a strange being, known for his oddly large collection of plaid shirts. Some say that he comes from a far off land, known as ‘chchchcgcghgahahagghaaogochedygoch’ locally known as ‘Wales.’ This gives him a curious tendency to speak with as much phlegm in the back of his throat as is humanly possible without drowning. He lives life on the culinary edge by foregoing boring old ‘cheese-on-toast’ in favour of the exotic delights of ‘Welsh Rarebit’ (when running out of Rarebit, he finds that ‘cheese-on-toast’ makes a perfectly acceptable substitute.) Besides this he also has a rather unhealthy fixation for close harmony singing. Despite all this, he is a rather reliable being, who always knows where his towel is.

Also working at the school is a mysterious Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, currently in disguise as a ‘musical director.’ He thinks that nobody has noticed yet, but the waving of his sonic screwdriver to keep the noise makers playing has given himself away. Other than this strange leader and undercover Time Lord there are a number of older-more-average-height-humans known as ‘teachers.’ These beings possess large amounts of information in a particular subject and are able to remember lots of facts in the same way that a spoon cannot. Another little known fact about the school is that it is actually a cover up for a huge strepsil smuggling operation in the schools ‘medical centre’ (medical centre – the middle of me two cals.)

If you do decide to visit the school then please be careful not to be kidnapped by the nargles and whobits. And of course, don’t forget your towel.”

Great work, Sophie – and we don’t think we’ll ever look at Mr Jones or Mr Threlfall in the same way again…