Annual Review 2019 | 2020

LEADING BY EXAMPLE Annual Review 2019/20 www.stmarysmusicschool.co.uk

ST M ARY ’ S M USIC SCHO OL

Annual Review 2019/20

CONTENTS 1 A lasting impression | Sofia Ros González, Alumna 2 The case for creativity | Keir Bloomer, Independent Education Consultant & Dr Kenneth Taylor, Headteacher 4 Rising to the challenge | Highlights of 2019/20 6 The impact of giving | Kat Heathcote, Board Member 7 A focus on philanthropy | Mary Hutcheson Violin Scholarship & Anne McFarlane Teaching Fund 8 Building the voice | Judy Louie Brown, Professional Mezzo-Soprano 9 Our financial performance | Income, expenditure and fee funding for 2019/20

“I am really grateful to have had the privilege of being a pupil at St Mary’s Music School. We often talk about supporting each other and I think it’s fundamental to understand that everyone comes from a different past. The way you play your instrument doesn’t define you as a person – you are not here to judge or be judged. You are here to learn and grow, as a musician and as a person.

You shouldn’t be afraid of being fragile, because that makes you resilient. Don’t let disappointment indelibly mark you, but use it to become the person you want to be. Kindness is a true gift. Being a nice person takes effort and energy, every day, so keep fighting. Fight for your rights and fight even more for other people’s rights. Be curious, be critical, be inclined to listen to opinions – especially if they contrast with your own. Be more than the amazing musician you already are.

St Mary’s Music School is a big small family. I owe a lot to this school; I’m not exaggerating when I say I owe my future to it.”

Greta Bommarito (Head of School 2019/20)

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Annual Review 2019/20

A LASTING IMPRESSION Sofia Ros González

Since the age of nine, Sofia has won national and international music competitions in her home country of Spain as well as in Italy, Germany and Scotland. A pupil at St Mary’s Music School for four years and the winner of the 2020 Directors’ Recital Prize, she is now in her first year at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, studying accordion. She reflects on her time at the School and her hopes for the future.

“My first introduction to the School was when I was 13. Through the RCS summer school in Glasgow I met Djordje Gajic, who became and still is my accordion teacher, and he told my parents about this music school in Edinburgh… so we went to visit. I’d never seen anything like it before – a boarding music school – I thought it was amazing!

because of COVID-19. My teacher Djordje Gajic and his wife, Andrea Gajic, who also taught Momo, have an accordion and violin duo called Ad Libitum, so they were real role models for us.

It was hard going home in March for lockdown. I was preparing for competitions in Germany and Serbia as well as other school projects and suddenly it was all gone. But you have to find your motivation and the School was really supportive – having performance classes and lessons online really helped; it made it enjoyable and kept me connected. When I discovered I was a finalist in the Directors’ Recital Prize, and that the finalists would record at the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s centre in Glasgow, I thought what do I do? So I contacted a recording studio in Spain and we recorded in a beautiful church near my home. I’d never done a recording so professionally before – it was good to learn from it, to get experience for the future. I played Scarlatti’s Sonata K.141 in D minor and Alfred Schnittke’s Gogol Suite, arranged

by Yury Shishkin for accordion. The Gogol Suite was originally written for orchestra and is based on Gogol’s book Dead Souls, which I read during lockdown. Shishkin transcribed four of the movements for accordion. I didn’t know about this music before I read the book so I thought let’s turn the sadness of lockdown into a positive experience; I gave myself a goal and time to really learn the piece.

There is nothing like this in Spain and going to St Mary’s Music School was like entering a different world. It’s so small, it’s more like being in a big family; everyone knows each other really well, sees each other every day and there’s this great connection.

So I didn’t get homesick. Music takes priority at the School but you get so much support with everything else. I came in S3 so had a year and a half to get used to the language and help with all my academic subjects before the exams started. I love languages so I studied French, Italian and German in addition to Music in my final year. All of the teachers – music and academic – are really inspiring. I remember when I came for my audition I had prepared a Bach Prelude and Fugue and was warming up in the chapel. John Cameron came in, sat down at the piano and started accompanying me.

I was amazed. How could he just sit down and do that?

But I soon discovered that he learns everything, plays everything and accompanies everyone!

Looking to the future, I’d like to play in youth concerts in as many countries as possible – that’s the plan for the next five to ten years – small ensembles, chamber music, solo performances, playing with an orchestra if I can. When I’m older, I’d like to teach in a conservatoire too.”

When I first arrived, there were two other first-study accordionists – they’re both here at the RCS now – and a second-study accordionist, so all four of us played together a lot, which was really good fun. I like playing with other instrumentalists too and formed a duo with Momo Ueda, a first-study violinist. We had lots of projects planned but sadly they didn’t come off

“Since I was small, I’ve known I would do something related to music. St Mary’s Music School was definitely the right place for me, and an amazing opportunity. The pupils who are here now should make the most of it every day – I’d go back and do it all again!”

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Annual Review 2019/20

THE CASE FOR CREATIVITY Keir Bloomer and Dr Kenneth Taylor

Keir Bloomer is an independent education consultant with a career dedicated to school education as a teacher, trade union official, director of education and local authority chief executive. He was one of the architects of Curriculum for Excellence. Dr Kenneth Taylor is Headteacher of St Mary’s Music School. Under his leadership, the School is becoming a major influencer of music education in the UK and has a vision to establish itself as the national music school for Scotland. Keir and Ken share their thoughts on the role of creativity in education and the place of a specialist music school in the education landscape.

“Creative arts subjects are not only beneficial to the wellbeing of young people but also make a significant contribution to their cognitive development too – and this is particularly true of music. I’m always slightly suspicious of very big abstract nouns but I do think that ‘creativity’ in any walk of life or in any discipline is important.

“A good education system should provide ways in which young people can progress as far as their interest and aptitude will take them...”

To me, a specialist school like St Mary’s Music School, has a very secure rationale because, quite simply, once you have reached a certain level of competency, you require a variety of people to take you further.

Having a music teacher who is ‘quite good’ is not enough. That’s why, in Scotland, we are extremely fortunate to have not only St Mary’s Music School but also four other Centres of Excellence*. A good education system should provide ways in which young people can progress as far as their interest and aptitude will take them, but matters of scale come into play. It would be fair to assume that most schools could support this progress in relation to core subjects, but you need to have a concentration of interest in a particular subject to be able to progress to excellence and you’re unlikely to find that in subjects which have smaller uptakes or diverse specialisms, such as instrumental teaching.

The creative industries are a large and growing sector of the national economy so I’ve always believed that the creative arts have an important place in the curriculum. One of the challenges the curriculum in Scotland faces is that it bulges in S1, S2, and S3 and then narrows at S4 with pupils focusing on the core subjects in which they will sit exams. This somewhat damages the opportunity to follow optional subjects, such as music or art or sport, which may not be an exam choice but can still deliver huge benefits to young people as they mature.

I think it’s vital that education takes account of ‘intellectual residue’ and ‘cultural residue’ – that is to say, ensuring that young people have an experience of different subjects, and accumulate a certain amount of knowledge and skill, that will serve them well later in life, whether or not they pursue those subjects to exam level or beyond. Creative arts subjects are fundamental to this. However, there’s a powerful vocational element in secondary education today – not through vocational subjects per se, but through education being seen as part of a continuum of making people employable – beyond S4, creative arts subjects can suffer as they often aren’t seen to lead to occupations beyond themselves. We need to change that – Art is now a subject around which there is more understanding of job prospects, in disciplines such graphic design for example, and we need to do the same for Music and for Drama.

At a school like St Mary’s Music School, the instrumental teachers are performers and practitioners; they’re still perfecting their technique, still extending their repertoire. That relationship between teaching, practice and learning is a very healthy one. To an extent, it reflects what happens at universities where knowledge is created and not simply purveyed.”

Keir Bloomer * Music School of Douglas Academy, The City of Edinburgh Music School, Aberdeen City Music School and Sgoil Chiùil na Gàidhealtachd (National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music) at Plockton High School, Highlands.

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Annual Review 2019/20

Academically, we do not compromise. The School measures up well to the six strands of the National Improvement Framework and we have an excellent team of academic subject teachers; year on year our pupils flourish and deliver excellent exam results.

We insist on a good range of qualifications so that our pupils have choices in the future – music isn’t the only area in which they can succeed. Many go on to both perform and teach, fuelling the creative economy and sharing their excellence more widely.

“Music represents an opportunity for young people to express their ideas, work as a team, gain confidence, become disciplined and see how focused study can deliver tangible results.

Children have just as much ability to focus as adults and music provides a handle for that.

Creativity means being able to think your way around or through a situation and that can apply to almost any academic pursuit and almost any aspect of life.

The specific process of learning to play an instrument delivers great cognitive benefits – developing fine motor skills, learning a different language, thinking in a different way. It’s true that not everyone is going to become a specialist – in music or any other subject – but everyone can make progress and enjoy the learning process. I believe music should be accessible to all school children and, in Scotland, the Youth Music Initiative gives every child the opportunity to learn an instrument for a year. For those who decide to continue their music studies, one of the successes of the Scottish curriculum is the large number of children who progress from an initial interest right through to Advanced Higher.

“St Mary’s Music School is part of a wider eco-system and we take our responsibility for widening music education very seriously.”

We constantly explore new ways to increase our activity and engagement with other schools. As a specialist music school we are lucky to be able to work with eminent musicians from around the world and we extend that opportunity to others whenever we can, for example, through our masterclass programme. Now, four times a year, music teachers and young musicians across Scotland can experience teaching from world-class musicians; when I arrived here, the School’s masterclasses weren’t open to other people so that’s something we’ve changed to help enhance music provision across Scotland.

Similarly, our Scottish Chamber Orchestra partnership enables pupils from all over Scotland to work with like-minded young musicians on a Sunday afternoon, benefitting from instruction by SCO professionals in high-level repertoire.

There are a small number of young people who need music in their lives every day; that’s why we are here.

The advantage of being a specialist music school is that musical development is integral and the children are part of a musical community. At St Mary’s Music School, the concentration of excellent music teaching, integrated into every pupil’s timetable every day, ensures children have the opportunity to make optimal progress. With a team of experts around them, there’s nothing to stop our pupils from achieving excellence.

The national picture is, perhaps, a bit more hit and miss, as the standard of teaching across schools is inevitably more variable. It happens in other subjects too – being a specialist school takes that element of chance away for young musicians.

The education of our own pupils is an incredibly rich process – but the responsibility to share our work in music is critical. It’s important that people know who are and what we do, and that we find imaginative ways to support the music education of young people right across Scotland. Our new Head of Strings, Dr Valerie Pearson, has a dedicated responsibility to develop our outward-facing activities. She’ll be working on various collaborations, ranging from the Benedetti Foundation to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

That’s really exciting.”

The School also provides an opportunity for performance to become natural – not just an end of term event or an isolated experience in a competition or exam situation.

This is critical for a young person’s musical future and here it’s something our pupils do day in, day out.

We don’t want musicians perfecting their craft alone in the practice room – the whole purpose of music is for humans to communicate, sharing something tangible and wonderful.

Dr Kenneth Taylor

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ST M ARY ’ S M USIC SCHO OL

Annual Review 2019/20

RISING TO THE CHALLENGE Highlights of 2019/20 SCHOOL ROLL 2019/20

EXAM RESULTS 2019/20

100% pass rate

79 pupils (51 day pupils and 28 boarders)

• Senior instrumentalists 56

• Junior instrumentalists 6

• Senior choristers

7

• Junior choristers

10

across all exams SQA National 5

88% at A

SQA Higher

79% at A

PUPIL ORIGINS 2019/20

SQA Advanced Higher

92% at A

Scotland (69)

Edinburgh 43 | Scottish Borders 2

Dumfries & Galloway 1 | Glasgow 1

East Lothian 6 | West Lothian 2 Midlothian 3 | Fife 2 | Perth & Kinross 2

Highlands & Islands 2 | Banffshire 1

Aberdeen 2 | Argyll & Bute 2

Cambridge PreU Music

80% at distinction

Cambridge iGCSE Music

80% at ‘A’ equivalent – grades 7-9

England (1) Lincolnshire 1

ATCL Diploma

Overseas (9) Spain 5 | France 1 | Italy 1 | Germany 2

During 2019/20, our

Distinction (Flute)

masterclass programme featured world-class musicians

including Adam Walker (flute), Nicolas Altstaedt (cello), Lawrence Power (viola), Steven Osborne (piano), Will Conway (conducting), Danny Driver (piano), Sue Baxendale (French horn), Stewart Forbes (saxophone), David Gerard (harpsichord), Nic Pendlebury (viola), Alan Neave (guitar) and Gareth Williams (composition).

Art & Design | Biology | Chemistry | English | ESOL | French

INSTRUMENTAL & MUSIC TEACHING

Geography | German | History | Italian | Latin | Mathematics

Piano (Classical & Jazz) | Violin | Viola

Modern Studies | Music | PE | Physics | RME | Spanish

Cello | Double Bass | Oboe | Flute | Clarinet

SUBJECT TEACHING

Bassoon | Trumpet | French Horn | Trombone Saxophone (Classical & Jazz) | Percussion

SCHOOL CLUBS

(Classical) | Harp | Clarsach | Bagpipes

Book Club | Gardening Club | Science Club | Running Club

Accordion (Classical & Traditional) |

Scottish Mathematical Challenge | Debating Group

Guitar (Classical) | Organ | Harpsichord

Eco-Schools Club | Scripture Union

Composition | Alexander Technique

Voice (Classical)

We sustained our Eco credentials, with our Eco-Schools Green Flag status being renewed for the fifth time.

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S T MAR Y ’S M U S I C S C H OOL

Annual Review 2019/20

partnership programme

We continued to deliver and expand our and were joined by the Maxwell Quartet, who delivered our Strings Day, and by Reuben Phillips who delivered a Brahms Workshop; our pupils also enjoyed a Beethoven Seminar provided by the University of Edinburgh and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and a presentation from Scottish Opera on Nixon in China by John Adams. Several of our pupils participated in Nicola Benedetti’s Dundee Super Strings Day, and the session saw further development of our String and Wind Academies in association with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

The Choir of St Mary’s Cathedral recorded a CD (Kenneth Leighton’s Sacred Choral Works) for Delphian Records and, for the first time, we filmed the Director’s Recital Prize in partnership with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

PERFORMING, LISTENING & LEARNING IN 2019/20 We gave

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PERFORMANCES

We attended

MUSICAL COLLABORATIONS St Mary’s Cathedral Choir | National Children’s Orchestra | Edinburgh Youth Orchestra National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland | Tommy Smith Youth Jazz Orchestra National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain | Scottish Opera

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‘UNMISSABLE’ CONCERTS IN SCOTLAND We performed in

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National Youth Choirs of Scotland | SCO String Academy

SCO ACADEMY SUNDAY CLASSES

LEAVERS’ DESTINATIONS 2019/20

Scotland

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (Accordion; Cello) University of St Andrews (Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry)

England

University of Cambridge, King’s College (Music) University of Cambridge, Trinity College (Mathematics) University of Cambridge, Emmanuel College (Music) University of Durham, St Chad’s College (Music) University of Oxford, Christ Church College (Music) University of Oxford, St Hilda’s College (Music – deferred place) Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (Harpsichord) Royal College of Music (Violin) Royal Northern College of Music (Violin; Piano)

Wales

We took part in

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MASTERCLASSES

During Term 3, all these activities happened online and over the course of the year 399 pupils and teachers from other schools attended four of our masterclasses.

Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (Piano; Guitar)

international development programme,

In October 2019, as part of our Dr Kenneth Taylor (Headteacher), John Cameron (Assistant Director of Music and Head of Keyboard) and Fiona Duncan (Marketing Manager) were invited to Malaysia to meet with government officials and representatives from schools and universities to discuss the future of specialist music education in the country. As part of the visit, Dr Taylor spoke at the Music Education for the 21st Century conference, which was held over three days, and John Cameron delivered a number of demonstration performance and coaching classes.

outreach and engagement programme,

As part of our and in response to restrictions imposed by the pandemic, we delivered our Piano Summer School online for the first time, welcoming eight pupils from Hong Kong, Dubai and the UK to a five-day course of interactive sessions, one-to-one lessons and performance classes, including masterclasses from internationally renowned pianists Steven Osborne and Danny Driver.

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Annual Review 2019/20

THE IMPACT OF GIVING Kat Heathcote, Board Member

which the School’s pupils performed. Experiencing their talent first-hand, guests immediately saw the importance of having the right instruments in place.

Within weeks, we raised the necessary funds and, as a direct result, St Mary’s Music School is now developing a relationship with Steinway & Sons with a view to becoming an accredited Steinway School.

“Inspiring philanthropic support for the School is critical – people like to give and are willing to give. To tap into that you need to be able to demonstrate, in real terms, the impact that their gift will have.”

Philanthropy is a very Scottish thing and I find that people who do well in Scotland like to share; Scottish people are genuinely open-handed and open-minded.

Philanthropic gifts work best when you’re specific about the need – instruments, a new floor in the concert hall, travel costs to attend concerts or auditions – supporting these real needs will change and enrich lives. By introducing prospective supporters to our pupils, taking them to our concerts, showing them the instrument they’ve helped to purchase being played, we create a rich connection to the life of the School and make their contribution very real.

“I absolutely believe in what the School does. In other schools, music is an addition – at St Mary’s Music School, it is fundamental. The pupils are around like-minded people every day so their inner musicianship is constantly played to; they start to see themselves as musicians as opposed to school children who like playing an instrument.

When my daughter was 13, she was on an Edinburgh Youth Orchestra course and sat next to two girls from the School. She came home that evening full of enthusiasm about St Mary’s Music School so we did some investigation, she auditioned and she got in.

Eight years later, she’s just graduated from The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. As a parent, I became – and remain – a committed supporter of the School through Witherbys Publishing Group Charitable Trust. Funded by a proportion of our business profits to support arts and sport in Scotland, our philosophy is to give only where we can make a real difference. St Mary’s Music School is a case in point.

Joining the Board was a natural step and I feel we’ve got real firepower. The School’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been superb and I’m excited by the potential of our new business plan and the opportunity to build on that over the coming year.

I’m particularly keen to see the School’s outreach programme develop and grow. To produce the musicians of the future and make a valuable contribution to the nation’s creative pipeline, you need to engage children in music from the youngest age. I’d like to see our Senior School pupils take their pleasure in music out to other children in other schools, other youth orchestras, across the country. St Mary’s Music School is one of five specialist music schools in the UK, funded by government and offering up to 100% support to access the finest music training; it’s vital that we use our resources to play our part in the wider community.

There is a genuine need to support the School in order to develop these incredibly talented young musicians.

The School’s pupils are the least elite bunch of people you could wish to meet – but they are elite musicians and they do need the right resources and the right environment to enable them to achieve their potential.

Talent does not come armed with money and music can be an expensive business; I think it’s important to lead by example and to make giving pleasurable. Last year, we helped the School raise over £120,000 to purchase a new Steinway Model B piano – a muchneeded instrument for practice and performance.

Our Trust put down the first £50,000 and we hosted a reception on board the Royal Yacht Britannia at

Kat Heathcote is the Commercial Director of Witherbys Publishing Group, the parent of a former instrumental pupil and a Board Director since 2017. She has specific interests in fundraising and philanthropy and orchestrated the campaign to raise money for the purchase of a new Steinway Model B piano in 2019. Kat is pictured with Dr Taylor and her husband, Iain Macneil, Company Founder and fellow WPG Trustee.

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Annual Review 2019/20

A FOCUS ON PHILANTHROPY The Mary Hutcheson Violin Scholarship

The Anne McFarlane Teacher of Singing Fund

Our Scholarship Fund allows us to support up to twenty young people every year. Young people with exceptional musical talent come from all kinds of backgrounds and we firmly believe that financial constraint should never be a barrier to exploring a passion for music and developing skills to their full potential. The School is therefore deeply grateful to David Hutcheson and John Irvine who, in 2020, established the Mary Hutcheson Violin Scholarship, in memory of David’s mother, to nurture exceptional talent and provide vital support for the next generation of gifted young violinists.

Our Teaching Fund enables us to ensure that we can recruit, retain and reward the most gifted and inspiring teachers across both academic and music subjects. In the first year of the Fund, Libby Crabtree is the Anne McFarlane Teacher of Singing at St Mary’s Music School and she reflects on how singing teaching has been delivered, despite the current restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The children have adapted well to all their singing lessons being delivered via Zoom. Everyone has 30 minutes – longer would be trickier to sustain – and we usually spend 10 minutes or so on technique and warming up the voice. It’s a little slower than a face-to-face lesson would be – particularly for children who are getting to grips with reading notes and sight-singing – but generally speaking Zoom lessons have been really successful. With the suspension of Cathedral services, I’ve taken the opportunity to teach other repertoire – secular as well as sacred.

Mary Hutcheson (1904-1972) was a gifted amateur musician, showing early ability in the violin. Brought up in Hawick in the Scottish Borders, Mary’s family had a home in London too and took a house in Bournemouth each summer; in her twenties, Mary played with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

She married in 1931 and settled in Hawick, enthusiastically joining in amateur music making and performances there. After the war, Mary and her husband opened a hotel in Gullane, where professional musicians such as Paul Beard (leader of the BBC Orchestra) as well as many musical friends holidayed and many lively performances of chamber music took place. Mary particularly loved the Beethoven violin sonatas and works by Mozart and Schubert and, early in her life, her father had bought her a fine violin by Nicolo Amati, Cremona, 1676. This was her principal instrument throughout her life and after her death was sold by Christie’s for a then record sum, in order that it continue to be played and cherished.

The children are used to constantly singing new pieces for Evensong so we’ve been spending more time on individual pieces, working on singing with confidence as a soloist. That has been really valuable as many of them now have pieces that are really polished and performance ready. The only danger with Zoom is the tendency to ‘sing to the camera’, which might compromise volume and projection.

I’ve tried to insist on each pupil standing and looking beyond the laptop or tablet.”

The full extent of the School’s work is only made possible through the generous philanthropy of trusts, foundations, organisations and individuals. This support not only helps to bridge our annual funding gap, but also allows us to enrich the music experience we offer our pupils, to recruit exceptional teachers and to share our music making as widely as possibly through our extensive community engagement programme.

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Annual Review 2019/20

BUILDING THE VOICE

Judy Louie Brown, Professional Mezzo-Soprano

Judy Louie Brown joined St Mary’s Music School as a chorister when she was 12, becoming an instrumentalist (voice, clarsach and piano) at 14. Now based in London, Judy is in constant demand as a professional singer whose repertoire includes early, classical and contemporary music for mezzo-soprano/contralto. An experienced recitalist, consort, opera and oratorio singer, she is also a passionate and committed teacher and has recently embarked on an initiative to promote and support good mental health for young singers.

“Music can channel and focus energy in a way that excites the brain. If there is music in you, it’s always trying to get out and the key is to find that channel, that extra energy.

If you know you’re a musician, it’s your identity – it’s part of your genetic make-up and it never goes away.”

How did your time at St Mary’s Music School shape your future as a professional musician?

“I was very disruptive as a child but I just loved singing – I sang all the time and my parents didn’t know what to do with me. A family friend took me to Saturday Music Classes at the School, which I adored, and the Head at the time told me to audition as a chorister.

It was a baptism of fire and by the end of my first term I was on tour in Germany! Everyone was incredibly kind to me and, after two years, I auditioned to become a full-time instrumentalist. The nature of the School is to see potential – they believed I was worth investing in and that taught me to believe in myself. When your classmates are extraordinary musicians you have to learn to swim at the same speed! I studied under Margaret Aronson and she treated me like a professional – and expected me to behave like a professional – from day one. She focused on two things – learning the notes and building the voice. A sculptor sees what is in the stone and focuses on bringing that out; Margaret does the same with the singer and the voice.”

As well as your busy performing career, you’re passionate about teaching. What drives you?

“Kodály said that if you employ a bad music teacher the music will die away, and that’s so true. The damage you can do if you tell someone the wrong thing or don’t spot issues means that teaching is a huge responsibility – it took me a long time to start because of that.

In singing there is a secret language and you need to unlock that concept – if you can’t make the wrong sounds in a room with your teacher, when can you?

We learn as much from what we get wrong as what we get right so the reward as a teacher, of seeing real development, is exceptionally gratifying.”

Why do you think a specialist music education is important?

You talk about seeing ‘the whole person’ when you teach – is this what inspired your interest in mental health?

“I have incredible and very fond memories of those early years and I’ll do whatever I can to give something back – to try and make sure that every child, who has music as part of their DNA, has the same opportunities that I did. Today, I meet so many people in the music industry who came through one of the specialist music schools – those schools created an environment that allowed them to flourish. No one is excluded so it’s a true meritocracy, founded solely on ability. Musicians who find themselves in these schools thrive – if music is innate within you and you are surrounded by people like you, there is a sense of security and assurance; you become enveloped in something that helps to build your confidence in who you are – it liberates you to be the best version of yourself.”

“Yes, absolutely. I’m involved in an exciting new project with a friend, who is a counsellor and clinical psychologist, to provide mental health support for young singers. Investing in good mental health at a young age is invaluable. We all need to be able to articulate what is going on inside our heads and, for singers, it can be especially challenging because of that unique vulnerability you have when your voice is your identity - learning to deal with criticism and competition and the effect that the mind has on the voice are what we want to focus on. I’m really excited about how we develop this and go on to arm young singers with the tools they need to develop their mental fortitude.”

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Annual Review 2019/20

OUR FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE Summary financial report for 2019/20 Figures in tables are expressed in £000

INCOME SUMMARY 2019/20

• School fees and other charitable activities

£1,950

77%

• Donations and legacies

£454

18%

• CJRS (Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme) Grant

£61

2%

• Trading activities

£40

2%

• Interest from investments

£31

1%

Total

£2,536

Scottish Government Aided Place Scheme support of around £1.37million was received.

Donations of £454,000 were received from over 100 donors, trusts and foundations.

The lockdown in March 2020 caused a reduction in income from boarding fees and trading activities.

EXPENDITURE SUMMARY 2019/20

• Teaching Costs

£1,319

54%

• Operational costs

£847

35%

• Boarding costs

£254

10%

• Professional costs

£11

1%

Total

£2,431

Income losses during lockdown were balanced by tight control of operational costs over the closure period.

Five public masterclasses, funded through endowments and donor support, took place.

Not included in the figures above, the Steinway School project started with the purchase of our first Boston Upright Piano; further piano purchases were delayed due to COVID-19.

SCHOOL FEE FUNDING

• Scottish Government Aided Places Scheme

• Affordable contribution from parents and guardians £448

23%

• Financial assistance from School funds

£108

5%

•S t Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral Choral Scholarship Foundation

£60

3%

Total

£1,984

£1,368

69%

96% of pupils received financial support of between 15% and 100% of fees.

14% of pupils received full fee support, with 15% of pupils receiving assistance with travel, uniform and meal costs.

Donations to the Bursary Fund, received from 13 donors and trusts, helped to support 14 pupils.

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PERFECT HARMONY The Perfect Harmony Development Board was founded to promote the shared ambitions of St Mary’s Music School and the Royal High School Preservation Trust (RHSPT) to repurpose the old Royal High School building on Calton Hill as a world-class centre for music education and public performance, accessible to all.

In October 2020, Scottish Ministers finally rejected plans to turn the building into a boutique hotel.

Now, we can look forward to a highly collaborative process involving the Trust, the School and the City of Edinburgh Council. The Perfect Harmony Development Board will play a role in helping to bring their ideas and aspirations together.

Dunard Fund has pledged in excess of £36m towards this project 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.

The Perfect Harmony Development Board will act as an interface between the new school and the community, 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.

Carol Nimmo, Chair, Perfect Harmony Development Board

OUR BOARD Jo Elliot (Chair), Fiona Akers (appointed November 2020), Jo Buckley, Graham Burnside, John Conway, James Cook (retired December 2020), Sarah Davidson (appointed November 2019), Kat Heathcote, Alistair Hector, Jamie Munn (appointed June 2020), John Reid and Neil Short (retired December 2020).

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 All images and text © St Mary’s Music School 2020 unless otherwise stated.

Design by IL Design | Words by Allison Traynor | Photography by Helena Cooke, Fiona Duncan, Sally Jubb and Paul Raeburn.

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