Music

Director of Music: Joanne Armstrong

Music is a major part of life at Fettes, and the school is well-known both for the quality and quantity of music on offer. This year around 50% of pupils in the school are taking instrumental lessons, amounting to well over 350 lessons each week. The Music Department runs two orchestras and three choirs, together with numerous smaller chamber groups. Each term the school holds one major concert at a large venue in the city, together with smaller chamber concerts and more informal coffee concerts held in school, usually at lunchtimes.  Visiting musicians and members of our own team of Instructors regularly give recitals in school, added to which pupils have the opportunity to sample some of the many concerts, musicals and operas on offer in Scotland's capital city on a regular basis.

Working in the department there are three full-time members of staff, a College Organist, a Music Secretary and almost thirty visiting instrumental teachers who teach all of the major orchestral instruments, together with piano, organ, clarsach, guitars, singing and composition. During the course of a working week more than two-thirds of the school will be involved in a musical activity of some kind. We pride ourselves in the opportunities that are available for musicians at Fettes, and we now rank as one of the premier independent schools for music in Scotland. The College boasts two choirs in the Senior School, the Concert Choir (a Choral Society of more than one hundred and thirty members) and the Chapel Choir, which together with two orchestras (an 80 piece Symphony Orchestra and a smaller Chamber Orchestra) give more than 200 musicians weekly opportunities to play or to sing. During the Spring Term, the Concert Choir joins forces with the Parents', Staff and Friends' Choir (50 voices) to perform a major choral work at a large venue in the city. Recently the Chapel Choir has toured in the United Kingdom, the United States and Austria. 

The school offers Music Scholarships and Organ Scholarships to boys and girls with musical potential into all years of the school from 8 to 16 years of age.

The Director of Music will be pleased to answer any questions or queries that you may have. She can be contacted in the Music Department directly on +44 (0)131 311 6706, or you can email Joanne Armstrong at: music@fettes.com.