Spring / Summer 2026 music thread

My young musician is very excited to get a new "instrument" for the next academic year - pointe shoes! 😂 Delayed for two years due to the unplanned change of school, forced re-adjustment of priorities, moving away from ballet schools etc... It feels bittersweet but hey-ho, life goes on :)

From ucas

I thought that too @herbaceous - would be nice to be wrong though.

We are done with courses for the summer. DD2 has adored national youth choir and an orchestra tour ... thought we might be over choir by now, but apparently it was still wonderful and she will always want to be in choirs forever... which I think is great as they are so good for mental health.

She dragged us to the Proms this am which was wonderful - to see a youngish female bassoonist as a star attraction has to be good for her... total fangirling over the Elgar Romance, which is one of DD's audition pieces.

Both would be wrong then. You can apply for one choice and add others later if you so wish.

Hmm... DS's school, and AI, both think you have to apply for Oxbridge and others at the same time!

Yep DD2 needs a recording by October 1 of specific pieces. She also needs to make a start on her personal statement(s). It is all going to bunch together I think

Conservatoires deadline is 1st October (gulp) . Trying to get DD to make a start on her personal statement

Yes, you absolutely can add other choices later. This allows time to think, make visits, or in some cases get test scores or receive offers before making a final decision. If you are applying for Economics for example, you might put 4 down and see where you are in January, and make choice 5 a stretch or a banker depending.

@herbaceous I might be wrong, but as far as I understand it, you can put your Oxbridge choice down and then submit form, then add other choices later. Obviously it's the same personal statement. I think the school will dissuade you but I would check it out properly as they may not have to rush the other choices.

I'm worried autumn open days will get booked up, DS hasn't even looked yet. And once we're into term time he will feel overwhelmed with schoolwork again (in DS-world an hour of homework a day feels like overwhelm, even when he has more than an hour of free periods). Edit: sorry straying from the music topic rather.

We're only getting aerated about university choices as Oxbridge applications have to be in mid October. And you have to apply for all of them at that point, rather than the January deadline for non-Oxbridge.

One course each for mine too - NCO for DD, DS picked a brass course he knew friends were going to. It's definitely about the social side for him. Fingers crossed this will translate to some social playing at uni. I only wish he'd started on schoolwork or even decided which were his favourite unis, I just get moaned at if I try to suggest doing something about these things. (Also y12).

Crikey. I feel like horrendously slack parent. DS has only done a French horn summer school, and is about to do local orchestra next week. No piano or singing. But he has, to give him credit, been working on his essays etc to maximise chance of offers from chosen unis.

He’s declared he doesn’t really like residentials, as it’s a lot of social pressure if you don’t know anyone. Or if you do, but don’t like them!

Wells sounds fab. We’ve one more harp course to go. Both kids doing it and can’t wait. I was a bit - we’ve overdone the courses this year, but apparently it has been ‘the best summer ever’. 😂

I always forget there are piano courses too. Must see if I can get DD to one sometime, she loves playing the piano and is pretty good to my ear but it's always taken back seat to orchestral options. Sounds like wells is generally approved?

@northerngoldilocks - did she have Mr Tong on the Wells course? He was DD's teacher and she loved him?

Glad everyone has had a good summer. DD has been jetting around Europe on music courses - a week in Austria, a week in St Andrews and she and I are off to SIena next week - her for another course and me for the lounge by the pool and the culture.

@DitheringMusicParent he sounds like he’s got his head screwed on. I think conservatoires are pretty flexible on admissions requirements in terms of academics, and none of them are limited to A levels - there are loads of international students with qualifications from their home country (not sure where you are). My DH teaches at one and has hardly any home students (so hardly any with A levels). Many of them have quite a poor level of English! Your DS will develop so much academically between now and then.

One of the people I know who went to conservatoire at 16 (admittedly she is early 30s now so a while ago!) hadn’t done any A levels and just went straight from specialist school. Not sure she would totally recommend it as a pathway now, as she didn’t have a normal student experience at all, but she is (probably?!) NT and maybe that would matter less to someone who is ND.

She has a great career now - concerto soloist opportunities starting to come through and lots of excellent chamber music - but I wouldn’t say she’s done any better than she would have if she’d done the normal route. Again though that’s probably because she didn’t really need or want to escape school in the way that others might. She ended up doing what she did essentially because she has a very pushy parent who wanted her to be a prodigy! But it’s all worked out fine for her, and for the other person I know who did similar (but know less well).

@Compsearch you're totally right about boarding being unworkable. Boarding was considered because we really couldn't afford to have me in the UK with DS, and DH here, but having got into a couple of non-boarding choirs and a couple of boarding choirs which looked like absolute musical Hogwarts, DS decided he couldn't do any of them because he wanted us all to live together. Which is reasonable and shows more self-insight than I was expecting.

Conservatoire at 16 might work, if by then we can afford for me to move to the UK (or more likely Europe) with DS, and DH either comes too or stays here. It's possible we will be in a better financial position by then. However, he'll need to have done A-levels by whenever he wants to be going off to do music somewhere, so it depends at what age he's mature enough to pass IGCSEs and A-levels. At the moment he could probably pass the core Maths but not the extended, and all of the English bar getting the writing done quickly enough. But is at Year 5 level for everything else, and he can't do music as a subject here, so he probably won't be doing A-levels early...

@Londonmummy66 I'll keep that in mind. Yes, DS9 is definitely a one trick pony at the moment! But he's been looking at the social media posts of a certain organ residential course that's been on in the past week and has been talking about "When I go to that course I'll need to..." and actually helping with putting washing on and helping prepare meals and making sure we're on time for things (!!!!!) - nothing like a bit of motivation!

@Ubertomusic yes - the disdain and disgust coming from teachers/ priests/ etc is all about the autism, which has to be disclosed here. Autism would probably lead to burnout in a chorister boarding house where they're required to be busy 12 hours a day 6-7 days a week. But the ADHD is a far bigger issue generally. DS9 isn't hyper, isn't disruptive (he was at age 5-6, but so was everyone else), but definitely struggles with executive function quite a bit. This was why we were looking at non-boarding choirs, but in the end we couldn't make it work.

As far as I can see choristers' life in boarding is quite structured, almost regimented, which can be beneficial for an autistic person as predictable routine is usually very important BUT not every school offers single rooms and it may be v very hard for someone with ASD to cope with a constant presence of strangers and a total lack of privacy. Many of them do cope, obviously, but it may vary a great deal individually.

Also, as far as I can see though my observations are by no means exhaustive, boarders with ASD are usually very high functioning/low needs. Severe ADHD presents more challenges at school in general tbh.

@DitheringMusicParent - you have my sympathy - DD was basically a one trick pony and not prepared to compromise on her music practice. She was a totally square peg in her day school and at times it nearly broke her. Going to specialist boarding made her life so much easier so bear those schools in mind for the future as he may change his mind. Can you continue to home ed for now?

I’m no expert @DitheringMusicParent but based on what you were saying about your DS and residentials, sounds like a boarding choir school could have been really quite difficult anyway. The impression I have is that the kids have to be more independent/mature than would be usual for their age, which is partly why we wouldn’t have done it for DS.

We know a couple of people who have gone to conservatoire at 16 (as opposed to 18) after being home schooled, so perhaps that is something to think about for the future?

Tried very, very hard to convince DH to move back to the UK earlier in the year. Choir schools were toured, successful auditions were done... but DS didn't want to board, and we couldn't afford to split up with DH working here and me moving to the UK, and DS didn't want to be in a different country from DH for years on end. DH's job isn't easily transferrable...

Sounds really tricky, do you have any options for moving? Is continuing to home educate an option? I hope you find a suitable solution.