Spring / Summer 2026 music thread

Gah @StuntNun I hear you!

I think it’s a common issue for these twice exceptional children. The primary school tried to expel my oldest child; he went on to get the highest SATs results the school has ever had even though they only ever treated him as an inconvenience.

Bloody formatting. Those were supposed to be em dashes, not strikethrough formatting.

I'm assuming some of you understand the cognitive whiplash of advocating for a musical kid who has other issues that are not advantages in school or life generally.

We're on holiday for a few days listening to a well-known Sierra Leonean/Antiguan/Nottinghaman cellist and a well-known in the organ world organist; DS9 is having lots of cello lessons in between with his teacher who's normally on Zoom; played for the organist; met various other organists who say they've heard about him from his teacher, etc. Praise is heaped on him from all sides and he's radiating happiness and achieving loads.

Concurrently at nearly finished UK Year 5, with a multi-page school report from his UK correspondence school stating subject averages of 98%-100% since year 2, as well as a music CV running to 3 pages, and 4 references all saying things like academically and musically gifted, responsible and mature, professionalism far beyond his years in music, genuinely intellectually curious, unfailingly polite, lovely helpful child he's just failed to get into our town's only private school, largely because the head of the junior school hates autistic and ADHD kids and will tell that to anyone who's willing to listen. Catholic school priest interview includes a sneering "we have no interest in enrolling children like your son, so I don't know why you're here". Our local state school's head rolls his eyes and says things like "you know as well as I do how well this is going to go" and "we will expel your son if he acts up in class or underperforms academically" when I enquire about places. Next local state school is the one that was discussing expulsion when I pulled him out age 6, unable to cope with a classroom where kids were throwing chairs. Next local one says "We haven't any places for children like your son". Etc.

You can't complain about this stuff in most of real life because people think it's a stealth boast about the music. It's a weird sort of whiplash, seemingly set to continue while we're stuck living where we do (no music-focused schools...).

Yes, I saw they had done one almost straight away and heard nothing so I assumed ok and we have since had two more views. I would imagine tutors have more time to review stuff in the holidays than in termtime. As you say, long old time to wait.

@678socks NCO have done a quality check on the links just to make sure they’re working ok - we had an email to say ours wasn’t working (even though it was, as we’ve sent it to about 15 family members, teacher etc 🤣) and then when I re-sent it they acknowledged the email v quickly and said it was all fine. I don’t think that means they’ve actually made their decision - am sure it takes them a lot longer to work through them all properly. Seems like results are communicated mid-end October so there’s a long time to wait.

I forgot we could see that! Three here too.

Just dared to look at the NCO YouTube link thingy without actually watching it. It has been watched 3 times I presume by them
(we checked it once). So would guess that everyone who needs to has seen it and now we just wait. Good luck to everyone dealing with uni decisions etc

@CurlyParsley thanks for the tip! He's actually gone off Liverpool as an insurance option, and would rather use those places with Birmingham or Glasgow, as they are 'better', in his mind.

But good to have options in case even those don't work out! Main draw of Liverool, apart from grooviness of city, is the excellent choral scholar deal.

Congrats and best of luck to your DS @Siriusmuggle !

Good luck to those with audition days. Dd is on day 4 of 4 for helping at her little orchestra. She fixed four cello bridges and did one re-string in the first two days - the little ones treat their instruments like furniture sometimes!
She has orchestra residential next week. Some tricky pieces (I think everyone hates Bartok!) so she’ll have to do some last minute practicing this weekend.

She’s still waiting for the results of her g7 singing performance exam that she sent in last month. Nothing on the abrsm website as of this morning. Seems a long wait!

We haven’t had any ensemble music either. Mine’s on harp. They said something about them playing the extracts all together?

Good luck to young Sirius.

It's a quiet time for ds at the moment. He played at a wedding last weekend. The happy couple must love theatre as they had a small orchestra and choir. It sounded fabulous from the videos.

He is waiting to do some demo rcording for a new theatre show (all hinges on availability of the guest singers. Then he has a couple of low grass roots pop gigs with a singer he sometimes works plus I thin there is an amdram show he is playing for soon. The it will be onto panto in November.

Getting the music through was new for us, when older child did it, they didn't get any so it might depend on the section. This time it's a well known chorale for her instrument, but I guess it could be anything. They are looking for you to give it a good try though so if they have chosen not to send it for their section, it will be the same for everyone. I have no idea on percentages, they don't publish anything like that. Very tentative guess on there maybe being three days and how many were at her day, maybe a third to a quarter but I wouldn't want to be quoted on that at all. I also think it would be different numbers for each section. I don't think they would find 20 tubas to audition so higher chance there! Probably those who go into it relaxed with an eye to learning something will do best. They also do other things during the year and invite some people as residency guests so some things come up during the year. Often at short notice and impossible to plan for so you may even get some other opportunities.

Wow, huge congratulations! @Siriusmuggle

@horseymum Thank you so much for mentioning the NYO portal last month; it saved my sanity as DD had been messaging all day for news updates from her residential!! We haven’t received any chamber music here yet. Was it sent by email? Wondering whether we need to request… Also does anyone know what the acceptance rate is from the final round assessments day - to manage expectations! Thank you!

Amazing, well done! So hard to even get an audition. I know some orchestras really drag it out as well. I hope the experience goes well and you never know.

That’s amazing news @Siriusmuggle. Best of luck to him.

Exciting new in the Sirius house. The kid has got an audition for a professional orchestra job. He’s seeing it as purely good audition experience rather than actually standing a chance. It would be a great job except it’s part time and based in London and he’s currently midlands based but trying to move back up north! But he’s done well to get to try.

Can I add to that - if grades aren't what was expected and or a DC wishes they'd applied to conservatoire - some offer a "last minute" round of auditions. I know someone in DC's year at school who got into RAM after missing their uni offers. Conservatoire places are often a back up for Oxbridge candidates who then drop them if they get the grades meaning that there might be space for a suitable candidate.

I mention RH and Bangor as they are good quality courses, not because they were odd in that they were in clearing. Almost everyone is in clearing nowadays, for almost all courses. But there may be only one or two places, or they may be tens and tens. And some places are only up for hours - some never go away, they stay open until students turn up in September. There are 'bargains' to be had all over the place. Courses are only a 'bargain' if they suit the student of course - but they and/or you may find it reassuring to see just how much is available.

@herbaceous I see that Liverpool is in clearing at BCC for Music. I'm sure you know this but it's definitely useful to look at clearing this year to get a feel for how and if grades drop, and for how long courses remain open. Obviously it could be different another year, but this year looks a lot like last at the moment. We (almost) "knew" for example that Bangor and Royal Holloway would have places and that they would be well below tariff, because this was a pattern over several years.

I'm gutted about the Mahler too, love seeing the Aurora orchestra. We saw them live in the Edinburgh International festival last year. This year we saw NYO USA, who were fab.

We went to the NYO prom. The Ades was incredible!