Spring / Summer 2026 music thread

[northerngoldilocks]

Time for a new thread as the old one is filling up and think we can claim its spring now!

Come and talk about music lessons, choosing instruments, exams, auditions, specialist schools, orchestras or whatever other music activities are going on. Everyone is welcome, from those with total beginners to those whose children are studying music at advanced levels. Ask for advice or share successes or struggles.

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarest He hasn't yet done any residentials of any sort - not even school camps. Good idea. When one of the orchestras finishes for the year in September (runs in Terms 2 & 3 only), I'll send him to cubs on a Thursday evening and see if he can cope...

@Londonmummy66 thanks, that RSCM idea is a great one. We could come over next year for the RCO Summer course and then head to Bath...

@herbaceous you may well be right. But all the 9 year olds I know seem to be hyper-mature, resilient, organised, sensible (and they're all sporty and mostly uninterested in music). We need some more nerdy muso type friends with absent-minded professorial children.

@northerngoldilocks thankyou, I'll check out NCO - hadn't considered it as we're non resident, but if citizenship meant he'd be eligible that'd be amazing.

@horseymum great to hear the Benedetti foundation is still going. We did a couple of their online things back during lockdowns in 2020. I'll check out what they have to offer.

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarest your DD sounds ideal Oxbridge material. Both DH and I used to do admissions for our colleges so we got to see who got in and thrived. But there are many other options. Is York still good for music?

Also @DitheringMusicParent I just remembered about ESO Youth who run an intermediate course on a non residential basis. So if you could stay nearby then it might be a good starting option. He could do a day course to see how that goes?

https://eso.co.uk/youth-int-aug2026/

@northerngoldilocks Thanks, that looks good.

He's done many (non-residential) Suzuki camps with me acting as secretary/ pack-horse/ note-taker/ teacher-interpreter etc., since he was 4, but what he needs now is something where I'm not there all day with him.

@DitheringMusicParent I haven’t noticed if this has been mentioned but Pro Corda run chamber music courses, quite small scale and lots of individual attention. Our experience with them when our children were younger was very good. Being part of a smaller group might be a good bridge for him between you being there as his Sherpa-cum-memory and him taking complete responsibility for himself on a full orchestra course?

id imagine lots of the day courses are not ones where parents are involved between drop off and pick up. I think you’re right to consider what might be a stepping stone before residential. Also don’t underestimate how much he will change between now and say 13/14. My DS has been on 3 residential wind band courses. The first 2 almost all of the lost property list was his 🙄 whereas by the third he didn’t lose anything. Whilst he could clearly u turn on this one I’m hoping it’s a progression… in the meantime though I recommend stickins name labels and sticking them on EVERYTHING

@DitheringMusicParent york is on the list. Royal Holloway too. I think we got spooked by going round Russell Group unis that used to be well thought of for music where it was clear there would be no investment in music courses and they may well close - and there was also a lot of emphasis on music tech which is not DD's thing (unless it's a reed scraping knife!).

Even the students showing her round said 'don't come here' when she explained what her interests and instruments were.

We were looking round for her sister at the time, hence it wasn't the ones mentioned here we were looking at. Hopefully their music depts are faring better as this was a bit sad.

Would say pro corda are very good at looking after small children but timetable wise it's a lot more complicated than an orchestra thing. And if your Suzuki things were anything like I did as a child, they also have a lot of different people going in different directions for different sessions.

Simplest logistically has probably been things like string orchestra days, mostly all in one place and at worst there might be a cello sectional where they'd all trail off together in the wake of the tutor.

@thirdfiddle @northerngoldilocks @TRL thanks for those thoughts. Will look up all the possibilities for next summer in the UK...

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarest I know what you mean about the extremely depressing music departments. DS regularly bounces up to members of the music dept here with a burst of enthusiasm about something like harmony or French 1960s organ music or bowing in Bach cello suites and gets told "well, don't come here if you want to do that, you'll have to go overseas". A friend who did first year composition (went in with manuscript paper and a half written piano quintet) said 99% of the class couldn't read music and had never studied an instrument formally, but all knew their way round Garageband. And the music performance staff are now all being demoted to teaching fellows (from full academic pathway) so they'll leave and the uni can close the programme.

For anyone who remembers my original dilemma on here about DS9 moving organ teachers:

Teacher A, the one treating DS9 like an organ scholar but not really teaching him, has finally bothered communicating to Teacher B (the good teacher that she sent DS to while she was on sabbatical) that she is not interested in teaching DS. She hasn't said anything to me at all, and has ostentatiously ignored me at services and rehearsals recently. I've asked Teacher B to request clarification as to what this means for DS9's access to the organ, organ scholarships, ability to play in services etc.

Is this normal behaviour for one teacher passing a student to another teacher???? i mean, I've no problem with Teacher A talking to Teacher B, but zero communication to the parent or student who suddenly seems to fall out of favour and get sent to another teacher with no discussion whatsoever? And Teacher B has to act as the intermediary? Weird.

Trifle alarmed by tales of dismal, or closing, uni music departments. The ones we've seen - Manchesteer, Durham and Cambridge - are all seeemingly thriving. And not dominated by tech.

Do you mind saying which ones you've found disappointing? So i can cross them off the list?

A friend from here, currently organ scholaring at a large foundation on the river in Oxford, finds the composition part of undergraduate music there good, but is very underwhelmed by the rest. He'd probably have been better off at Cambridge, but he went with the scholarship...

Friend who is a senior lecturer in Music at Manchester seems to be having the time of her life and absolutely loving the place. So it seems to be thriving based on my anecdata with n=1!

Is this normal behaviour for one teacher passing a student to another teacher????

Normal music teachers respond if you contact them as a parent, full stop. If the initial contact was A saying to B can you look after this student while I'm on mat leave, it makes sense they'd have a conversation with each other as well. Not instead.

When we've changed teachers so far 2/3 cases they've been thoroughly supportive and want to stay in touch and hear about DC's progress.

Number 3/3 does have some things in common with your teacher A and made things awkward. In retrospect I wish we'd left a lot sooner, I think we had a clash of both personalities and approaches (mine and DC's).

Yes, I thought it was normal! All the music teachers I've had have been normal and sane. DS had one "interesting" one on cello, who has been being awkward since he left her in 2022 (can't avoid her, small town), but thankfully has had an excellent teacher who behaves very professionally and communicates faultlessly, since he was 5.

Lovely to hear about Manchester and Durham. In terms of unis we looked at, Sheffield, Notts and Cardiff did not excite musically. Not really surprising given what happened afterwards in some cases as some have now been cut to the bone and I suspect are off the list anyway.

As I say, we weren't visiting for DD2, just killing several birds with one stone by taking a peek around.

and @DitheringMusicParent no. We've had the odd awkward one, but DD2 was doing sectionals with her lovely first ever bassoon teacher this week and was delighted to see her.

@DitheringMusicParentWe’ve changed teachers twice - one harp, one piano. Both were upset, ignored me, have been incredibly off with my daughter - glaring at her when competing etc in a way designed to throw her off. V v poor behaviour.

We have changed teachers a few times across children/ instruments, all fine. For one, the teacher who wasn't continuing even found us the next teacher - it was a no brainer as she was the only other teacher of that instrument in a wide radius and he knew we'd love her. We did. We are still in contact with most of their teachers regularly and one current one has suggested lessons with the two previous ones for audition prep. Hopefully things settle down. Most teachers genuinely want their pupils to thrive, whether with them or their next teacher. Often a teacher knows when it's time to pass them on. We have been so fortunate with the musicians in our life and what they have done for our children.

We toured music departments within the last 2 years. Not surprised what has happened at Notts.... RHUL good choice, DC just couldn't see themselves living there, ditto Durham, Bristol unconvincing on commitment to Arts, Birmingham good, Bangor was a bit hit, Surrey course seemed rather a thin add-on to the totemic Tonmeister. Leeds worth looking at. Settled on York.

This is helpful thanks @CurlyParsley.

Know lots of happy tonmeisters but DD is not at all that way inclined (sadly!). Birmingham I think we need to see. Leeds I hadn't considered so thanks!

For those looking at unis, don't discount Scottish ones! Glasgow has a good music department, you can do Bmus or MA, including many joint honours combinations. Whilst I don't think you can do a full music degree at St Andrews, they do have a fantastic music centre, with lots of extra curricular music. I think you can maybe do some modules as well. One year they even had a bassoon octet! Aberdeen also has a very active music department. There are also music degrees at Napier and some others. Some of these will have community music. At Queen Margaret you can do music therapy as a post grad. For some courses English students would get into second year with exceptional grades. Bonus of going to an ancient Scottish uni is the undergraduate degree is an MA!

Also Southampton - didnt excite here. They are in Clearing now at BCC but last year that was a C's and D's offer by end of the period. Apart from Oxbridge, and even then the odds aren't bad, you know for sure that an offer will come if you meet the published requirements, so you genuinely pick what suits best. Can be hard to work out though! DC 'just knew' which I think is the best answer tbh.

Ooh this is all v useful. Thank you! Top three are currently Cambridge, Manchester and Durham, but he has to get the offers and then the grades!

Bristol also a strong contender. Birmingham on list; as is Glasgow. Liverpool too - any thoughts on that one?

York would be fab, but we live here!