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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

From ucas

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 :)

Also see here: https://www.ucas.com/applying/after-you-apply/making-changes-to-your-application-after-you-apply#adding-more-choices Section entitled 'Adding more choices'. Schools are sometimes reluctant because they want it 'one and done' - and there is some benefit to getting it out of the way, but not if you really aren't sure. Some schools simply don't know!

It sounds like everyone has had an exciting summer with concerts and summer programs! We are now looking at the start of the school year and I have a quick question for any other RCMJD parents. I’m looking at the calendar for this upcoming year and I see there is a 'make-up day/ end of term concert' scheduled at the end of each term - for example July 10th. Are these contingency dates just in case a day of teaching is missed? And is there normally a concert on those dates, irrespective of whether a teaching day was missed?

Make up day at RCMJD is the day when teachers who’ve had to miss a lesson that term will make it up - my kids frequently have make up lessons but you can request a time to suit as the teachers make a special timetable just for that day eg you’re busy in the afternoon so ask for a morning slot. Probably best to keep the date free.

There are concerts on make up day too but won’t necessarily involve your child - that will depend on which orchestras/ensembles they’re allocated to which is fairly dependent on age. The older they are, the more likely they are to be needed that day to rehearse then perform.

You’ll get their individual timetable on the upcoming introductory Saturday afternoon and then Mitch will send out all the Performance Dates for all the main groups over the following fortnight - the email will contain concerts for the whole year, which groups are involved etc. The list will also get posted on the main notice board as well.

Thank you @TRL that is really appreciated! She is very excited to be joining and we are making sure that the diary is marked out.

Has anyone eligible got their inspire day offers through? Both my kids have been offered non London offers. Wondered if anyone had actually been offered London slots?

The Unite day? Not yet.

I lie. Yes. South West.

Do you live in the south west or are you London being offered a location over 100 miles away?

Ha! No, we’re in Cardiff so it makes sense. In Ldn the day before tho weirdly so plotting it through.

Yes, in London on the one day we told them she couldn't do in the survey that came out with audition results.

We are in South London - applied pretty early in the process and have been offered Birmingham for flute and Saffron Walden for violin! I know London has the most applicants but Birmingham feels a bit of an extreme option for a one day session!

Well we have a day 215 miles away! There are never any venues in Scotland so we just get on with it, mine have had some great experiences. We sometimes make a weekend of it, or visit friends. Or just send child off on an early train. Appreciate not everyone can do that but they just won't have space for everyone on London days and they need to balance instruments. You can ask to change but might get something less convenient! I guess you need to weigh up the value versus the hassle factor for you as a family and decide if it's worth it. Mine really appreciated meeting others who played their instrument as they are rare, so that was part of the attraction. It genuinely is inspiring too, younger one watching the prom on TV was able to point out people she'd done inspire sessions with, quite nice.

That wasn't meant to sound dismissive of the distance.

I do understand that if you’re for example in Scotland or the north east or Cornwall the distances will not seem so excessive, but I’d expect that there would be more sessions in London because of the amount of people. I accept that this is a London centric view though but living in pretty central London and playing really popular mainstream internment means it’s just not something I’m used to. Will have to weigh up if it’s worth it. Suspect for DS it isn’t. Saffron Walden is a lot more reasonable for DD though- albeit will definitely need driving there as the public transport options aren’t really viable.

Not really the same but when I asked about NCO locations I was told that only Londoners get into london (which is annoying for us as it is so so much easier than any other location for us to get to and we can get free accommodation too!)

DD did do London projects twice. Either that's a very wide definition of London, or things have changed since she did it, we're in the south east but I don't think anyone would call us London.

And all respect to Inspire, they're trying to schedule a terrifyingly large number of teenagers!