music scholarship

[midod]

May I ask, if a child is shortlisted for a music exhibition/scholarship (reduced from about 60 applicants to around 10–20), what are his chances of receiving it? The Head of Music interviewed him and mentioned that if he joins the school, he would have organ lessons as a new instrument (her main instrument is piano G8) and could also choose a brass instrument for a second lesson (his current second instrument is recorder G6).

Well, I’m guessing that if theres one scholarship being offered, and there’s a shortlist of 10-20 people, then the chances are one in ten, to one in twenty.

It might not even be as simple as that. My son's school have a total scholarship budget each year, but how they split it across disciplines (academic, music, drama, art, sport) varies from yr to yr depending on who they see - so one yr there might be 3 music scholarships and 1 drama, the next yr it might be the opposite way round. Unless the school publishes a list of what's available each yr, I'm not sure you'll find an answer to this. Hope the audition goes well!

In reality, the scholarship is only a 5% fee remission — the rest of the award is free instrument lessons.

That's quite generous these days - it's quite common to see only free lessons on one instrument now.

As others have said, schools vary in the way they allocate scholarships so it's difficult to predict the chance of being offered one on numbers alone. Schools may also offer strategically to fill gaps in orchestras and ensembles - e.g. if they are short on double basses, an applicant who plays double bass might be more likely to receive a scholarship offer than a violinist of similar standard.

I'd be slightly concerned that the school seems to want to push your DS in the direction of instruments he doesn't currently play. Does he want to learn organ and swap from recorder to brass? Organ is fabulous and can be useful for accessing scholarships at university level, but it isn't for everyone. I'd also have thought woodwind would be an easier transition from recorder than brass - if he is offered a scholarship it may be worth seeing whether oboe or bassoon would be an option instead. Does the school have early music/baroque ensembles where he could still play recorder to a high standard?

Best of luck to your DS for a positive outcome!