🎶 Specialist Weekend 1

Our first specialist weekend of the year begins this afternoon, 2.45 pm – 5.15 pm, when we’ll dive straight into Christmas music and preparations for the March concert.

Session 2 follows on Sunday, 10.30 am – 5.15 pm.

Our specialist weekends often come with a dress-up theme. This Sunday’s theme is sci-fi....so prepare for an out-of-this-world rehearsal, and Live Long and Prosper!

🎵 Recital at Noon

The first of our ACMS Recital at Noon series takes place tomorrow, Saturday 30th August at 12 noon.

The recital features our ACMS Performers of the Year prize winners 2024/25:

• James (accordion) - Junior Performer of the Year

• Calum (guitar) - Senior Performer of the Year

Admission is free and open to all, with a retiring collection at the end.

🙏 Choral Evensong

It’s certainly a busy weekend! After rehearsals on Sunday, our first-study vocalists will be heading to St Andrew’s Cathedral Church to rehearse and then perform in the service of Choral Evensong.

• Service time: 6.30 pm – 7.30 pm

• Free and open to anyone who would like to attend.

🕖 Early Closing on Monday

A reminder that the Monday after a specialist weekend is always an early closing. We’ll close at 7 pm on Monday evening.

The Boarding Team is also organising a bingo night from 7 pm - 8 pm, open to all pupils (including non-boarders). Non-boarders attending should arrange to be collected at 8 pm.

🎸 Goodbye, Calum

With a very heavy heart, we say goodbye to our brilliant guitarist, Calum, who has been offered a last-minute place to study music performance and production at college.

Calum first joined ACMS as a P7 bursary pupil and for the last five years has been a huge presence in the school as both a full-time pupil and boarder. He has contributed enormously to our concerts, rehearsals, and musical life, not to mention amassing an impressive list of professional performances already.

We will miss him greatly, but we are thrilled for him and wish him every success. Happily, he has promised to come back whenever we need him, so this is more of a “see you later” than a final farewell!

👪 Parents’ Committee Evening

Thank you to everyone who joined us on Tuesday for the Parents’ Committee evening. It was wonderful to welcome new parents, reconnect with current ones, and feel the enthusiasm in the room. We are very fortunate to have such a supportive parent community.

🎤 7.45 pm Concerts

Our informal 7.45 pm concerts continue to be a big hit!

These are relaxed opportunities for pupils to share a full piece or even just part of one - whether polished or a work in progress. Mistakes are welcomed (they’re how we learn!) and the supportive atmosphere has encouraged lots of sign-ups.

So many, in fact, that on several nights we’ve had to start early to fit everyone in. Even our newest pupils have been performing after only two weeks with us, which has been a joy.

A huge thank you to everyone who has performed so bravely, and to our more experienced pupils who have been such encouraging friends.