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In September 2022, the MiSST Saturday Music School became the MiSST Music Academy – a rebranded expansion of our Saturday provision, modelled on UK Junior Conservatoires. Built on the success of our single Saturday Music School Orchestra, the MiSST Music Academy now features the following:

• MiSST Symphony Orchestra

• MiSST Academy Orchestra

• MiSST Voices Choir

• MiSST Conduct

• Chamber Music

• Instrumental lessons

• Composition clinics 

• Music Production classes

• Student leadership roles and opportunities

• A student-run tuck shop !

(More information on all of these programmes can be found below.)

The MiSST Music Academy is exclusive to MiSST students/alumni and free for everyone that attends. Every single student benefits from the exceptional teaching, tutoring, mentoring and coaching that is offered at the MMA. We aim to improve student satisfaction + confidence levels, as well as their academic achievement and mental wellbeing.

Our full list of dates for 2023/24 can be found via the KEY DATES tab on the menu bar above.

The MiSST Symphony Orchestra (MiSO) is designed to provide opportunities for our most able students to play with others at a similar standard, which may not be available at individual schools. We have a wonderful team of tutors and an extremely welcoming and supportive atmosphere and currently features full orchestra rehearsals, sectionals, chamber music and works for concert band and string orchestra.

Workshops delivered by a number of professional musicians and organisations, plus exciting external opportunities and concerts add to the breadth and depth of the provision. Regular attendance at MiSST Symphony Orchestra rehearsals also guarantees students a place on our annual orchestra residential.

Students must go to a MiSST school (or have done previously) and be at least grade 3/4+ standard on their instrument to gain a place in the Symphony Orchestra.

Please sign up here! 

The MiSST Academy Orchestra (MiAO) launched in Autumn 2022 and has been an amazing addition to the MiSST Music Academy. We are especially keen to grow the Academy Orchestra this year, as it is available to any MiSST student who is approx. Grade 1-3 on their instrument.

This ensemble offers our many talented and enthusiastic KS3 students the chance to play regularly in a large orchestra with those of a similar standard. MiAO is conducted by Stephanie Bissell, with a mix of full rehearsals, sectionals, string orchestra/concert band and chamber music.

We will also be offering free small group/one-to-one instrumental lessons to those students who are unable to have these at school, as well as the opportunity to sign up to extra chamber music, conducting, student leadership, music production and composition sessions.

Please come and see what the Academy Orchestra is all about by signing up here!

The MiSST Voices Choir was set up in September 2022, building on the success of our one-off choirs at our annual MiSST concerts and our incredible 2022 Platinum Jubilee choir.

This year rehearsals will be conducted and led by our new Choir Director, Laurie Turville, and will feature the very best singers from across our London MiSST schools preparing a vast range of repertoire, with a particular focus on musicianship and wellbeing.

In 2022/23, the MiSST Voices Choir wrote and performed their own opera in a series of fantastic workshops with English Touring Opera, sang at our 10th Anniversary Concert at Theatre Royal Drury Lane and took part in an exciting project with the world-renowned Yehudi Menuhin School. We are always looking for new singers to boost our choir even further, so if you are at all interested, please sign up here!

MiSST Conduct gives students an opportunity to learn the ins and outs of orchestral conducting. Students were interested to begin learning how to lead ensembles in this way for a variety of different reasons including:

• building their confidence in front of large groups (of students/peers/musicians)

• having the ability to be able to conduct their own music

• having a greater understanding of what the conductor does and what all the instruments in the orchestra are doing

Students begin by learning the basic beat patterns, how best to start and stop the music and how to wield a baton before moving onto more advanced beat patterns, greater independence of the left hand and rehearsal strategies. 

This has been an extremely popular and impactful programme, with many incredibly rewarding opportunities available to those who are part of it. In April 2023, 3 of our student conductors conducted at our 10th Anniversary Concert at Theatre Royal Drury Lane; and most recently, our conducting class was invited to attend a rehearsal of the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.

The sign up sheet for this course can be found via the PROGRAMMES tab above, but you must be enrolled with one of our MMA ensembles to take part. 

Our Chamber Music programme gives our students the opportunity to play in smaller groups, rehearsing and performing challenging repertoire which often requires only one person on each part. 

Regular chamber music provision has an enormous impact on the confidence, musicality and creativity of our young people. Our students have achieved fantastic things as part of our orchestras and in other large groups, but the type of work and discipline required for small ensemble playing raises playing standards considerably and students are able to experience the unique satisfaction and sense of achievement that comes with this sort of music-making. 

We will look to incorporate chamber music into our orchestral timetables as much as possible, especially in the Summer Term, but students are also strongly encouraged to sign up for extra chamber music sessions.

The sign up sheet for this can be found via the PROGRAMMES tab above, but you must be enrolled with one of our MMA ensembles to take part. 

We are extremely grateful to the Albert and Eugenie Frost Music Trust for their continued generosity in supporting this programme.

At the MiSST Music Academy we are committed to offering free one-to-one and/or small group instrumental lessons to students who are unable to have them at their school or elsewhere. 

Spaces are extremely limited and good attendance and punctuality is imperative in order to continue receiving these free lessons from our wonderful MMA tutors.

If you are already a member of one of our MMA ensembles and you are interested and eligible to sign up for lessons please go to the PROGRAMMES tab above and click INSTRUMENT LESSONS.

MiSST Create is the title given to our composition and music production programmes. MiSST Create exists to nurture the creativity and ingenuity of our young people, encouraging all those that take part to express themselves through music. Our students’ enjoyment of music-making and overall confidence will be hugely enhanced via experimentation and improvisation through our composition and music production sessions.

The generosity of the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation has been integral to MiSST Create, allowing students at many of our partner schools to be part of exceptional quality composition workshops and tailored lessons that have led to amazing results. Ricardo Little and Gifty Iwueke’s pieces being performed at our 9th and 10th Anniversary Concerts respectively, are the two most public examples of the success of MiSST Create and the important role it serves in a charity like ours. We are proud that this programme has encouraged and enabled young female and/or ethnically diverse students to take up composition and that many have been inspired to want to continue it as they further their studies.

We are looking to expand our MiSST Create provision to include regular composition clinics and music production classes at the MiSST Music Academy. These will be introduced later in the Autumn Term 2023 - when sign ups are available this will be possible via the PROGRAMMES tab above.

Student leadership and empowerment has always been at the very heart of MiSST and our Saturday provision. Students are regularly encouraged to take the lead, support other students and often given formal roles, such as on our residentials (see photo). 

Alongside our conducting programme, our flagship student leadership programme is MiLO - the MiSST Leaders Orchestra. This ensemble rehearses on Fridays 4:30-6:30pm at CoLA Highbury Grove, and is offered to those students who are around Grade 5+ standard and are interested in developing their leadership skills. MiLO are trained to run the orchestra themselves, similar to how university music societies might function - they choose their own repertoire, rehearse themselves and play largely unconducted. MiLO hopes to continue developing into a successful social enterprise, with great fundraising potential.

At the MiSST Music Academy, we will continue to ensure our young people are always offered student leadership opportunities wherever possible. We are hugely grateful to student leaders Kiri and Sadie for setting up a tuck shop at the MiSST Music Academy last year! 

The MiSST Leaders Orchestra (MiLO), one of our flagship Programmes of Excellence, offers the most talented and accomplished students from our MiSST Partner Schools in London, the opportunity to play in their own self-run chamber orchestra, developing high-level leadership and ensemble skills. 

MiLO is modelled on university music society ensembles which are run by its members, and where repertoire and external concerts are organised by the students themselves. This is a unique opportunity for pre-undergraduate students to work independently at this level, often performing unconducted and rehearsing the pieces without assistance. 

Our students have hugely enjoyed the freedom and room for experimentation that MiLO has offered them. They have explored a number of different themes with a particular interest in folk music, non-western classical styles and film music (as demonstrated tonight). Every student within the ensemble has had the opportunity to take the lead on different ideas and pieces whilst ensuring that all have the space to express their own opinion. As a group they have taken responsibility for all artistic decisions and the presentation of each piece they have worked on.