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Music Diary

Lunchtime recitals take place every Friday at 1.30 pm during term in Cheap Street Church. The venue, which is accessible both from Abbey Road and from the high street (Cheap Street), provides ideal acoustics both for lunchtime music-making and also for some of the evening recitals given throughout the school year and houses both a Steinway Model D and also a Hunter organ which was refurbished in 2008. The local audience on Fridays is normally around 80 strong, with the Composers' Concert and the Woodwind Recital in 2009 attracting over 120.

Other annual events include two Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonia concerts in the Big School Room, an orchestral concert in St John's Smith Square or the Sheldonian Theatre, a Gala Concert involving all the school's ensembles in the BSR, a bi-annual school musical (Les Miserables in 2007, Fiddler on the Roof in 2009 and Grease in 2011), a "Dinner and Jazz" in the Dining Hall which sells out within days of the tickets becoming available, two rock concerts and a "Concert in the Courts" which attracts an audience of some 1000 pupils from local schools. Annual participation in the national Pro Corda Chamber Music Competition is complemented by a chamber music concert which each year acts as the curtain-raiser for the Sherborne Abbey Music Festival - a five day series of professional concerts each May. School competitions on weekends during term include the Patrick Shelley Music Competition for advanced musicians (named after the former Director of Music who founded Dorset Opera), the Halliday Cup for keyboard players, a Strings Festival and a Woodwind/Brass Competition: recent adjudicators have included Philip Fowke and David Bednall.

All concerts and recitals advertised on the website and music diary are open to members of the public unless marked with an asterisk (*).