New music school for Royal High School Bath

Following a very successful first ever RHS fund-raising appeal, in March this year work began to transform the Gatehouse at the Royal High School Bath into a contemporary new music school with professional recording studio.  

This state of the art facility will provide an inspirational space for all girls to enhance their musical education, explore their creativity, and encourage even greater co-curricular participation.

In late April, with the help of our music scholars, key donors and supporters, we celebrated the start of the works with a ground breaking, or rather ‘wall bashing,’ ceremony.  Happily, the rain stayed away and storm Hannah was not tempted to put in an early appearance enabling us to see through proceedings unhindered!

After a warm welcome from Mrs Jo Duncan, Head, Philip Mitchell of Aaron Evans Architects talked through the scheme from the building’s history, its various uses and preparations for the project to an explanation of what the new building will include and what exactly the works involve.  It was wonderful to have the opportunity to explore the site, both upstairs and down, inside, and out, not only to appreciate how much has been achieved already, but also to visualise the fantastic facility that awaits us.  In particular, a large recital space will be created incorporating two sets of bay windows and overlooking a new rear terrace, making the most of the lovely views and which will no doubt bare future witness to many moments of musical inspiration!

As the project is a renovation rather than a new build there was of course no ground to ‘break’ as such, however our youngest and eldest music scholar did a fantastic job of setting to an unwanted stud wall armed with a hammer, axe and chisel to officially mark the start of the works.  The girls made the most of a rare opportunity to destroy school property with the school’s blessing!

Guests then later retired to the stunning recently refurbished Rebecca Barrell Room to enjoy some bubbles and a delicious tea.  Mark Bradbury, Director of Music at RHS, gave an impassioned speech successfully capturing in a few words not only the huge impact the music school will have on our students but also the tremendous sense of pride and excitement at what we are achieving.  He reiterated our sincerest thanks to the GDST and all our donors and supporters who have enabled this dream to become a reality. 

Standby for Steinway

As part of the new RHS Music School project, we are extremely excited that from January 2020 we will become a Steinway school.  This means that all of our pianos will be replaced by Steinways and our students will have access to workshops and masterclasses by Steinway accredited concert pianists.  This will open up many fantastic opportunities for the girls from visiting Steinway factories to playing in prestigious concert venues around the world.  The Royal High School Bath will become part of an exclusive group of Steinway schools and universities of which there are a limited number globally and with whom we will be able to connect. 

There can be no doubt that Music at the Royal High School Bath is going to become without limits!