MusicFrom Jazz Band to Harp Ensemble

Music at Godolphin and Latymer is very special indeed. We seek to provide an outstanding range of opportunities for every pupil, whatever their level, instrument or ability. Nearly three hundred pupils (over a third of the school) play or sing in at least one ensemble, and nearly 500 music lessons are taught here every week by a team of wonderful music teachers. Most importantly, we seek to make music-making here highly enjoyable and infectiously fun!

Choral singing here is very popular, with five choirs (both auditioned and non-auditioned) and two pupil-run a cappella groups. All of our choirs perform several times a year, notably in the Spring Choral Concert (recent performances include John Rutter’s Requiem (2023) and Handel’s Zadok The Priest & Matthew Coleridge’s Requiem (2024), accompanied by a pupil orchestra. At Christmas, all of our choirs sing in our beloved Festival of Lessons and Carols, which regularly features new arrangements and world premieres. 

Our Senior Chamber Choir and Junior Chamber Choir, each numbering between 30-40 voices, sing regular evensongs at some of the most renowned venues in the country including St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, St. George’s Chapel (Windsor), and Southwark Cathedral. This year, our Junior and Senior Chamber Choirs gave a complete performance of Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols.

A great deal of instrumental music happens here, too, and all of our groups perform in our termly large-scale instrumental concerts or in our annual Chamber Music Concert. Our ensembles range from our flagship Symphony Orchestra to a number of junior ensembles, and a great deal in-between! For our most experienced ensembles, we programme music ambitiously; this year, our Symphony Orchestra will give a complete performance of Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 ‘London’. 

There are a huge number of opportunities for all of our musicians to flourish and grow here. Our Junior and Senior House Music Competitions are amongst the largest in the country, and attract in excess of 170 entries each year. We hold three annual rock and pop concerts, in which pupils perform within their own bands and ensembles. There are also two dedicated Music Scholars Concerts each year, as well as informal weekly lunchtime recitals open to anyone, of any age and ability. Each year, we put on at least one musical in collaboration with the Drama Department, and recent productions include Beauty and the Beast and Mary Poppins. 

Our students go on to study Music at some of the most renowned institutions in the country and, in recent years, our students have been awarded scholarships at the Royal Academy of Music, and have also been awarded Organ and Choral Scholarships at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. 

The Music Department is fortunate to enjoy superb facilities and resources here, including over twenty practice rooms, three teaching rooms (including a Mac Suite), and a dedicated recording studio. Our three excellent concert venues include the Bishop Centre (which also transforms into a theatre for productions), and our wooden panelled Hall (which is a particularly wonderful venue for chamber music). We have two organs, and several of our pupil organists play in services across London. 

The work of the Music Department is supported by around thirty wonderful and expert music teachers, many of whom are leading performers in their own right. Between them, they offer lessons on over twenty instruments, and the department has a large stock of instruments available for hire.

We offer Music Scholarships at 11+ and 16+. For more information on those, please click here.

Music Clubs and Societies include