Graduate Assistant; Music

Music at Lancing College

Music is at the heart of life at Lancing and the renowned Choir sings at services in Chapel as well at major cathedrals across the country and regularly broadcasts choral evensong on BBC Radio 3 most recently in October 2025 and December 2023. Music at Lancing is extremely well resourced, and the College Chapel is an inspiring setting in which to make music in services and concerts and is fortunate to possess magnificent organs by Frobenius and Walker.

Large-scale symphonic and chamber music concerts are frequently given in Great School which houses a Steinway model D and extremely good acoustics for instrumental and choral music.

Choral and instrumental music flourish in the Choir, Choral Scholars (Chamber Choir), A Cappella Club, College Singers (Choral Society), Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia, Concert Band, Big Band, Rock Society, a host of chamber music groups and a Music tech club.

There is a full and varied programme of events, ranging from lunchtime concerts, rock concerts and masterclasses to large-scale evening concerts and musical theatre. In the Lent Term the House Music Competition receives over 200 entries from pupils in solo, duet and ensemble categories, and the House Singing Competition in October involves every pupil in the school.

Concert highlights have included Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Sibelius’ Finlandia, Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending as well as numerous concerto movements. Chamber ensembles have performed Dvorak’s Dumky Trio, Borodin’s String Quartet no.1 first movement and Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio second movement.

The College Singers together with the College Choir give an annual performance of major choral works including Mozart’s Solemn Vespers Rossini’s Petit Messe Solennelle, Handel’s Messiah and Vivaldi’s Gloria in recent years.

To celebrate the completion of the Chapel in 2022, the College commissioned a new anthem The Earth is the Lord’s composed by Matthew Martin and now published by Novello. In 2024 the school celebrated its 175 th Anniversary with the musicians performing in a Gala Concert in London at Southwark Cathedral and also giving the first performance of Lancing Beatitudes composed by Roxanna Panufnik and published by Peters.

There are regular musical productions in the theatre and recent shows include Guys and Dolls, Sweeney Todd, The Addams Family, Anything Goes, Chicago and My Fair Lady.

There are twenty-seven Music Scholars and Exhibitioners in the College with over half coming to Lancing from cathedral choir schools such as St Paul’s, Chichester, Salisbury, Ely and Exeter. Lancing’s Music Scholars regularly go on to study Music at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, winning Choral and Organ scholarships and to many of the top music colleges including the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

Enrichment activities for Lancing’s musicians include visits from professional musicians to give concerts, masterclasses, and lectures with recent visits from Nigel Short (conductor), Sally Beamish (composer), Meurig Bowen (arts administration) and the Kokoshka Trio.

The Department holds annual music events for Prep School pupils; orchestral and choral which have proved very popular amongst local preparatory schools.

The Department comprises three members of teaching staff; the Director of Music, Assistant Director of Music & Head of Academic Music and a Graduate Teacher of Music, supported by a Graduate Music Assistant and an administrator. There are twenty-four visiting music teachers offering tuition in the full range of orchestral and rock instruments and voice, many of whom also lead and direct school ensembles.

The Music School has 14 practice rooms, a drum room, a chamber music room, a recital room and a computer suite. The recital room, where much of the academic teaching takes place, is also used for rehearsals and lunchtime concerts. The computer suite has recently been upgraded with 14 Macs fitted with a range of software such as Sibelius,…