Music

Specialist teachers in a range of instruments offer individual or small-group lessons to students. Students also have the opportunity to study music theory.

Our Endangered Instruments Programme is a one-year scheme that provides a year’s free instrumental tuition and the hire of an instrument to a number of students each year. With fewer players of oboe, bassoon and orchestral percussion instruments, we are in serious danger of losing their unique sounds from our instrumental ensembles and through the Programme we seek to encourage take-up and ensure our instrumental ensembles remain musically balanced in future years.

To enquire about music tuition for your child in the following:

• Piano
• Music theory
• Vocal
• Oboe 
• Bassoon
• Trumpet
• Brass
• Electric/Bass guitar
• Drum kit
• Upper strings
• Orchestral percussion
• Classical Guitar

Contact the Burford Institute of Music

For information regarding flute, clarinet, saxophone, cello and double bass music tuition for your child, please visit the Oxfordshire County Council website.

Oxfordshire County Council Website - 'Learning an Instrument' 

Every year students who are regular members of our orchestras are invited to attend a Musical Residential.

The week-long residential provides a valuable opportunity for students from all year groups to work exclusively together on new pieces and immerse themselves in music, ahead of them all performing in the end-of-year Summer Gala on their return.

We offer an extensive range of extra-curricular music activities and clubs for musicians of all levels during the school day, whether at lunchtime or after school.

These include:

• Symphony Orchestra
• Training Orchestra
• All That Jazz – our jazz function band
• Rock School
• The Burford Institute of Music Choral Society
• The Sound Collective – our close harmony group
• Brass Ensemble
• Double Reed Ensemble
• Percussion Ensemble

There are numerous opportunities for students to perform in both informal concerts and events like our lunchtime concert series as well as in a rich range of annual music events which include:

• Star for a Night Our fiercely contested inter-house singing competition, where students have the opportunity to perform alongside a live band on stage.
• A Christmas Miscellany Our festive concert during which our Training and Symphony Orchestras perform a range of traditional and modern Christmas pieces. Our Burford School Choral Society, which consists of students, parents, carers, Old Burfordians and members of the wider community, also performs both major choral works and festive pieces.
• The Spring Concert Our biennial performance, which features our ensembles.
• Rock School Showcase Our Rock School bands perform a selection of covers and original material both in school and at local venues.
• An Evening with All That Jazz Our jazz function band, All That Jazz, performs a number of pieces from its repertoire.
• Summer Gala Our end-of-year music extravaganza, featuring performances by our orchestras and bands, freshly returned from our annual Music Residential.
• Biennially, we put on a musical theatre production. Recent productions have included ‘Les Misérables’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’, and ‘Oliver!’.