/

We offer a comprehensive programme of instrumental and vocal tuition in a suite of purpose-built, sound-proofed rooms. Our team of highly skilled peripatetic staff, many of whom lead high-profile concert careers, visits the school and teach around 600 music lessons each week.

Tuition is available for all orchestral and band instruments, as well as for singing, organ, jazz improvisation, music technology and music theory.

Lessons operate on a rotational basis for pupils in Years 7 to 11.

We are a major centre for termly ABRSM and Trinity Guildhall exams, and offer aural and theory training.

A varied programme of around 70 ensembles takes place on a weekly basis. Our largest groups include two full symphony orchestras, three string orchestras, three wind bands and a big band. We have a strong choral emphasis with six choirs, covering both classical and non-classical repertoire, available to Perse pupils.

Our comprehensive programme extends to smaller group tuition, including string/woodwind/brass chamber groups, guitar ensembles, percussion ensembles, jazz bands, rock/pop groups and a music technology society.

Pupils are actively encouraged to set up their own groups and bands, and many do. Music staff are very happy to support these initiatives.

Around 70 events take place in a typical Perse year, ranging from informal sign-up concerts to high-profile and large-scale instrumental and choral events. Highlights include the annual Perse Musician of the Year competition; termly orchestral and band concerts featuring solo concerto performances; a Charity Cabaret featuring jazz/pop repertoire; and projects in collaboration with local primary schools and care homes, which in recent years have included performances of Orff’s Carmina Burana with more than 250 musicians and selections from Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

While most concerts take place within the school, we have also forged strong links with external venues and annual performances have taken place in venues such as King’s and St John’s College Chapels, Saffron Hall, Westminster Abbey and Ely Cathedral.

We regularly invite a number of internationally-renowned professional musicians each year to give masterclasses and performances to our pupils. In recent years, the department has been pleased to invite names including Joanna MacGregor CBE, Roderick Williams OBE, Joan Rodgers CBE, Joseph Middleton and Nicky Spence, The Doric String Quartet, members of the Academy of Ancient Music and The Swingles.

Drama activities are led by a number of experienced teachers (including a Director of Theatre, a Director of English and Drama, specialist Drama teachers, and a Graduate Assistant) who bring a variety of backgrounds and experiences – in the academic and professional spheres – to their roles. 

Nearly every student will come into contact with drama activities at some point in their school career. Whether this means ‘dipping in’ to the provision on offer, gaining a qualification, taking part in a production, or discovering the foundations of a vocation, Perse drama will have a significant impact on the lives of many students. 

In the Lower and Middle School (Years 7 to 11), pupils can join the Junior Drama Club, the Middle School Drama Company, Dance Club – taught in conjunction with Bodywork – and the Perse Theatre Company. Regular lunchtime sessions provide an informal environment designed to enthuse pupils about performance skills and to extend their understanding of practical theatre. 

We run several dance clubs, enabling the study of a range of styles, from contemporary to street jazz, and participate in the annual Bodywork Outreach dance show, with brings together the most talented dancers in the region. 

Our Perse Production Company is home to the budding producers, lighting technicians and sound engineers of the future. Students learn about lighting, sound, set, props and stage management, and use high-end technical kit such as our state-of-the-art lighting desk. 

Students cover acting and technical aspects of theatre, including lighting, sound and effects. Pupils also receive an introduction to other skills of the theatre such as production, direction, stage management, costume and make-up, and masks. 

Other clubs available include Junior and Senior Film, Stage Combat, Improvisation and Drama Wellbeing. Some activities (such as Junior Drama Club) are run by older students for their younger mentees. We offer opportunities for students to stage their own scripts, and students take part in the National Theatre’s mentored ‘New Views’ scheme (playwriting competition) on an annual basis. 

Each year there is a Lower School production for pupils in Years 7 – 8 and a Middle School production for Years 9 – 11.

All year groups are invited to audition for the annual Perse Players production which includes both plays and musicals. Shows include The Penelopiad, Kindertransport and Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical JR. These productions are supplemented by a year-long New Writing Project and a new Performing Arts Showcase.

There is also an annual whole-school House Drama competition, in which pupils take on the roles of directors, devisors and script-writers.