Welcome to the Bury Music website
Bury Music Service Ltd. is the biggest provider of musical instrument lessons and other music support within the borough. We teach in all the high schools and most of the primary schools.
We offer tuition on all orchestral and concert band instruments plus piano and guitar. Pupils have free use of their chosen instrument. We also provide vocal coaching in some of the high schools.
We have an excellent teaching staff and almost all are music graduates who are selected for their teaching ability and caring attitude towards children. Our pupils achieve outstanding results in national music examinations, largely with the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and also Trinity College London.
We are highly involved with the Wider Opportunities Project and provide this service to an increasing number of primary schools. During each spring term, we are involved in ‘Children of Bury Sing’ in which some thirty two primary schools take part at Bury Leisure Centre.
Bury Music Service is also responsible for running Bury Music Centre. We have several orchestras, bands and ensembles as well as groups formed especially for specific occasions and run by staff in their own time. Some two hundred and fifty young people aged eight to eighteen are involved; they play in a tremendous variety of performing units, including bands, orchestras and groups graded to cater for the different levels of age and experience.
Our senior orchestras and concert bands have performed at the former Free Trade Hall, the Royal Northern College of Music, and the prestigious Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. We hold concerts throughout the year in Bury venues, with our showcase concerts being held at the Elizabethan Suite during the summer term. These take place over three or four evenings and feature all Music Centre pupils from the most junior groups through to our Youth Orchestra and Youth Concert Band. We have many requests from schools and charity organisations to supply groups to support school fairs and concerts. At the invitation of the Town Hall and LEA, the Music Centre has also provided groups to play for various civic events.
Director of Studies, Paul Jarvis, has commented that “the Music Centre is a very special place that has influenced the lives of countless youngsters over the past thirty five years”. Indeed, some of our past students now play in national orchestras, e.g. The Halle, Liverpool Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra and the National Orchestra of Wales. We currently have students that perform with the Halle Youth Choir and Youth Orchestra, and several of our ex members are currently students at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
