Music
Christopher Trevor-Roberts was a trained opera singer and believed strongly in the value of music as part of a child’s education.
A key belief of the Music Department is that music is central to a child’s intellectual, social and emotional development. The skills to perform, compose, analyse and listen to music are accessible to all students, and music remains an important part of the school day.
A number of children move on to senior schools with music scholarships, and recent leavers have gained awards at Eton, Westminster, City of London School for Boys, UCS, Highgate and Francis Holland.
Trevor-Roberts choir tour of Barcelona, May 2025
The Chamber Choir sang a three-part arrangement of Over the Rainbow for Her Majesty The Queen on 5th December 2018.
Music lessons
Everyone is encouraged to be part of a choir, and students participate with enthusiasm. The Junior, Senior and Chamber Choirs perform regularly both in and outside of school. Every Christmas we sing for the Coram Christmas Celebration at St Andrew’s Holborn, and in 2023 the Senior Choir embarked upon a five-day tour of Tuscany, performing in Florence, Lucca and Pistoia.
In 2025 the senior choir also toured Barcelona, performing in venues such as La Sagrada Familia and Barcelona Cathedral. In 2026 the Chamber Choir will travel to Ghent, and in 2027 the Senior Choir will sing at St Stephen’s Cathedral, the Karlskirche and Melk Abbey in Vienna. The school’s choirs have performed with a number of renowned musical ensembles, including Aurora Nova, the Basin Street Brawlers and the Orpheus Sinfonia.
Performance
Regular performance is crucial for developing a child’s confidence from an early age and this confidence supports all aspects of a child’s development.
In addition to our international tours, the school holds an annual summer concert that celebrates every corner of the Music Department. In 2025 this took place at Wilton’s Music Hall: the oldest grand music hall in the world. The concert featured ensembles from across the school, including our jazz and rock bands, choirs, and alumni. In May 2026 the summer concert took place at Sinfonia Smith Square. In this event the school’s choirs were lucky enough to sing with the Orpheus Sinfonia and tenors/basses from the parent and staff body, performing works by Handel, Vivaldi, Faure, Bernstein and Verdi. An excerpt from this concert can be found below.
All children sing in front of their peers regularly in class, in assembly and in end of term productions. Each class puts on a musical twice a year and the vast majority of children have a solo singing role.
Instrumental & Ensembles
We have a team of nine peripatetic teachers who offer private tuition on a range of orchestral instruments, piano, voice and guitar. These lessons take place throughout the school day. Approximately three quarters of children learn an instrument, either within school or externally, and are encouraged to perform regularly in front of their peers.
Playing in an ensemble is one of the chief pleasures of being an instrumentalist. We have a number of instrumental ensembles at TR, most of which are open to children of all abilities. These include a jazz band, rock band, brass ensemble and cello group, as well as the three choirs.
Barcelona Choir Tour 2025
In 2025, the Trevor-Roberts Senior and Chamber Choirs undertook a memorable musical tour of Barcelona. The children performed concerts in prestigious venues including Montserrat Monastery, Barcelona Cathedral, and La Sagrada Familia. Alongside their performances, they enjoyed visits to the Picasso Museum, Gaudí’s Park Güell, and Poble Espanyol, where they created their own ceramics. The choirs rose to the occasion with enthusiasm and commitment, and their achievements on tour remain a source of pride for the whole school community. Below are some highlights from the trip. A video montage can be viewed at the top of this page.
