Music Scholarships
Up to eight Music Scholarships and six Exhibitions, may be awarded annually. The Music Scholarships are worth one tenth of the School Fee as a basic entitlement, and may be supplemented by extra remission up to the full value of the School Fee according to need. Please request a fee assistance form when you ask for an entry form.
Music Exhibitions carry no emolument but entitle the holders, like Music Scholars, to up to 135 minutes’ free instrumental tuition per week. All but one of the Music Exhibitions are reserved for boys who already hold conditional places. In addition, a number of honorary music awards are available. An Honorary Music Exhibition carries no financial remission of any kind. An Honorary Music Scholarship carries only remission of instrumental or singing fees up to 135 minutes of tuition per week, and the holder is NOT eligible for supplementation up to full fees.
The Music Scholarship Examination is held at Eton in late January or early February. Candidates should be under 14 on 1st September of the calendar year of the examination. An exception can be made for a boy in school year 8 whose birthday falls in August. Entries are accepted by the Tutor for Admissions until about two months before the examination: there are no other preliminary registration formalities.
The standard generally expected of candidates will be Grade V to VIII on their principal instrument, but though high grades in Associated Board examinations are often good indications of musicianship, we shall also be looking for a thorough grounding in technique and for musical potential. If Associated Board examinations are taken we shall look more for high marks than high grades. Candidates will be required to play two contrasting pieces on their principal instrument and one piece on their second instrument, to read at sight, and to do ear tests and scales appropriate to their technical standard. They may also sing a solo. Accompanists will be provided by Eton. (Candidates may bring their own accompanist provided the Director of Music is informed at the time of the Scholarship application.)
Music Scholars and Exhibitioners will normally be expected to take Music GCSE or AS, and they usually give up one academic subject when they arrive to make extra time available for practical work. They have instrumental lessons from Eton teachers and rarely go outside the School for lessons. (Any request to do so must be submitted to the Director of Music and, if approved, will be at the boy’s parents’ expense.) Awards will be re-assessed at the end of three years, when a recommendation can be made that an award be withdrawn.
The School possesses well-equipped Music Schools with a modern concert hall, an orchestral rehearsal hall, a recording studio, a computer room, a rock band studio, numerous teaching and practice rooms, a music library and a CD library. There are two Chapel choirs, a choral society, two orchestras, two concert bands, two jazz bands and many chamber groups, all of which take part in regular concerts.
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IMPORTANT
Candidates must pass the Common Entrance Examination at Eton's standard (or do at least reasonably well in our King’s Scholarship examination) before the award of a Music Scholarship can be confirmed. In the case of boys who did not gain a conditional place or a waiting list place in our assessment at age 11, evidence of appropriate academic ability will be required before the Music Scholarship examination. If there is ANY doubt about a boy’s academic prospects his present Head should discuss it at the earliest possible opportunity with the Tutor for Admissions.