The Grand Opening of the Music School 2010 took place on Friday 2nd July 2010 amidst an extensive festival of music.  Sherborne Foundation is hugely grateful to all our generous donors who have made the completion of this impressive project possible. 

2nd July 2010












Guests who attended made the following comments:

"The Music School itself was, quite rightly, the star of the show"
"the new Music School is stunning and for which Sherborne can be justly proud"
"...it's a triumph and will add incalculable value to the lives of the lucky young people (and others) who will use it.  I was expecting something pretty good, but it's so much better than I was able to imagine."
"I was impressed most of all by the measures designed to control sound throughout the building.  The double-thickness doors were obvious, but others such as the use of the 'wedge' shaped practice rooms and the soft-backed fabric wall-coverings to cut reverberation were less so.  I actually watched a boy tune up his instrument through the closed door of one of the First Floor practice rooms and I could not hear a note.  Furthermore, to walk into an empty room with a hard floor and find that one's foot-falls did not come back at one like pistol-shots was actually unnerving, until one could work out why this was so!"
"We were most impressed with the wonderful building, acoustics, sound insulation and all the superb equipment"
"...an amazing building..."
"..spleding new facility for the School."
"the Music School itself is magnificent."
"The building of the new Music School is magnificent and we are all very proud of it."
"..the new building - it is magnificent, and I'm sure it will be a focal point for the budding musicians - all a bit different from when I was a boy there."
"...the new Music School is amazing..."

May 2010
North elevation

















May 2010
Entrance




















May 2010
Atrium




















March 2010














January 2010
Cladding on the South elevation

January 2010
West elevation












January 2010
Slade Music Library
















October 2009
South elevation.  Zinc roof completed.

August 2009
Finally out of the ground on the north side











July 2009
North east pillars to first floor level










June 2009
Concrete poured











June 2009
Almost ready to concrete the floor slab

May 2009
The image below shows the block work to structural floor level with reinforced steel cages being laid in the channels, ready to be filled with concrete.

March 2009
Hoardings go up around the site.

Mid-February 2009
The contractors arrive to set up the site.

February 2009
Despite the snowfall in Sherborne, work to clear the site continues.

January 2009 - site cleared to make way for contractors
Just a few days after the 'turning of the sod' ceremony, work began on preparing the site for the building contractors.  The trees were felled in a matter of days and suddenly a space began to open up to make way for the project to take shape.

January 2009 - Sherborne's new music school gets underway
Planning permission for the new music school was granted in December 2008 and the School embarked upon the next stage of the project with a 'turning of the sod' ceremony on 23rd January 2009.