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PAST AND FUTURE
Since 1964 the School has been situated in Stoke d'Abernon, a small village in Surrey, south west of London. There are now over fifty staff who provide the musical, academic and pastoral direction for over sixty boys and girls. Our recent development programme has created a new boarding house, Harris House, for almost half the School providing individual or double rooms with plenty of space for pupils' belongings and for instrumental practice. A new classroom building was added in 1998, the White House, with a fully equipped science laboratory, drama studio, music technology studio, classrooms and library.
Our most recent project has been the building of a 300-seat concert hall in the grounds of the school as a lasting memorial to our founder, Yehudi Menuhin. The Menuhin Hall, which opened January 2006, provides rehearsal, recording and performance space for pupils at the School and for the many projects that we do for the wider community.
The international reputation of the school now attracts pupils from all over the world who find a happy atmosphere in a large musical family. Countries represented at the moment include the UK, Ireland, Holland, Russia, Lithuania, China, Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Canada, Spain, Ukraine and Azerbaijan, France and the Dominican Republic.
Many famous musicians have visited the school over the years including Itzhak Perlman, Gidon Kremer, Dmitri Sitkovetsky, William Pleeth, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Louis Kentner, Vlado Perlemuter, and, of course, Yehudi Menuhin himself. They have added to the expertise of our highly regarded team of regular teachers who are either resident at the school or make visits each week.
The death in 1999 of Yehudi Menuhin, who is buried in the school grounds beneath the tree he planted in 1996 to mark his 80th birthday, has in no way stemmed the flow of visiting professors. In the last few years Zakhar Bron, Mauricio Fuks, Bernard Greenhouse, Murray Perahia, John Lill, Dora Schwarzberg and Andras Schiff have all given classes at the school, and this inspiration will no doubt continue under the leadership of Daniel Barenboim, the school's president.
