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Pupils of the School perform a large number of concerts in public every
year throughout the UK and overseas. Concerts for the Friends of the School
are also held at the School itself, in The Menuhin Hall. For further information
on Friends Concerts, see the Friends pages.
ORCHESTRA
The Yehudi Menuhin School has always had a flourishing string orchestra. Yehudi Menuhin considered it as a vital part of the musical education offered to these exceptionally gifted young musicians, and he himself often directed the ensemble. Indeed he gave his last performance with the orchestra in Paris at UNESCO just weeks before his death. Since 1998, Malcolm Singer, the School's Director of Music has conducted the orchestra in many concerts both in the United Kingdom and on tour abroad. It performs regularly a the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, Switzerland. Many very distinguished musicians besides Lord Menuhin have worked with the orchestra. Our second president, Mstislav Rostropovich conducted the orchestra both in the Royal Albert Hall and at the opening concert of The Menuhin Hall; Andras Schiff directed the ensemble from the keyboard in concert at the Sheldonian in Oxford, and in 2007 Vladimir Ashkenasy conducted the orchestra at La Foce, Tuscany in a programme of Mozart and Dvorak. Other soloists who have played with the orchestra in recent years include Jeremy Menuhin, Nikolai Schneider, Julian Lloyd Webber, Pascal Roget, Tasmin Little, Dora Schwarzberg and the klezmer violinist, Sophie Solomon.
